Sony's AI-powered taxi hailing service to predict when you need a ride

Sony won't be the first thing that will pop-up in your mind when looking for a ride, but that's about to change, in Japan at least. Nikkei has learned that Sony is building an AI-powered hailing system in alliance with taxi companies (Checker Cab, Daiwa Motor Transportation, Green Cab, Hinomaru Kotsu and Kokusai Motocars).

The Sony-developed algorithmic system would dispatch taxis more effectively by calculating a host of factors such as traffic, events, and weather. For example, it might send a large group of drivers near the end of a music concert. What's still unclear is whether the service will be available outside Japan and when will it be ready.

It may sound odd for Sony to get into the ride-hailing services when ridesharing giants such as Uber are swiftly taking hold. Since Japan has a ban on using private cars for such services, it kills the ridesharing business model. This gives Sony a good opportunity to make a footprint in transportation world without holding back the use of the service to other countries. This would also be helpful when self-driving cars become the norm.

Talking about the competition, Toyota just invested $70 million into the app creator JapanTaxi and also working on its own AI-centric taxi system. It will be interesting to see which company debuts in the market first.

Besides, the company is also said to be working on a bezel-less smartphone. Folks at Xperia Blog has found a set of documents that suggest one of Sony's upcoming flagships may arrive with a completely new design. Sony Mobile has asked FCC to dismiss all grants for a device in a letter.

The letter mentions the reason for dismissal as design change. Carrying an FCC ID of PY7-00718V, it is believed to be the next flagship from Sony. At the moment, we are not sure what changes would be made. We could either expect radical redesign or just some minor changes.

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Sony is speculated to unveil its next flagship at MWC 2018, which is slated to take place in less than two weeks time. And the letter was sent recently, on February. So the company is unlikely to make major changers. That said, we would be more than delighted if the company finally embraces the bezel-less design.