A brief introduction to the world of map making from a total amateur. I intend to write some follow up posts going into more detail on making iPhone retina tiles, tweaking leaflet.js and so on.
You sell yourself short. The app and typography look amazing and it's pretty responsive, pity I'm not in NY, I would've enjoyed using it. You're selling your app for free, hope you find a way to make some money out of that; it's evident you worked a lot on this.
Question: Do you send the driver feedback to taxi company or is it just locally stored.
Thanks, that's great to hear. At the moment the app is an entry in an NYC-based competition called NYC BigApps (hence the NYC-and-nowhere-else coverage). Some of the judges are investors (inc. Fred Wilson), and there are cash prizes, so I'm treating it as a sort of litmus test of whether it's an idea worth pursuing, expanding, etc.
Right now, the feedback is just local. But I've spoken briefly with city officials (who regulate the yellow cabs) about passing the information back to them. I'm keen to highlight good and bad behaviour so it would be awesome to have a "taxi driver of the year" sort of thing, alongside handling complaints.
As for the monetisation side of it- that's tricky as the app currently stands. But if it became a going concern I would probably pivot somewhat and make bookings through private car services (right now, the one thing it doesn't do is find you a taxi), then take a commission from that. All pipe dreams right now, of course...
