Go Fast Cab brings text message taxi requests to Chicago

by Katie Hammel on

Go Fast Cab, a company that hopes to change the way you hail a taxi, is now offering service in Chicago. Rather than standing out on the street in the cold or rain, waiting impatiently for the sight of a taxi with an illuminated “available” light, all you have to do is text and a cab will arrive at your door.

Here’s how it works. You text your address to 777222 (777CAB) and the request is dispatched from Go Fast Cab to a local taxi company, who sends the next available car off to your location. Of course, that’s where the system has the potential to break down. At high volume times, you could be waiting a while (though you can text with the word STATUS for an update). You might wait just as long outside on the street-corner, but then at least you get to feel like you are doing something. You’ll also have the chance to flag down a cab from another company, whereas with Go Fast Cab, you’re pinning all your hopes on one dispatcher.

Still, on bad-weather days or for trips to the airport when I’m laden with bags, the idea of a cab showing up at my house, without me having to call and deal with cranky operators or endless holds, does sound nice. If you’re not in Chicago, you can still use the service too. The company, which started with San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County, has plans to expand Go Fast Cab to San Jose, Phoenix, Nashville and Charlotte.

Product review – Knowledge Generation Bureau (KGB)

by Scott Carmichael on

If you have watched any TV in recent weeks, you’ll have probably seen a commercial for a new service called KGB.

The concept is simple – you send them a text message with your question, and a real person gets you an answer.

Nothing in life is free, so you’ll pay 50 cents for the luxury of having a personal assistant answer your query. Since many of us travel, and often run into a situation that requires a quick answer, I decided to take the KGB for a spin, to see if they have what it takes to help me out when I’m stuck and in need of instant answers.

The advantage of using text messages for the question is that virtually any mobile phone can use it, you don’t need a data plan, and you don’t have to rely on a slow and unreliable browser. Of course, people with an advanced (3G) smartphone may find it easier to use their Internet browser, but I’ve found that the KGB service is sometimes able to get an answer back to me quicker than I could using the Internet on the road.

Getting in touch with the KGB is simple – you create a new text message, enter your question, and send it to KGBKGB (542542).

So, how well did they perform on the questions I asked?


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Question number 1: “I am at o’hare terminal 2, what gate does United 110 depart from tonight?”

Answer: “United 110 scheduled departure 8:50 PM Terminal 1 Concourse C Gate C26”

I tried to trick them by giving the wrong terminal number, but they were kind enough to include the correct terminal in their answer. Despite having just 160 characters to work with, they provided me with all the information I needed. It took them 5 minutes to get back to me, which is fairly reasonable.

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Question number 2: “What is the best way to fly from Brisbane to Detroit on Skyteam. Can it be done in 2 legs or less?”

Answer: “Yes flights from Brisbane Australia to Detroit, MI can be done without stops. Check out expedia.com”

WOW. I would never have thought to check Expedia. Thanks KGB! Of course, the answer is fairly useless, and incorrect, as there are no non stop flights from Brisbane to Detroit. Despite the poor answer, it took them 6 minutes to respond to me this time.

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Question number 3: “What’s the least expensive way to get to Godthab, Greenland from the East coast in April?”

Answer: “We were able to find a 1-way flight from New York to Godthab in Apr. for $2694.04. Care for more info?”

Not bad, of course I had not specifically told them I wanted a round trip, but one way tickets are pretty rare so I’m not sure why they decided to look it up like that. Their “more?” question allows you to get some more information when their answer does not fit in the message.

Answer: “The Godthab flight departs NYC at 5:40pm & arrives at 11:20am. Two stops enroute.

By now it would have been nice if they had provided an airline and some flight numbers, so I asked for even more info (and spend another 50 cents for it).

Answer: “SAS flight 910, transferring to flight 781 in Copenhagen and finally flight 551 in Kangerlussauq.”

This one was bound to be a tricky question, and it is not entirely fair to judge them too harshly on the information they provide. It is rather silly to waste 3 questions to get the answer that could have been in the first response.

The “more” feature is pretty handy, as it allows you to bypass the silly 160 character limit of text messaging. I sent the initial question at 8:54pm, the response to this took 20 minutes, the second response took 6 minutes, and the third response with the flight numbers took just 3 minutes.

Still, the question was very tough, and it isn’t exactly the kind of answer you can easily find on Expedia, so kudos to them for delivering the correct answer.

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Question number 4: “Help, I’m at Macy’s in downtown San Francisco and need a nearby hotel for the night. Has to be under $55!”

Answer: I never got an answer to this question. The service kept sending me a message telling me that each answer costs $0.30-$0.99, which is rather weird since the initial message told me that answers cost $0.50.

This is exactly the kind of question I could see myself using the service for – it involves them looking up where I am, which hotels are in my area, what their rates are, and whether they are available for the night. It’s the kind of thing that could take 20 minutes to figure out if you are stranded somewhere.

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Question number 5: “I’m flying flight AA86 tomorrow in business class, will my seat have a laptop power outlet, and if so, what kind of plug do I need?”

Answer: “A Cigarette lighter style power outlet is available at each seat in business and first”

Perfect answer – short, and with the correct information. There isn’t much more they could have added. This answer took them 8 minutes to research.

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Question number 6: “Fastest way from Lusaka, Zambia to Lilongwe, Malawi?”

Answer: “Taking a flight would be the fastest. From Lusaka, Zambia to Lilongwe is 45 min by air.”

Once again, no flight numbers, no airline name and no price. Of course, I did not specifically ask for this, but a little more effort would not have taken up too much of their time. From question to answer took just 5 minutes.

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Final thoughts

I did what I could to make things challenging for the human agents at KGB, but they are not easily scared. Whether the service is worth $0.50 is up to you – I don’t see myself using it on a daily basis, but I’ll certainly keep their number stored in my phone.

The 160 character limitation is annoying, but is a shortcoming of text messages, not the KGB service.

The most annoying issue though is the lack of information in some of their answers. I’m sure a lot of people send silly questions that don’t really require a very detailed answer, but when it comes to travel questions I would have preferred a little more effort. Their answers seem to be the kind of answer you’d give in a game of Trivial Pursuit, not the way you help someone with a legitimate query.

Still, having instant access to someone who can look stuff up could occasionally be handy.

Applying Google Text on the road

by Grant Martin on

Years back we posted on Google’s new technology that lets you google simple questions to the search engine via the text message function on your phone. If you question is easily answerable, the service will return your query with a short answer in a text message.

This, my friends, is a powerful, powerful tool, that I believe many people under utilize. So to demonstrate a good example of how Google text has saved my ass multiple times on the road, I’ll give one example of a trip I recently took.

I have yet to indulge in the Blackberry or handheld wireless internet market for two reasons: the data fees that AT&T charges are completely unacceptable and I don’t want to devote my life to the internet attached to my hip. I’ll probably break down at some point, but for now I’m still resisting. What I do have, however, like most other people who own mobile phones, is a text message function (or SMS, as the Europeans often call it) that I occasionally use to keep in touch with friends or send dirty messages during meetings at work.

A few months back I was headed out to my weekly pilgrimage to Detroit‘s Metro Airport (DTW) for another one of my typical weekend trips. I usually park off site because the shuttles seem faster and they issue online coupons for free days, so took the red Qwikpark shuttle from my car straight into McNamara terminal. As usual, I was cutting it close, so by the time we rolled into the terminal I was hot to get through security. Ignoring the departure and arrival monitors, I burst through the security checkpoint and headed up for the the internal train that runs the length of the terminal.

As I crossed the large span towards the terminal, I pulled out my boarding pass, checked my flight (say, Northwest 266) then plugged it into my text box as NW266 and sent it to GOOGL, or 46645. Five steps later I received a text message saying that my flight was on time, departing from gate A6 and had the number for customer service just in case of problems. Now I knew to get on the northbound train.

Immediately when I got on the tram, I felt that something was wrong.
I checked my pockets – left pocket, cell phone, right pocket, wallet. No keys. Damn it. I must have left it on the Qwikpark shuttle. Thinking quickly, I texted “Qwikpark, Romulus, MI” to 46645 and was immediately given their number. Hitting the send button with the text message open, my L7 picked up the number, asked if I wanted to dial it and patched me through to Qwikpark.

“Hello?”

“Yeaaaah. I think I just left my keys on the shuttle that dropped me off at the Mac. I think my driver’s name was…. Duane? I was sitting in the back corner. They’re black switchblade keys”

“Oh, ok. Hang on a second.” Pause. Radio noise. “Yeah, he’s got it. We’ll keep it in the office until you get back”

“Cool! I’ll be back in a couple of days. Thanks!”

“No problem”

Now I didn’t have to carry around my keys with me for the entire weekend! But I’ll admit, I was lucky. Darting towards my gate because I was still late, I thought about the weather where I was heading and considered switching into my sandals. I GOOGL’ed, say, “Boston, weather” and found out that it was going to be raining all weekend. Better keep my shoes on.

Just then, I reached my gate as they were starting to board the aircraft. Time to head out.
Where would I be if I hadn’t 46645 at my side? Well, I would have been a little later getting to my gate since I would have had to go out of my way, stop at the monitors, find my flight and find my gate. I’d be even further later because I would have to call 411, pay a service fee and track down my car key. I also wouldn’t know what to expect about the weather in Boston.

But because of the power of Google and a little quick texting, I got all three tasks out of the way quickly and efficiently.

Traveling can be tough. Little things can add up, setting you back a half step every time and adding to your stress level. You carry this frustration with you all day and in the end it can take a serious toll on your body, physically and emotionally. You become short, angry with the person that you’re traveling with and turn into a person that you don’t want to be when you’re on the road.

While still an inconvenience, Google text helps by giving you a shortcut the solution — and any reduction in stress during travel is important. Give it a try next time you’re on the road. You can’t forget G-O-O-G-L, right?