The concept of taxis have been around since the 17th century, when horse-drawn carriages first became available for hire in London in 1605.
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taxi (n.) 1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter automatic meter to record the distance and fare (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa tax, charge.
The etymology of the word taxiTaxi is a shortening of the French term 'taximètre'. Germans named this device 'taxameter'. This word stems from the medieval Latin word taxa (taxation), which initially applied to rental cars.
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice.
In 1897, Gottlieb Daimler built the world's first dedicated gasoline-powered taxi vehicle. Equipped with a taximeter, it was called the Daimler Victoria and was delivered to German entrepreneur Friedrich Greiner. He founded the world's first motorised taxi company in Stuttgart.
According to Yellow Cab Co. tradition, the color (and name) yellow was selected by John Hertz as the result of a survey he commissioned at a local university, which indicated it was the easiest color to spot.
The Austin FX3 of 1948 made the black taxi look popular. The cab was made in black, and anyone who wanted a different colour had to pay extra. Seeing as it was the post-war period, not a lot of people had money for that.
Not that the first U.S. taxis were yellow — they were actually painted red and green. In 1907, businessman Harry Allen imported his red and green vehicles with their taximeters from France to New York.
The Checker Taxicab, particularly the 1959–82 Checker A series sedans, remain the most famous taxicab vehicles in the United States. The vehicle is comparable to the London Taxi with its iconic, internationally renowned styling, which went largely unchanged from 1959 to keep production costs down.
By the mid-1800s, however, carriage services saw a new, faster model called the hansom cab. Joseph Hansom designed a smaller, lighter carriage that only required one horse to pull it. In fact, these coaches could easily traverse city streets and travel around traffic.