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f you lined up all the taxis in New York, they'd stretch all the way from Wall Street to Norwalk, Connecticut. They shuttle some 236 million passengers around the city every year – about 600,000 every day – and in the process, they travel the equivalent of 20,000 times around the world every year. Those are staggering numbers, to be sure, so when the city's taxi and limousine department put out the tender for its "Taxi of Tomorrow," it was an ambitious – and important – project.
Nissan's NV200 bid ended up getting the contract (although other manufacturers have since gained approval as well. We've already seen what the van-based shuttler will look like from the curb, but a taxi cab certainly isn't about exterior styling. Like a certain Arabian beggar in a Disney movie, it's what's inside that counts. And that's just what Nissan is demonstrating with a special exposition in New York.
Opening tomorrow on the pedestrian plaza across from the iconic Flatiron Building at Broadway and Fifth, Nissan's Taxi of Tomorrow Design Expo will showcase the full interior of the NV200 Taxi. The cab is accessed via sliding doors (for easier ingress and egress in the city's tight spaces), a panorama roof to let tourists enjoy the upwards view (real New Yorkers, of course, never look up), a flat floor, a large cargo area for luggage, USB charging outlet, easily cleanable surfaces and an air-filtration and climate-control system independent of the driver's.
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