A-Rix Fare Meter
Auto Rickshaws are cheap three wheeled taxis that are abundant in most large Indian cities. They use a mechanical fare meter to calculate fare, that is easy to tamper with. As a result, these meters are not reliable and some drivers tamper with the meter to show a higher fare to the passenger.
I took it upon myself to do something about this, because many times I was the victim of the tampered meters myself. It started out as a weekend project to design a neat product interface, and turned into a project that became much bigger than a simple product.
I took it upon myself to do something about this, because many times I was the victim of the tampered meters myself. It started out as a weekend project to design a neat product interface, and turned into a project that became much bigger than a simple product.
A-Rix Physical Meter -
This meter uses GPS technology to calculate fare. GPS technology is completely electronic and does not contain any moving parts that can be tampered with. The interface of the fare meter is designed to be easy to read at a glance and give additional information such as current street you are traveling on for people who might be new to the city. Fares can be updated with a simple software update and do not need cumbersome mechanical intervention.
I was not able to take it to market since I was moving to the US for my Masters at the time. Read what people have to say about it:
I was not able to take it to market since I was moving to the US for my Masters at the time. Read what people have to say about it:
A-Rix Meter Mobile App -
A few months down the line, I realized that all the functionality that I had needed for the physical meter could be implemented in an iPhone application. So I took it upon myself to learn to code apps and in a quick 2 week vacation project created the A-Rix Meter iPhone application. It was quickly followed by an Android version that was developed by Soumya Mohan.
The app is designed to automatically fetch fare information based on the city you are in, and also allows you to program your own fare cards in (useful for private taxis). The app is available on the Indian App Store - http://arixmeter.com
Read about what people had to say about it:
The app is designed to automatically fetch fare information based on the city you are in, and also allows you to program your own fare cards in (useful for private taxis). The app is available on the Indian App Store - http://arixmeter.com
Read about what people had to say about it:
