Sony releases its own taxi-hailer app, S.Ride

Sony provides a varied variety of services and products, from Bravia Televisions to PlayStation video gaming consoles to Xperia phones. Now it can include yet another product to that list: a taxi-hailing app.

The business  introduced the Uber-like S.Ride app in Tokyo on Tuesday. That “S”, according to marketing, represents 3 words, none of which are Sony: “simple”, “smart” and “speedy”.

The app was formally introduced by a business called Minna no Taxi, which equates to “Everybody’s Taxi”. Minna no Taxi is a joint endeavor in between Sony Corporation, Sony Payment Services and a number of Japanese taxi business.

Unlike Uber and Lyft, this is a taxi-hailer, not an app to capture trips with civilians. Ride-hailing services, unlike taxi-hailing services, are prohibited in Japan. Uber has strategies to move into the nation by partnering with a taxi business, reports Bloomberg.

Now playing:
Watch this:

Self-driving hotel room comes to you like an Uber

3:02

That alliance was actually announced last February, according to Bloomberg, when Sony also said it would use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to predict demand throughout the day and dispatch supply accordingly. Sony last April got a new CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, who quickly moved the company away from selling hardware and toward selling content and services, so S.Ride is roughly in this wheelhouse.

Sony has no current plans to launch the app outside of Japan, a Sony spokesperson said.