A-Rix Auto Rickshaw Meter
How often have you been troubled by auto rickshaw drivers in India? Excessive fare, tampered meters, unruly drivers – all seem to dampen spirits of residents and tourists alike. No fear, for hope is here! The A-Rix will solve all these troubles!
Designed to be tamper proof, this digital fare meter will completely eliminate the need for haggling for fares. Powered by a GPS chip that tremendously increases accuracy over traditional mechanical methods, the A-Rix can even display additional information such as the name of the area you are in and the road you are travelling on. The driver’s life is also made easier to a certain extent – people will not question his meter’s accuracy and the fare calculation automatically increases during night time.
The A-Rix does not require any additional framework and easily integrates into the existing auto framework. The big green light at the rear side aids the waiting passenger to easily identify if an auto is already taken or not. This was designed for the Indian auto rickshaw segment but can be easily extended into other countries and other vehicles. The interface of the meter is designed to be easily readable during both day and night. The features of the A-Rix are below:
Video Courtesy: Rohit Bhat
This can be taken up as a drive by the local authorities to equip all autos with this device. Inquiries for commercialization are welcome. Please email sidv@me.com
UPDATE: A-Rix got featured on Yanko Design! Here’s the link.
A-Rix – Auto Rickshaw Meter by Siddharth Vanchinathan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at sidv.co.
Tweets that mention A-Rix Auto Rickshaw Meter | Siddharth Vanchinathan -- Topsy.com
on January 18th, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by sidv, renjith. renjith said: RT @fossiloflife: auto rickshaw meter concept – http://siddharthvanchinathan.com/2010/01/a-rix-auto-rickshaw-meter/ /via @SidV [...]
Shubham
on January 19th, 2010
A superb concept and definitely something that can beautify the roads! However bringing economics into the picture, this might be out of reach of the population you are targeting. I would urge you extend this to 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers as well (the travel fare may be replaced by some other swanky stats). There’s a large number of people out there who are looking to spruce up the tachos, speedos and other dials of their vehicles but have to live with some moderate ones offered in the market today.
Siddharth Vanchinathan
on January 19th, 2010
interesting thought. this can easily be extended into a digital inst cluster. it’s all about the interface.
almostinfamous
on July 14th, 2010
I think that these would be better off as a combo with RFID or cellular data, rather than straight gps for cost purposes.
Siddharth Vanchinathan
on July 14th, 2010
RFID for tracking distance? HOW?!
And cellular data will not be accurate.
Somesh Sharma
on July 20th, 2010
Hey Sid,
Nice to know about the ‘A-Rix’ meter. Just wanrted to know how you are calculating the fare being displayed, in this ? Because sometimes the fare is not directly related to the distance covered. From experience (Mumbai experience) i can say that it keeps ticking once the meter is up, irrespective of the auto being in motion or not.
Once, again congratulations for this