How will a decentralized taxi network operate?

Developed by the winner of one of last year’s Fetch.ai hackathon competitions, the demo below demonstrates how taxi services could be optimized through the use of Fetch.ai’s decentralized network.

The video also provides a sneak preview of some of the ways we are developing our technology to create real-world decentralized mobility solutions.

In the video, the green dots are taxis moving around a map of Cambridge. Each taxi driver has an autonomous agent on the Fetch.ai ecosystem. The taxi driver’s agent would know how much each driver charges passengers per km and the preferences of the driver (for example if they would rather make long journeys or short journeys or around a certain radius). The agents representing the drivers operate on the Open Economic Framework (OEF), advertising the driver’s availability to the agents of potential passengers (depicted as red dots on the map). The OEF enables the agents representing the taxis and passengers to search and discover each other, matching them together in the process.

When the passenger has set their desired destination, the agents of the taxi drivers and the prospective passenger then autonomously negotiate a deal that suits the preferences of both parties.

As soon as the agents agree a deal for the passenger to be picked up by a taxi driver, the agent of the taxi driver will set up an escrow contract for the passenger’s agent to send the payment on their behalf. This is then locked until the passenger is delivered at the desired destination.

The agents of taxi drivers continuously look for new routes desired by passengers. The video shows how Fetch.ai’s open source, peer-to-peer decentralized network enables information to be shared with all taxi drivers, removing the need for a ride-sharing company to operate as an intermediary.