Uber Details Its New York City E-Hailing Service

We talked in recent weeks about New York City's move into the digital age, allowing yellow taxis to be hailed electronically after months of legal wrangling at the behest of livery cab drivers. Shortly after the one-year test pilot was approved, the Taxi and Limousine Commission said that it had approved Uber as the first company with an official go-ahead to roll out its service in the city. It has been a few days, but now Uber has spoken up.

In a post on its blog, Uber officially announced its return to New York City following the approval it received last Friday. Says Uber, such a move demonstrated NYC's "commitment to technology and innovation," saying that it is proud to be part of that. The excitement in the post is quickly curbed down to more serious business, however, with users being reminded multiple times that they can't forget to pay their driver.

Uber advises that as of right now the system is not yet set up to allow users to automatically pay their fare, meaning they'll still need to do it the old fashioned way even if their hailing has progressed from arm-raising to finger-swiping. While the company doesn't come right out and say that it will provide automatic payments in the future, it does everything it can to suggest that it'll be an eventual feature.

In addition, Uber also advises its users that initially the number of taxi drivers who can be summoned via the app will be low, but that the number will increase "in the coming weeks." Likewise, black cars are still the default option, and so those looking for a taxi will need to be sure they switch the slider over before hailing. And finally, because of its requirements by the the TLC, Uber isn't available for getting cabs at LGA, JFK, and beyond the five boroughs.

[via Uber Blog]