NYC taxis to compete with Uber with Arro app

NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- City-dwellers will now have more options for transportation with the introduction of a taxi-hailing app created to compete with Uber.

The application, called Arro, is said to be almost identical to Uber, allowing users to send their pick-up location and information to a nearby driver. However, its major difference is significant: Arro doesn't incorporate surge pricing.

"We thought that there was a void in the taxi industry, certainly in New York and in other big cities," Mike Epley, Arro's director of product management told Crains New York. "We see the demand, both on the driver side and the passenger side. And we want to fill that."

Arro is being beta tested on 7,000 New York taxi cabs, with a public launch expected in the coming weeks.

Being in partnership with Long Island's Creative Mobile Technologies -- which manages the payment systems of about half of the city's 14,000 yellow cabs -- gives Arro a competitive advantage against California-based Uber. Instead of making drivers accept passengers through their own smartphones, Arro sends messages directly to data terminals located on a taxi's front dashboard.

Arro reportedly hopes to expand its connections to Verifone, which would make thousands more yellow and green cabs available through the app.