Terror in Taipei: Computex taxi drivers watch live TV, video chat while cruising
By Darren Murph 
posted June 4th 2010 9:58AM
posted June 4th 2010 9:58AM
posted June 4th 2010 9:58AM
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Hey I had a cab driver in China playing Snake while driving once and he took off his glasses to do so.
@fais Western cartoonist living in South Korea:
http://roketship.tumblr.com/search/taxi
@fais
i took an hour long cab ride in the south of taiwan to get to the train station. the cab driver was watching TV, speeding, driving in the break down lane, and hopped up on betel nut
i was a bit nervous
nice video chat of his nose!
@nabberuk
Now wait a minute - look carefully at these pictures. The speedometer is at 0 in every one of them. Proof that he was driving while video chatting and watching movies? No way, he's sitting still.
My taxi driver was watching pirated movies on a 17 inch HP laptop, while driving me from the airport. The.Dark.Knight.720p.BluRay.x264-iNFAMOUS :)
@One Love
hey, i seeded his download!
I used to have that same phone, never once used video chat.
How nosey!
:P
In Brazil, I've had quite a few cab rides where the driver had a live Futebol game on.
just like bulgaria
OMG to the max, in Australia were not allowed to talk on the phone let alone text etc, and with the new law of no gps phones, it sux even more to use our multi-purpose phones while driving
Is that a beer in the cup holder behind him?
Just like being home in his living room, I guess...
nasty nails
In Prague, one guy had a 5" TV on the dash, chatting with us, declining electronic dispatches and surfing channels down a windy hill from the castle!
No thanks. Keep your eyes on the road, please.
We just banned idiots from using handheld devices while driving here in Ontario.
I think that's kind of cool -- if they can drive good and multitask at the same time, good for them...if not, I'm sure they would get fired anyways.
Looks like he needs less gadgets and more nail clippers.
haha
you Americans can do all these stuff with EVO...
Picture number 4 is why I'm not that excited about video chat coming to cell phones....
it's the culture over there. most of the cabs that I've been on over there seem to have a tv of some sort. I have not seen the video chat though over there. pretty nice.
and of course, queue the obligatory long finger nail shot!
Nice nails there mate.
Nice nails there, mate.
@HikaKao
nice double post there, bro.
Yes and there are quite a few minor car accidents in Taiwan, and there are lot of irresponsible drivers. A lot of Taiwanese cabbies try to show off for obvious tourists as well. Video chat and the like are not too common though, unless they're trying to show off how cool and tech-savvy they are.
Most of the cab drivers I know know the roads quite well and also what areas will give them plenty of opportunities to watch TV or talk on the phone. It's not all that crazy, but it isn't quite as safe as absolute diligence.
Most likely you were just in a foreign tourist area during a foreign tourist event, and were obviously not local. All of those things attract showoff drivers like flies to...foreign tourists. I rarely deal with those kinds of cabbies, but that's mostly because I try to stay far away from places with lots of Westerners.
Hmm... considering Singapore has all these tech there for a couple of years and installed in the cabs, I would say our taxi-drivers are fairly professional compared to these!
Gosh! Talk about driving distractions!
puh-lease... over here (Florida) as I am sure it is in many places in the States, people can hardly stick in their lanes doing NOTHING but driving. Add a cell-phone to the mix and they lose 99% of their brain function. These taxi drivers looks like geniuses, compared to the people I see on the road everyday.
@Nicnac
There are quite a few awful drivers here as well in Taiwan.
Here in Korea i occasionally have a taxi driver who watches tv while driving. Sometimes on a cell phone that is down by the gear shift so he has to take his eyes way off the road to see. usually it's on the GPS screen though. I heard the government are supposed to lock them off but they are all hacked.
Anyway, the first few times it happened i was strangely uncomfortable about confronting him. At first i would just mention it almost appologetically and the would brush me off. After a few times though when thinking about it later i got pretty angry. Drink drivers and careless drivers always thing it will 'never' happen to them until of course i'ts too late. I decided that it wasn't a small issue and that I should discipline myself to confront them. The first few times it was hard to stand my ground but after demanding repeatedly they complied and turned off the screen. After that it gets easier but I think it's important to overcome a reticence about confrontation. These guys don't make big money that's for sure but that doesn't give them a right to put your life at risk.
It's said that people sometimes die of embarasment meaning that they are ashamed to ask for help in certain situation etc. It would suck to die in a car crash because you were too timid to demand they turn that stuff off.
You should see them on Tunhwa Rd. where they park their taxis in the second land or basically in the middle of the road. They park their cars in the middle of the road and watch TV in their cars or just sit their reading newspapers in the middle of the road. These Chinese must be some of the most selfish and insensitive people on earth when it comes to driving.
Taking Taxis in Mexico, I was more concerned with the fact that red lights do not seem to mean quite the same there as in the U.S. While in the U.S. they might mean "stop", in Mexico they mean "slow down about 5 miles, take a quick look at the cross street and then haul butt through the intersection."
1. Japan has about 1/2 the accident rate of US drivers, despite their TV, cell phones, etc. use in Taxis.
HuH?!? how's that possible?
Well, maybe if you have:
a) Very expensive driver training course requirements that actually 'train' you to be careful and to be good drivers that know everything (what?!? in the USA, you actually don't get mandatory training that tells you what the coolant and oil is and how it flows through an engine?!? and you don't need to know any of this to pass the drivers test?!? not even the entire braking system?!?? OMG!)
b) Treatment of adults as adults, not kids or teens. IE. you're old enough to care for yourself after all these years....so take care of yourself!
c) Smarter. At least based on tests of high school students in major areas such as science, math, biology, etc. according to the published worldwide statistics.
d) You grow up in the environment.
2) Taiwan.
a) Not the exact same, but you simply grow up in the environment.
It's like Vietnam, etc. where you've got hundreds of mopeds packed in side-by-side on a busy street, mixed in with a bazillion pedestrians, cars, trucks, etc. all zipping by you like mad with three kids stacked up on mopeds, a bazillion boxes on another, etc.
And just like a crowded ocean locale where thousands of fish are packed into a small space, they all manage to swim happily by without colliding or creating a mess.
Not only that, growing up in a city with 10x the population per square meter, it's not a shock at all to be doing multiple things at once, even on foot, without colliding with everyone else. You simply grow up navigating the mess better.
b) For most US drivers, you might think of it like the first time you got on the freeway - a bit scary, so many cars zipping by so quick, yet, after years of driving and experience, it's like nothing - you've got LA drivers zipping by putting on panty hose while driving stick (not sure how she managed that with both hands on her hose), newspapers fully opened, etc.
c) However, the problem here is that you've got half the freeways filled by illegals (driving schoool? no senior...; and yes, the freeways where half empty when they had those protests years ago where the illegals took days off), poor driver's training (er, maybe a few hours on the road with mom or dad before barely passing with just a C, not even a A requirement, at the DMV), and people who don't treat driving seriously.
d) The horn!
Unlike other countries where the horn is like "Wowa! Calm down you rude driver!", it's still Honk!!!! Watch it!! cause I'm coming down on you fast!! in Asia. Honk! Moooove it, you Cow!! Honk! I'm just honking!
Besides the frequent audio warning, peds, and other drivers are more aware of their surroundings because they know it's a crowded school of fish-traffic and they need to stay aware to stay out of trouble.
e) Nice verbal fights!
And of course, nothing like settling a baby-bump with a hot screaming, shouting match, and a few dollars to settle the mess vs. legal fees, the insurance company, and cops.
Once it gets down to it, it's just a bump on the damn car, not you buddy. So get over it! >.< lol...
@bloggingpig
My theory for why Taiwanese drivers are scary is because of the just-enough mentality carried over from china and the test taking culture here. Driving school is required, but all try teach you is how to pass the driving test; there's a lot of training on how to park and how do do reverse-s turns and nothing about staying in your lane, use of turn signals, and general driving etiquette. So now you have a bunch of drivers who are on the road who are driving between lanes, threading traffic, having no headlights on at night, and cutting people off constantly.
There are traffic laws, but they are rarely enforced partly because there's so many cars, but mostly because cops aren't out checking traffic at all. You could cut people off and buzz red lights all day and you might get a ticket every other week if you're unlucky. Cops only check traffic for accidents and drunk driver checkpoints because that's all they are required to do; shitty drivers aren't a priority for the police department so they rarely ever bother with enforcing the law. Furthermore, if you do get a ticket, you get a fine that's laughable, and there is no point system to lose a license. This means that so long as you don't kill anybody or drive drunk, and you have the money to pay your tickets, you can continue to be a dangerous driver until the end of time.
Even though you are trying to sneak it you can tell that the guy knew you were snapping that shot.
Way to go! In the west we've lost sight of the spirit of life in which things are done. This Guy is not intent on causing an accident he's simply making his job a more pleasurable experience. Who would begrudge him that. The west is screwed. Long live freedom!
I have yet to see a driver in Taiwan that can drive for a couple of blocks while staying in their lane and have yet to see a driver that actually turns his head to see if it is actually safe to change lanes or pull out while driving. Here they see you coming and just pull out right in front of you. If you get pissed then you are viewed as the impatient person.
Last but not least, I have yet to see a car or scooter that does not have scratches or dents on all 4 corners of it. If it does it is most likely because it change came back from the body shop.
@BubbaJ
Why do you need to let everyone know you are xenophobic whenever Taiwan is mentioned? That's great man. Westerners or "foreigners," as you put it before, make you feel uneasy. Are we supposed to clap for you? Are you not a foreigner yourself? Or maybe an uneducated Taiwanese? Either way. Take your head out.