The real world rickshaw
BBC NEWS | Technology | Rickshaws connect India's poor
Earlier this year, we outfitted a bicycle cab with wireless internet via wifi, as part of the Copenhagen Interpolation conference.
It seems this idea is out there in the real world now, According to BBC news. Shyam Telecom which operates in the Indian state of Rajasthan, has outfitted a number of bicycle rickshaws with mobile phones, and plans to add connected laptops to a few as well. This gives the generally poor drivers another source of income as they get around 20% of the revenue generated by phone calls from their rickshaw.
Way to go!
The company has equipped a fleet of rickshaws with a mobile phone. Drivers pedal these mobile payphones throughout the state capital, Jaipur, and the surrounding countryside.
The rickshaw drivers, numbering around 200, are largely drawn from those at the margins of society - the disabled and women.
