Located in the dashboard of Lu Guanglong’s Hyundai Elantra taxi, under the cassette player, is a black global positioning system [GPS] box. The GPS tracks every inch of the taxi driver’s daily 125-mile journey through Beijing and transmits the knowledge back to his taxi company. “It can see you. It knows where you are. It knows what you are doing,” says Lu, 55.

As the Chinese government readies for next month’s Olympics, it is depending on GPS systems like

Lu’s to avoid gridlock on the capital’s roads. When Beijing upgraded its taxi fleet to yellow-striped Hyundai Elantras, Hyundai Sonatas, and FAW-VW Jettas starting in 2004, authorities asked all taxi companies to install GPS systems in the new taxis. Since next, the government has been using GPS systems in Beijing’s 66,000 taxis to monitor the city’s traffic flow.

It doesn’t take a GPS or other newfangled gadget to figure out that […]

Orginal post by Top Tech News