This paper presents an innovative system for taxi hailing service using V2X communication platform. This proposed system does not require any established operational center or explicit prior booking request through central operator like existing automated taxi dispatching systems. Rather, it provides distributed, self-organized and real time service of hailing a taxi cab in urban area. Our proposed application can be implemented using the state of the art DSRC communication platform in both V2V and V2I mode. In this paper, we introduce our designs of the system and the protocols, and present preliminary evaluation results that reveals numerous benefits of implementing this system. Based on the primary results obtained from real world GPS traces, it can be predicted that, our proposed system can significantly increase the availability of taxi cabs while reducing the wait time for the passenger. At the same time, from the perspective of a taxi driver, it can reduce the empty cruising time and increase daily trip count and eventually help increase the revenue of the taxi company.

The Secure, Autonomic, FAult-Resiliant and Intelligent Taxi Hailing System (SAFARI-Taxi), currently undergoing prototyping, will broker rides between taxi drivers and spontaneous taxi users, or hailers. SAFARI-Taxi will leverage anticipated growth in connected vehicle infrastructure (V2X) as enabled by dedicated short range communications (DSRC) technology to replace line-of-sight street hailing with automated dispatch, via public kiosks and smart phone apps Hailing will be managed with a novel protocol, based on Hailing Request, Service Offer, Hailer Response, and Ride Cancellation messages. Threats to its operation will be mitigated using distributed dispatch; provisions for assuring correctness, timeliness, and appropriate content; and account lockouts, "hailing deposits", and ticketing. Preliminary results indicate that the system will reduce the time to match hailers with taxis. The project's goals align with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's vision for dynamic mobility applications, including Integrated Dynamic Transit Operation, which specifically targets integration of taxis with public transportation through a citywide connected infrastructure.