Background

While current smartphone-based taxi-hailing apps are very useful, the reality is that the elderly are not very familiar with smartphones themselves. In response, Sanwa Kotsu set upon itself to “Be a taxi company closer to the elderly, as they have the greatest needs for taxis”.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

By blowing the "Taxi Whistle" with your mouth just like a whistle, a smartphone app is activated through Bluetooth and sends a call to Sanwa Kotsu to dispatch a Taxi to wherever you are, at any time. Since it only requires to be blown, taxis became easy to reach not only for the elderly who are unfamiliar with smartphones, but also for those visually challenged who cannot use a smartphone, as well as foreign visitors who would have difficulty explaining their present location.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

We put in a lot of thought into the shape of the cover to be able to maintain hygiene of the whistle. By placing a slit, the device is tailored to look like the actual "map pin" and tells the taxi company the location information of the user. In addition, the motif of the design of the outer box was based on the map of Yokohama City, which is the sales area of ​​Sanwa Kotsu.

List the results (20% of vote)

Through distribution to elderly facilities and municipalities, it contributed to society and led to aquisition of new passengers.Thanks to its unique design and mode of operation, "Taxi Whistle" quickly created a buzz. Ever since being headlined in the IT news on one of Japan’s largest portal sites,Yahoo!, it has featured over many media such as TV and radio. As a result, we succeeded in differentiating Sanwa Kotsu from other companies and improved its recognition.