Hackney carriage a 1662 Act of Parliament establishing the Commissioners of Scotland Yard to regulate them. Licences applied literally to horse-drawn carriages, later modernised as hansom cabs (1834), that operated as vehicles for hire. The 1662 act limited the licences to 400; when it expired in 1679, extra licences were created until a 1694 act imposed a limit of 700, which was increased by later acts and abolished in 1832. There was a distinction between a general hackney carriage and a hackney coach, a hireable vehicle with specifically four wheels, two horses and six seats, and driven by a "Jarvey" (also spelled
Hackney carriage proposing a £1m fund to encourage taxi owners to upgrade to low emission vehicles such as electric taxi cabs. On the same day, the then Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, unveiled the £5,000 electric car subsidy. In the longer term, black cabs are predicted to be largely automated and driverless. 2011 saw the launch of many digital hailing applications for hackney carriages that operate through smartphones, including GetTaxi and Hailo. Many of these applications also facilitate payment and tracking of the taxicabs. Laws about the definition, licensing and operation of hackney carriages have a long history involving much