Drones begin monitoring taxi drivers violating rules in Istanbul

Istanbul authorities have begun using unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the work of city taxi drivers.

RIA Novosti was told about this by Güngör Petek, a member of the Managing Board of the Istanbul Chamber of Taxi Drivers.

According to him, drones are being deployed in areas with the highest number of complaints against carriers.

The need for tighter controls arose after another high-profile scandal. In early June, an Istanbul taxi driver scammed a foreign blogger by charging more than 20 times the fare to his card — over $160. The driver was arrested, and the Istanbul Chamber of Taxi Drivers revoked his license.

"We regularly conduct such surprise inspections, and now we are also using drones to more effectively track by license plates the vehicles that have been spotted committing violations," Petek said.

The taxi problem in Istanbul has long been one of the most acute. According to Deputy Mayor Buğra Gökçe, the situation with vehicle shortages in the Turkish metropolis is among the worst in the world: there is one taxi for every 867,000 residents. For comparison, in Lisbon the figure is one taxi per 160 people, and in London one per 650. In 2024, authorities for the first time in a long while increased the number of vehicles by converting eight-seat minibuses, but the problem remains acute.

Particular outrage among residents is caused by unscrupulous drivers who primarily try to cheat tourists: they do not turn on the taximeter or refuse to take customers on short trips. The new control method using drones is intended to help identify such violators and improve service quality in central areas of Istanbul.