A taxicab is a vehicle hired to transport passengers, usually within a city and its suburbs. Its name comes from the taximeter, invented by Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891, an instrument that records both distance traveled and time elapsed, thus computing an accurate fare. The suffix-cab refers to the cabriolet, a type of carriage often used for passenger travel. A Parisian coachman, Nicolas Sauvage, started the first taxi service in 1640. He eventually had twenty coaches running different routes through the city. In 1703 the French police drafted laws for their use and assigned a number to each, the first such vehicle registration known. Horse-drawn carriages remained the standard for taxi service through most of the next two centuries. The first automobiles to be used as cabs were electric; they made their debut in the late 1890s. A few years later, Louis Renault (1877-1944) launched a fleet of small, specially built...