Taxicab system for coordinating taxicab vehicles to accommodate groups of riders

A taxicab system comprising:

• a plurality of taxicab vehicles, each of the taxicab vehicles configured to transport a customer to a destination by automatic driving without a driver on board;
• a management device including a memory and a processor, the management device being configured to manage the plurality of taxicab vehicles;
• and
• a plurality of user terminals owned by a plurality of customers, wherein
• each of the taxicab vehicles is configured to form a vehicle group with at least one other taxicab vehicle according to an instruction from the customer or the management device,
• at least two taxicab vehicles forming the vehicle group are divided into one lead vehicle and at least one following vehicle,
• the lead vehicle and the at least one following vehicle are respectively configured to execute at least one of a collective billing process for charging a lead customer, who is using the lead vehicle, a fare for the lead vehicle and the following vehicle, and a collective setting process for setting a place designated by the lead customer as a destination of each of the lead vehicle and the following vehicle,
• the lead vehicle and the following vehicle are configured to, upon executing the collective setting process, travel in a convoy while maintaining a formation according to a standard,
• the lead vehicle and the following vehicle are configured to, in a case where a management distance that is a distance from a following vehicle belonging to the vehicle group exceeds a specified reference distance while traveling in the convoy, decelerate or stop until the management distance becomes equal to or less than the reference distance,
• in a case where another vehicle that does not belong to the vehicle group is between the lead vehicle and the following vehicle while the lead vehicle and the following vehicle are traveling in the convoy, the lead vehicle and the following vehicle are configured to decelerate or stop until the other vehicle is no longer present between the lead vehicle and the following vehicle
• the user terminals include a lead terminal and a following terminal,
• each of the lead terminal and the following terminal is a smartphone and a dedicated application for using the taxicab system is installed in the smartphone,
• the lead terminal is configured to form a terminal group with the following terminal according to an instruction from the lead customer,
• the lead terminal is configured to transmit, to the lead vehicle, an instruction to form the terminal group in a case where the lead customer starts traveling in the lead vehicle, and
• the lead vehicle is configured to form the vehicle group with the following vehicle based on the instruction from the lead terminal.