Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a side mission in every Grand Theft Auto III era game, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars that requires the player to drive passengers to specific locations within a time limit for a cash reward. In the Grand Theft Auto III era, the side mission is triggered by entering a taxi and pressing the side mission button. In Grand Theft Auto IV, the side mission is instead triggered by telephoning Roman Bellic about taking a fare.
Description
In the GTA III era games and GTA Chinatown Wars, the player can earn money by delivering pedestrians to their predetermined destination within a time limit. Starting the mission lights up the taxi's roof-mounted taxi sign encouraging nearby pedestrians to flag the player's taxi down. Once a pedestrian enters the vehicle, the destination is displayed on screen and is marked by a blip on the radar and a colored marker at the destination itself. The allotted time given is calculated roughly from the distance to the destination, and an additional 30 seconds (10 seconds for other GTA III Era games) is granted upon completing a fare to find another one. If the player runs out of time, exits the vehicle, or damages their vehicle too badly, the passenger will flee, ending the mission. In games after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the taxi side mission adds a "tip meter" which rewards players for delivering fares quickly and safely and punishes them for driving recklessly or taking too long.
In Grand Theft Auto IV the mission is no longer possible to complete in a normal taxi. Instead, Niko can perform the taxi side mission by phoning Roman Bellic for fares. Following the mission Jamaican Heat, Niko can call Roman to drive a fare; Roman will give the location of the customer and his/her destination. After the mission Roman's Sorrow, the missions will no longer be available as Roman's cab business was burned down. However, after the player completes all ten taxi missions, Roman will text Niko and say that the other drivers were getting jealous of Niko taking all the fares.
Destinations
If the player picks up a passanger in the Taxi Driver side mission in Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the passengers may ask the player to take them to the following destinations:
Rewards
- The Borgnine cab spawns at the Borgnine Taxis company. (100 fares)
- All taxis gain boost jump ability. (100 fares)
- The Borgnine cab spawns at the Portland Hideout. (50 fares)
- All taxis gain unlimited nitrous and boost jump ability. (50 fares)
- The Bickle '76 taxi spawns at the Mean Street Taxis company. (100 fares)
- All taxis gain boost jump ability. (50 fares or $5,000 cash made)
- All taxis are bulletproof. (15 fares in a row)
Completion of the taxi mission also counts towards completion of the game where applicable in the above games.
- No completion reward is given, nor is conducting the odd job required for completion of the game.
Note
- In Grand Theft Auto Advance the player gets the reward after 50 fares, however it needs to do 100 fares to count the mission completed.
- In Grand Theft Auto IV doing taxi missions isn't required for completion of the game nor it does not bring any achievement or bonus apart of a small amount of money, usually no more than $20-30. It was likely implemented for the sake of the plot early on in the game.
Trivia
- In Grand Theft Auto 2, if the player drives a taxi nearby pedestrians, one of them will sometimes get in, but no destination nor mission/time limit is given. As long as player is driving his taxi with a passenger inside, he'll get $1×multiplier every 1 second. The passenger will simply exit the vehicle randomly when the car is stopped or if the player crashes too much.
- Due to a glitch in GTA III, the player can transport people around in any car besides the standard Taxi, or Cabbie. To do this, the player must enter a Taxi cab and hold the sub-mission button. Keep holding the button and exit the cab. Then enter the car to whichever one the player desires. Once in the new car release the button and the mission will start.
- On the PC and Xbox version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a glitch occurs which prevents any fares to be available, making the mission impossible to complete. It happens if the player has crossed the maps boundary (e.g. flying too far away from San Andreas). It is therefore advised to do this mission very early to avoid this glitch.
Vehicles