The smart meter’s credit card payment keypad and TV screen, which will feature short loops of NBC content and weather.

D.C. taxicabs, welcome to the 21st century.

This morning Mayor Vince Gray unveiled the first D.C. taxicab to be outfitted with a new smart meter that will accept credit card payment, offer the rider a loop of NBC content on a small (and thankfully mutable) TV screen and include GPS tracking while the cab is in service.

Gray called the new smart meters—provided by VeriFone as part of a five-year, $35 million deal with D.C.—a “major upgrade” to the city’s 6,500-cab fleet, which is often criticized for remaining behind its counterparts in other U.S. cities. The installation of the meters will start slowly, but city officials hope to have them in every cab by November.

The smart meter’s GPS device will be enabled when a passenger is in the cab.

The air of celebration over the meters was dampened somewhat by the remaining uncertainties as to who will pay for the installation of the meters and whether or not cab drivers actually want them, though. A plan by Gray to have D.C. pay for the installation—costing $1.3 million—is on hold, courtesy of a disapproval resolution filed by Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) last week.

Yesterday Barry defended his move, saying that he simply wanted to wait for a decision by the D.C. Contract Appeals Board over whether the city properly awarded the contract for the meters. (Two VeriFone competitors say it didn’t.)

Barry’s hold clearly frustrated Gray, who said that he didn’t consider Barry’s move to be legitimate. D.C. Taxicab Commissioner Ron Linton insisted that the city was in the right, and that it would look for ways to reimburse drivers who pay the estimated $400 for installation before the stand-off with Barry is resolved.

Cab drivers have also cast a wary eye towards the meters, saying that the GPS tracking violates their privacy and that individual companies should have been able to find their own alternative smart meters. In a statement, the Dominion of D.C. Professional Taxicab Drivers worried that plans for modernization of the city’s cabs are merely a ruse for driving drivers out of business.

“The VeriFone technology in conjunction with recently passed legislation and regulations will put thousands of drivers out of business and reduce the number of taxis possibly by 80 percent or more,” said the group’s statement, which also said that D.C.’s plans would kill off independent drivers in favor of large companies.

For now, your chances of grabbing one of the smart meter-enabled cabs is slim—only 150 meters will be installed this week, said Linton. But as the program ramps up, 12 shops around town will eventually be able to handle 100 meters a day, making them more ubiquitous in taxicabs throughout the city.

Gray also said that another major change was coming down the pike—a uniform color for D.C. cabs. He said that he’d soon review possible color schemes (red and white has been floated, though many residents have said they’d like yellow), but I got a sneak peak at one option—the cabs would be painted to look like Circulator buses.

UPDATE, 3:45 p.m. The meter installations may not last for too long, it seems. The Post’s Mike DeBonis reports that one of VeriFone’s competitors has filed suit to stop the city from installing more meters until the Contract Appeals Board can have its say.