11–20 of 23 posts
I worked for a company (back in 2009/10) that was putting LED advertising boards on the sides of (IIRC) NYC buses with an embedded PC to control them and report back to base. They were plagued - CF cards falling out from vibration, dirt and dust, electrical noise, etc. Needless to say, it was not a success.
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I thought they would have given up on deploying updates while the bus is driving (opposed to only when it’s being serviced / stationed), but it appears like their whole business proposition didn’t work as intended. To be honest, I’m usually fairly skeptical to all those “we’re doing the same as X, but we’ll use data to make better decisions!” startups. It’s incredibly difficult to validate, as you usually don’t actua…
They kind of bootstrapped around this quite well. The first product was a better Google Maps app, which meant they got people's journey data. I wonder if the real problem they ran into was just that public transport in London is pretty excellent, so even with journey data plus the ton of data that TFL provide, it's pretty hard to actually run anything better.
Really ?!?
I'm pretty sure most Londoners would disagree with that. Dirty, expensive, crowded, strikes and signal failures. TFL doing everything possible to avoid telling the truth, stating "good service" when everyone on the platform can see they're having a bad day in the office (again !).
Compared to the Japan, the Nordic countries, Switzerland, South Korea, just to name a few, London is dire.
Look at Japan, specifically Tokyo. More populous and densely populated than London. Yes the trains can get a little crowded at rush hour. But I've been visited a good few times now and I've never experienced the London-style horrors. Everything is punctual, clean, no strikes or signal failures. And that's just the Tokyo subway. The Shinkanzen is simply fabulous. Its great !
I worked for a company (back in 2009/10) that was putting LED advertising boards on the sides of (IIRC) NYC buses with an embedded PC to control them and report back to base. They were plagued - CF cards falling out from vibration, dirt and dust, electrical noise, etc. Needless to say, it was not a success.
They were too early would be my guess. In my opinion, embedded in today's time is easy and robust. Your thoughts?
There were rugged PC's available back then for automotive use (think cop cars and the like). To me it sounds like they did not spec the hardware properly or installed it improperly.
I like the emoji idea. So simple and practical both idea and the system as well
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I wonder how they're doing. Crunchbase https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/citymapper-limited/c... has a Series B for $40M back in 2016, and a crowdfunder for £6.7M in 2021. I can't imagine the pandemic was kind to them. It's a shame really, I remember they were fairly active in the London tech meetup scene around their B, usually quite enjoyable talks.
I remember they had one of the crazier glassdoor pages I've seen - basically a bunch of disgruntled leavers calling the CEO a monster, from looking more recently it seems like they may have made some positive changes.
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I remember they had one of the crazier glassdoor pages I've seen - basically a bunch of disgruntled leavers calling the CEO a monster, from looking more recently it seems like they may have made some positive changes.
Based on Glassdoor reviews at places I actually work at, I have learnt to never take Glassdoor reviews too seriously
I like the emoji idea. So simple and practical both idea and the system as well
If you already need an app on your phone to use the system... why not vibrate the phone? The user is likely holding in their hands to read something (or listening to music with it). I'm not looking at the display for an emoji...
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I thought they would have given up on deploying updates while the bus is driving (opposed to only when it’s being serviced / stationed), but it appears like their whole business proposition didn’t work as intended. To be honest, I’m usually fairly skeptical to all those “we’re doing the same as X, but we’ll use data to make better decisions!” startups. It’s incredibly difficult to validate, as you usually don’t actua…
When I used to write software like this. We typically had some sort of 'vpn', it was usually an isolated network 100% so you did not need that in the first place. For this I would have used an MDN on an isolated network. We would then write a solid bootstrap program with a watchdog on an ISR. Basically it would have an A/B area then we could flip between them as needed. If a particular version did not come up on a ve…
That is why you have specialized sub-contractors who provide you with tested, certified, ruggedized hardware which you can install into the vehicles. It will also have connections for most proprietary ports you find in those environments. Of course it’ll cost you.
Most problems encountered here are pretty standard and known so this blog post is more about entering any production environment where you are new and not about deploying to buses in particular. I find the lessons learned here also a bit too vague. I hope it offered more return on investment for them internally.