Show HN: Elevators • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#11

Post by jp191919 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:58 PM UTC

Reminds of something I haven't thought about in a very long time... SimTower

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#12

Post by itunpredictable » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:58 PM UTC

I didn't realize that neal.fun had some competition.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#13

Post by geephroh » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:59 PM UTC

Slightly OT, but this reminded me of Colson Whitehead's _The Intuitionist_[1], an amazing speculative mystery novel about two dueling schools of elevator inspection philosophies: the Empiricists and the Intuitionists.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intuitionist

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#14

Post by paxys » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC

My biggest pet peeve is elevator banks where they don’t make some number of idle elevators automatically come back to the lobby. Half your traffic is over there! Everyone coming in has to wait an extra minute or two because all your elevators were chilling on the 35th floor and above.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#15

Post by teepo » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

I've never really liked Destination Dispatch elevators. Besides struggling to find the car I've been assigned to, sometimes you really have to hustle across the lobby to catch it. Then you also run into visitors that assume it's a normal car and can hit a floor button when the get in, only to realize they've walked into a car without buttons.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#16

Post by zatkin » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

I think a small improvement that could be made is to have the dot representing the person be colored the same as a dot on each floor, which would obviate the destination floor for each individual.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#17

Post by olex » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

The biggest problem I always have with elevators is not the algorithm, it's the people seemingly being unable to grasp the concept of pressing either the up or the down request button, depending on where they want to go. Almost always I find someone will press both, because "then the elevator comes faster". Completely ignoring the fact that they end up going the wrong way first half the time, and adding an unnecessary halt for everyone already in there. How hard can it be to understand?..

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#18

Post by marcosdumay » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:03 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #8

This is a good article. It reminds me of a story. At a previous employer we had heteregenous elevators. In one bank, some went to the lower half of floors only while others went to all and the company installed a "smart" elevator system. I kind of became known because I was constantly yelling about this system in the feedback group because I hate "smart" elevators and and (IMHO) they just don't work. What actually wo…

> people in the lobby during the morning rush who would shepherd people into particular elevators

That's what the no-button elevators with the kiosk does.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#19

Post by moralestapia » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:04 PM UTC

>All this technology just to underperform the S&P

My takeaway is that the benefit of using a much more complex algorithm is marginal.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#20

Post by Georgelemental » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 4:04 PM UTC

olex wrote: post #17

The biggest problem I always have with elevators is not the algorithm, it's the people seemingly being unable to grasp the concept of pressing either the up or the down request button, depending on where they want to go. Almost always I find someone will press both, because "then the elevator comes faster". Completely ignoring the fact that they end up going the wrong way first half the time, and adding an unnecessar…

I don't think I've ever seen someone do that