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Show HN: Elevators

john.fun

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Re: Show HN: Elevators

#101

Post by gabrieledarrigo »

trivo wrote: post #25
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…

And then when the elevator door opens, they ask the people inside: "Are you going up or down?" There's an arrow showing that, for Christ's sake.

"Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are."

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#104

Post by StableAlkyne »

orliesaurus wrote: post #4

Oh my god, every time I'm waiting for the elevator, I think of how annoying it must be to be someone who's building the algorithm to make sure that you minimize the amount of wait times between picking up people and taking them to their destination. Then I also wonder if the people who apply the logic and program the logic into the elevators are actually evil sadists that are doing it on purpose to make us wait longe…

> minimize the amount of wait times between picking up people and taking them to their destination

I wish elevators accounted for load.

I've been to a couple of larger conferences where on the Monday morning after, the hotel elevator was just hammered. Everyone wanted to go down, and the elevator would dutifully stop on every single floor no matter how full it was. If you were mobility disabled on the 2nd floor, you were basically fucked if you had a flight to catch.

One would think that, if it's a 10 person elevator and it's already stopped on 10 floors requesting it, that it could save an extra 5 minutes by just going directly to the ground floor, instead of stopping on every floor with the same conversation of "Oof, can't fit in there. I'll get the next one!"

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#105

Post by ivanjermakov »

alanwreath wrote: post #45
brandonpelfrey wrote: post #6

For folks that have never seen elevator scheduling the game: https://play.elevatorsaga.com/ Enjoy this rabbit hole :D

I wish there were more games like this. It’s such a simple premise but so satisfyingly difficult after each level. And it even has a bit of randomish failure which makes for even more challenge.

You will like https://www.zachtronics.com/

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#106

Post by davnicwil »

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…

In situations like this the answer usually comes by flipping it and assuming they do understand, and asking why it makes sense now.

It's probably just the old 'fake loader' psychology, to be honest. Waiting without knowing when the elevator will arrive is boring/frustrating, where getting into an elevator that moves, even if the wrong direction, feels like progress.

Things are happening, and even if it takes longer ultimately that's a less frustrating state to be in.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#107

Post by ivanjermakov »

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…

Elevator algorithm I'm used to always goes up from lobby and always goes down from any other floor. Meaning that it goes all the way to the highest order and picks orders top-down until reaching lobby. Only exception is going to underground parking floors which is relatively rare in my housing complex.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#109

Post by dperfect »

hypersoar wrote: post #81
dperfect wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like two separate things then. Could you not have people select a destination without locking in an elevator? (I've never encountered destination dispatch myself, so I'm not really sure how it works in practice)

The way I've seen it work is that there's a touch screen in the elevator lobby. You tap a floor, and then screen will say "Car C" (along with an audible message). The problem is that then the system can't reassign you to a different car after that. You'll typically have a bunch of different people going to a bunch of different floors, and there would be no reliable way to communicate to each individual their new assi…

Thanks for the context. That makes sense.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#110

Post by pwython »

I was on a Royal Caribbean ship a couple weeks ago (Utopia, 18 decks, 5,668 passengers). It has 24 main elevators split between front and back, left and right. So a bank of 6 in front of you each time you needed a lift. You press your floor on a touchpad and it assigns you an elevator A through F.

I swear no matter if it was busy or not, it seemed like everyone was assigned to the same one or two elevators. The wait was always so long too, I used the stairs most of the time if just going Someone besides RCCL needs to study that algorithm.

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