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London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#91

Post by custardcream »

rurounijones wrote: post #60
custardcream wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably not "The Knowledge"; that's just some local experience and the fact that it's a high probability someone is going from that precise restaurant quite often. I myself have drunkenly hailed many a taxi outside dodgy restaurants in London. Unlicensed minicabs are pretty good at that too. Conversely, got a taxi from Angel to Leyton and the idiot went via Poplar and the A13 and the journey cost me £55 for a…

The knowledge is not only the streets, they also have to memorise "points of interest" which includes things like pubs and restaurants.

But that's illogical. If you know the bar and restaurant scene in London, it's very volatile. Restaurants and bars change names at an incredible rate. "The knowledge" will have expired by the time you've learned it.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#92

Post by StavrosK »

superuser2 wrote: post #81
chrisseaton wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I didn't accidentally rate them a 3 - I picked a median score for standard service. I don't remember being told to do anything else when I signed up. If you rate 5 by default where do you go for truly special service?

What does "truly special service" even mean for an Uber ride? Breaking traffic laws for you? Being especially friendly? Owning a very expensive car? There are a lot of ways in which a ride can be unsatisfactory (smelly, creepy, crappy car, poor driving, loud music, etc.) but not that many in which it can be exceptional. Unless they show up in a Tesla Roadster or something.

Being especially friendly, accommodating and efficient in their driving, yes.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#93

Post by jedc »

custardcream wrote: post #91
rurounijones wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The knowledge is not only the streets, they also have to memorise "points of interest" which includes things like pubs and restaurants.

But that's illogical. If you know the bar and restaurant scene in London, it's very volatile. Restaurants and bars change names at an incredible rate. "The knowledge" will have expired by the time you've learned it.

You must not have read the article.

There's an expectation that drivers keep their knowledge current. Certainly the examiners keep their knowledge current and test based on that.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#94

Post by custardcream »

jedc wrote: post #93
custardcream wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's illogical. If you know the bar and restaurant scene in London, it's very volatile. Restaurants and bars change names at an incredible rate. "The knowledge" will have expired by the time you've learned it.

You must not have read the article. There's an expectation that drivers keep their knowledge current. Certainly the examiners keep their knowledge current and test based on that.

I did. I really don't think you understand the scale of the problem.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#95

Post by kitd »

custardcream wrote: post #45
jedc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not completely replaceable by technology. Once I had gotten a text from my wife as to where to meet her for dinner with friends. She didn't know the restaurant name, and had gotten the street name wrong. I just read the text to my London black cab driver, he asked me: "Did you mean XXX restaurant on [correct street name]?" (Note: there were multiple restaurants on the street). And sure enough, he was 100% correc…

That's probably not "The Knowledge"; that's just some local experience and the fact that it's a high probability someone is going from that precise restaurant quite often. I myself have drunkenly hailed many a taxi outside dodgy restaurants in London. Unlicensed minicabs are pretty good at that too. Conversely, got a taxi from Angel to Leyton and the idiot went via Poplar and the A13 and the journey cost me £55 for a…

Read the article. Updating the Knowledge is exactly what they do when businesses open and close.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#96

Post by syllogism »

jeffwass wrote: post #88
syllogism wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wow, you're really calling a course of study that usually takes 3-4 years to complete a "party trick" because it's replaceable by technology? Yes of course!! Some other party tricks include reciting hours of lyric poetry from memory, adding large numbers in your head quickly, etc. You're talking like the world is fair or something. There's not necessarily an equivalence between effort expended and value created.

Are there any skills you have, degrees you've completed,or knowledge you possess that you wouldn't also consider a party trick?

Sure. I write software that automates things, specifically natural language processing.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#97

Post by jively »

London Black cabs are overpriced, and there's no market check that stabilises price, as much as I respect the institution of "The Knowledge", you are still bound by the need to trust your driver, and many are just opportunistic.

The Knowledge may make for better navigation, but as a customer, the amount of times it actually comes in useful (road works, accident, awkward route) is very low, 90% of journeys are straightforward.

It certainly doesn't justify the 50%-100% price increase for the privilege of hailing the cab on the street vs. by pre-booking, especially when most of the time the route you are taking is short (no Londoner in their right mind would use a black cab for a long journey, unless they have money to squander or it's so late at night that you're desperate)

The likelihood of getting any real value out of the knowledge when taking a cab in London is very low, and the fact I need to pay for idling in traffic with an un-capped fare potential on top of jacked rates just makes for a terrible proposition.

As a consumer, there's just no value in that, and Black Cabs need to evolve or compete themselves back into relevance, bring on Uber, Lyft, Wheel and any other newcomers.

Source: 14 years of being a grumpy Londoner.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#98

Post by Danieru »

billforsternz wrote: post #59
slingerofwheat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waze claims to do something like and it produces the most retardedly slow routes ever. I just hate it when someone uses Waze on my Lyft because I just know I'll take 10 minutes more. I don't think it's as trivial because there are lots of things to consider. Some drivers are just SLOW and it will have nothing to do with traffic. Maybe all slow/terrible drivers use your app so all the route speed information is comple…

I'm amused that the phrase "uses Waze on my Lyft" is apparently self explanatory to this target audience. Clearly I am getting old and out of touch.

It helps that the nouns are capitalized.

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#99

Post by jeffwass »

syllogism wrote: post #96
jeffwass wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any skills you have, degrees you've completed,or knowledge you possess that you wouldn't also consider a party trick?

Sure. I write software that automates things, specifically natural language processing.

So in other words - party tricks :-)

Re: London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS

#100

Post by AmirS2 »

custardcream wrote: post #94
jedc wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not have read the article. There's an expectation that drivers keep their knowledge current. Certainly the examiners keep their knowledge current and test based on that.

I did. I really don't think you understand the scale of the problem.

It's certainly a large scale problem, but a smaller problem than learning all the points of interest in the first place ... no one is saying it's easy ...
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