Smart Elevators Coming to Seattle

coaxial writes "Fujitec has unveiled a new elevator system for Seattle's Metropolitan Park West Tower. The new system uses touchpanels to group users by destination. Riders may wait slightly longer for the proper car, but the overall ride is shortened because the car stops less."

Comments

Real World may hold surprises

[RobertB-DC]

From TFA:
"One lady walked up to the kiosk, and I told her to enter her floor number, and she said, 'That's ridiculous,' " said Tim Mooney, Fujitec's west regional vice president, who was in Seattle for the launch.

The real-world functionality of this system should be an interesting battle between computer-simulated idealism and human greed. Ideally, everyone will be happy if their overall travel time decreases. But in reality, each one of the riders wants to have the fastest possible time all to himself, to heck with averages. The easiest way to game the system might be to simply enter your floor number over and over, to fool the computer into thinking there's an increased demand for that floor. Voila, private elevator!

It's almost like a test case for the collapse of communism. If everyone simply gave according to their abilities and received according to their needs, everyone would get to work sooner. But as soon as one guy punches his floor a dozen times and gets his private car delivered, the whole darned thing breaks down.

Or to put it another way, in Soviet Russia, Elevator calls YOU!

Re:Real World may hold surprises

[yobjob]

You actually bring up a good point - what's to stop a single user from registering 10 full lifts worth of demand for his own stop by repeatedly entering the destination floor at the kiosk? Maybe if sensors are installed in the doorway, it can estimate how many people leave the elevator at a floor, and compare that to the demand originally registered at the kiosk. The predictive logic software could then learn which floor has the highest number of selfish arseholes, and adjust their service accordingly :)

Re:Real World may hold surprises

[kiatoa]

No where in the article did it say that the number of people headed to a particular floor was a factor. I suspect 10 pushes of the 10th floor button is equal to 1 push of the 10th floor button.

Re:Real World may hold surprises

[MindStalker]

Note historical data could definatly come in play here, if its a known fact that around 9:30 every day a large group of people are heading from the lobby to the 5th floor prioriety could be given as its common. And of course, if some jerk every day comes in late at 9:30 and presses the button 10 times.. Oh hell with it, can't we just have the elevator operators of yor.

Waiting

[decipher_saint]

"Riders may wait slightly longer for the proper car"

To me, once you're riding time appears to go by quickly, it's the waiting for the damn thing in the first place that's frustrating.

Human nature I suppose.

Re:Hey, that's my idea! More things to consider...

[Politburo]

How about just anouncing the floor number before the elevator stops?

How about putting an overly complex electronics system into what is a simple mechanical device? The ding can be triggered by simple mechanical means. KISS. I'm sure you'd bitch a lot more when the elevator had to be taken out of service to troubleshoot the voice system.

Oblig. Family Guy

[Radres]

Stewie: "Yes, we all love 'Mr. Plow'! Oh, you've got the song memorized, do you? SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE! That is exactly the kind of idiot you see at Taco Bell at 1 in the morning!"

Seriously, just because there was a Simpsons about Homer riding in an elevator, does it necessitate quoting?