Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Smart Elevators Coming to Seattle

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the sim-tower-needed-this dept.

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."

4 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Real World may hold surprises by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:Real World may hold surprises by yobjob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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 :)

      --
      Czech language for absolute beginners
  2. Waiting by decipher_saint · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "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.
    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  3. Oblig. Family Guy by Radres · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?