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(Your Job) Is a Video Game

Posted by timothy on from the but-you-get-not-extra-lives dept.

arctother writes: UberDRIVE—Uber's simulation/video game/recruiting tool—is, at best, just a poor copy of a much more interesting video game – driving for Uber. The main innovation of Uber, and other smartphone-enabled "e-hailing" car services, is the insertion of a new interface into the human-to-human, on-the-street interactions between drivers and passengers. Uber attempts to transform the cab-driving and -riding experience through the deployment of an allegorithm: the productive joining of a framing narrative (or "allegory") and software-mediated control (or "algorithm"). Understanding how allegorithms shape experience will become more and more important as they are increasingly deployed with mobile interfaces to reshape and "augment" social interactions. "Ingress," you are already thinking; but you should really think of "Uber."

36 comments

  1. Ubers game by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Centralized drivers who think they're playing video games are actually driving cabs. Since they only pick from the top ladder players, the odds of a player driving off a bridge is less than 2%! Just watch out for some bad lag, that's been known for some problems. If you're lucky enough to get No Carrier though, you pay no fare!

    --
    God spoke to me
    1. Re:Ubers game by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      More likely tuning algorithms. [And Uber just stole my business idea.]

      "Test Cell" time is very expensive. I think some of ours run $20k an hour and that's not even close to as expensive as they get. Additionally each prototype in a test cell can only ever accumulate 168 of test data per week. (It's a hard limit.)

      The 'hardware' part of driverless cars has been pretty much nailed down. We've come a long way in the 11 years since the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge (The original event didn't go so well) Google and Uber have been poaching the grad students and professors from a lot of the first teams.

      Now what those engineers need is more data. They have dSPACE machines hooked up to all of their Matlab models and are running a few thousands 'vehicles' in parallel. The problem is they need a very smart and adaptive better controller to test scenarios with. Uber is tuning it's algorithms against human drivers. The payout is two fold. In the short term they get to vet drivers. In the long term they don't have to deal with drivers again.

      If this pans out Uber will be releasing driving game for the XBox One, PS4 & Desktop. "Earn up to $1/hour driving a car!". It'll be a gamified Mechanical Turk. For $20k Google could have 20,000 hours of data in an hour. "Promote" the best driving drivers to $2/hour, $4... $10. You'd still be generating 2,000 hours of data per hour and you'd have the "best" drivers you can find.

      The entire "personal vehicles" and "are they licensed" is moot when it's fleets of driverless cars all dispatched from a few locations around the city (as driverless cars become legal). They're already collecting all the data as to where the vehicles are needed. I wouldn't be shocked if Uber isn't already buying up property in places that their data shows a lot of vehicles are needed.

      Uber is playing long game. "Drivers" right now are just a cheap way to collect all that data since Taxi companies probably won't release it (or even keep it).

      I expect Google is doing all of the same things in parallel.

  2. Invoking Godwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ridesharing company's new corporate slogan is Douchebags: Uber Allegorithms

  3. they also both use frames by MarkPNeyer3416 · · Score: 1

    an allegory "frames" a situation by saying what will happen to each of the characters; how they will interact with each other and how the situation will resolve.

    that's what a stack frame does, too. the function starts with a stack frame (a situation) and says how the characters (registers) will interact with each other, and how the situation will resolve.

    just something to think about. i have a whole lot more thoughts along this vein if you are interested.

    1. Re:they also both use frames by arctother · · Score: 1

      That's brilliant--I'll be checking out your site!

  4. Money is just a videogame too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Money and Banking are a video game too. The rules are enforced by violence and can change at any time.

  5. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A fucking blogspot post?

    1. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is about "Uber", a cab service, so it must be "deep" and "insightful". Kinda like Elon Musk's blog about "mass transit". Or anything.

    2. Re: Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I 3d printed an Uber self-driving car in the cloud!

    3. Re: Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was it a Tesla?

  6. Your mom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your mom is a video game

    1. Re:Your mom by flopsquad · · Score: 1

      Your mom is a video game

      Don't just rush in and downmod AC here. Given the subject matter, this is actually Insightful.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  7. 3rd submission from the same blog by WoOS · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is the third submission of "arctother" pointing to "taxicabsubjects.blogspot.com". Taking the the frequency of posts on that blog into account, about every third post there is seemingly slashdot material. One wonders whose blog that is.

    1. Re:3rd submission from the same blog by antiperimetaparalogo · · Score: 0

      This "taxicab subjects" blog guy is eponymous (i.e., using a real name) and posts various stories/comments on the web (i.e., not only in his blog - or in Slashdot) about this subject (passionate enough about the subject?) - i guess this "arctother" Slashdoter is the same guy, and since he already made a comment to this story, maybe he could/(should) answer!

      --
      Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
    2. Re:3rd submission from the same blog by arctother · · Score: 1

      Five submissions over two years, only two of which made it through the firehose. As an experiment in internet spamming, not very successful. But hey, one does not simply *post* onto slashdot.

  8. Quotation marks by pz · · Score: 1

    Please, learn how to use quotation marks correctly. They are not for emphasis.

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    1. Re:Quotation marks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not true even a little bit.

      "Please, don't use quotation marks for emphasis. I am at least ten years too young to have learned that typographic convention when I was growing up."

      There, fixed that for you.

  9. What the fuck am I reading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What is this article supposed to tell me?

    1. Re:What the fuck am I reading? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Uber is diversifying... Gotta get that "valuation" up to 10 bil...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:What the fuck am I reading? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      What is this article supposed to tell me?

      My takeaway was that if there are people in the world who can coin words like "allegorithm" we are misdirecting the War on Terror. It's not ISIL who are going to cause the Downfall of Western Civilization.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  10. uber claims to the contrary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uber's "innovation" is to recapitulate the activity of a hundred years ago which gave rise to the current "passenger transport for fee" structure and regulation. In other words: doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome. How crazy is that?

  11. Allegorithm by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

    Yeah, no, we're not going to start using that word. Sorry.

    1. Re:Allegorithm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Let's be clear on why not: "allegory" makes some sense, yes, it's really a computer program but in our minds it's a game or even a simulation.

      But it's NOT A FUCKING ALGORITHM. Quicksort is an algorithm. Grand Theft Auto minus the story is still not a fucking algorithm.

    2. Re:Allegorithm by arctother · · Score: 1

      Like it says in the article, blame Alexander Galloway for the word. Both "allegory" and "algorithm" are being used loosely or metonymically at best. The concept that the word represents, however, is what is important.

  12. OP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the "allegorithm" terminology is terrible.
    Otherwise i completely agree and am glad that someone is talking about this.

  13. Allegorithm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Is that where a German dude sticks both fists up another German dude's ass and counts to 10?

  14. Dude, look at your hands! by jjeffries · · Score: 1, Funny

    They're, like, fucking amazing, aren't they?

  15. Terribly written synopsis by wired_parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The synopsis reads like a poorly written press release from an illiterate goat herder trying to promote his personal blog. Slashdot should be ashamed of putting this in its front page.

    1. Re:Terribly written synopsis by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The synopsis reads like a poorly written press release from an illiterate goat herder trying to promote his personal blog. Slashdot should be ashamed of putting this in its front page.

      Slashdot would post a glowing review of Mein Kampf as long as it mentioned the word Uber enough.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  16. Incomprehensible by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The summary sounds like it was written by a retarded monkey that had a stroke halfway through the paragraph. The blog post (not article) isn't any better.

    --
    -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
    1. Re:Incomprehensible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks, I thought maybe it was my fault for not understanding it.

  17. Ridiculous by flopsquad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) Post something about Uber.
    1a) No, it doesn't have to be actual news or make any sense.
    2) Users will flock to the thread to wage holy war over government regulation and the legality of Uber's tactics.
    2a) Yes, even when TFS says absurd stuff like "allegorithm" and "driving in real life is actually a video game myeh."
    2b) Yes I'm serious, post whatever the hell you want. It can be the text from a Nigerian email scam, just be sure to insert the word "Uber" at least once.
    3) ???
    4) Profit!

    --
    Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    1. Re:Ridiculous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Inconceivable!

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:Ridiculous by flopsquad · · Score: 1

      Inconceivable!

      You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  18. No it isn't by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    (Your Job) Is a Video Game

    No, (my job) is not.

    (Your headline) is stupid.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  19. Crazy Taxi by WallyL · · Score: 2

    So Crazy Taxi has a new version?!