Before They Can Drive a Taxi, London's Cabbies Have To Commit the City To Memory in a Rigorous Test Called the Knowledge (cnet.com)

In their fight against Uber, London's taxi drivers claim a distinct advantage: They must forgo GPS and navigate the huge city entirely from memory. CNET: Put in place in 1865, the Knowledge exam requires cabbies to navigate between any two points in central London without following a map or GPS. It can take four years to learn the information and pass a series of stringent oral tests. It's a grueling process unmatched by any training taxi drivers have to face anywhere else, and it's the most arduous thing Pearson's [Editor's note: a driver; used as anecdote in the story] ever done. "My uncle was a cab driver and he encouraged me to give it a go," he said. "But I still didn't realize how hard it would be."

Despite the difficulty of mastering it, cabbies proudly defend the Knowledge as a critical part of their job, something technology can't replace. They say it sets them apart from ride-hailing services like Uber, whose drivers don't have to learn the Knowledge, and they believe it allows them to deliver a superior level of service. But ever since mapping apps arrived on phones and GPS-wielding Uber drivers exploded into London in 2012, the Knowledge has faced a volatile future. Should cabbies have to spend years of their life memorizing every inch of London when they can simply punch in a destination on a screen and be guided? Absolutely, say the drivers I spoke with.

Comments

Driving with a GPS is dangerous

[DogDude]

Driving while looking at a GPS is clearly more dangerous than driving without looking at a screen of some kind. I prefer to take taxis because they tend to know where they're going more than the fake-taxi people (Uber, Lyft).

Stupid government regulation fail

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd have to be delusional to think this is an advantage. A human navigator can't see ahead for optimizing against current traffic patterns as can GPS. Plus, imagine all the other things they could have done with their time and effort besides memorizing obsolete information. No wonder this stupid crony industry is going bankrupt.

Re:Stupid government regulation fail

[ShanghaiBill]

I've had 3 experiences with GPS.

I have had more than 3 experiences with GPS so far TODAY. If you have really only used it 3 times in your life, you shouldn't be commenting on it.

Re:Stupid government regulation fail

[arth1]

When was the last time you got in a cab and the driver checked his entire route with the dispatcher to make sure there were no accidents?

When was the last time you were in a real black cab?
They get messages like "Lorry accident on Hampstead north of Drummond, south blocked, north slow".

GPS+phone systems are much slower to react, because they rely on the few cars that send bidirectional data, or officials to phone in when they close a road, which can take hours.

And GPS itself doesn't work well in big cities anyhow, due to tall buildings obstructing satellites.

I'd take a knowledgable driver at twice the price any day.

Personal Experience

[tsqr]

I was in London last year, and used Uber extensively. Most of the time it worked out fine, but there were a few spectacular failures. In particular, a ride to Kensington Palace dropped us off at a point that was more than a half hour's walk from the Palace. As we walked, we passed an intersection that was only a few hundred yards from the Palace entrance. I'm pretty sure a real cab driver would have dropped us at the closest point.

Re:Personal Experience

[serviscope_minor]

I was in London last year, and used Uber extensively.

You'd probably be better off using citymapper or some equivalent to be honest and doing a mix of walking and public transport.

It's what us locals do innit.

Sure, I'd say the same

[johannesg]

If it were my livelyhood and I already put in the effort, I'd see that as an excellent way to keep out competitors. But you'd be batshit insane to actually _want_ to learn all that crap if you were just starting out, considering how much the city has grown since 1865, and how easy GPS (possibly with live updates on road conditions) makes things nowadays...

Black cabs all the way

[hsqueak]

Anyone who's ever used a London cabby will value the brevity of the journey when you ask for a recommended hotel near a certain landmark/street, or if you're in a rush to get to a meeting in an obscure area and there's a traffic jam on the normal route. It's shocking how little local knowledge can be required elsewhere.

Re:how do we know this knowledge....

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

But wouldn't it make more sense for the cab driver to use a computer to find the best route?

If a computer existed that was any good at doing that, then yes. But right now, they aren't even close. You are placing way too much faith in their ability to know current traffic conditions and adapt optimally to them.

This is a theory-vs-practice issue. In theory, all of these objections could be resolved. There's no inherent technical limitation that says you couldn't do the sort of thing I assume you're imagining here. But in practice, most in-car navigation systems are pretty awful in a city like London. In many cases, even if you don't know the back roads and detours, you really are better off just planning a sensible route in advance and sticking to it unless something obviously catastrophic has happened. And if you do know the roads the way a London cabbie does, you can adapt on the fly way better than any current navigation systems anyway.