Thread by @HeyChelseaTroy

I have, four times now, witnessed a group of software and machine learning whizzes gather in a room (or Zoom) to brainstorm the reinvention of transport for eco-friendliness and human convenience.

All four times, the brainstorm "invented" buses. To the letter. All four times.

This is why, when people ask "can AI save XYZ," I usually think to myself "If AI can save XYZ, listening to folks who didn't grow up rich can save XYZ for like a millionth of the cost of AI trying to save it"

By the way, all four times were personal experiences.

I'm not counting the time when E**n M**k tried to reinvent transportation and invented the bus, or when Via tried to reinvent transportation and invented the bus, or when Uber tried to reinvent transportation and invented th

BUSES

Plentiful routes close to everyone's origin/destination
PULL CORDS to mitigate unnecessary stops
Elastic capacity & easy rerouting
Backward compatibility w/roads
Accessibility

Problems like "not enough buses" and "traffic blocks buses" aren't actually problems with buses

More broadly, it SOUNDS sexy and ingenious to find simple solutions for complex, pressing problems. But in practice, when that can be done, it's usually not sexy.

It's usually something decidedly unsexy and pleibian like "Add buses."

Do with that what you will.

Oh you like it when I complain about high-overhead product development strategies that center one privileged perspective and exclude more relevant ones, do ya?

have 14 minutes of me doing it with gifs and shit

chelseatroy.com/2021/07/30/the…