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Who's faster around London: a taxi driver or a GPS?

Tom Scott plus · demo · Watch on YouTube

Documentaries & storytellingAlgorithms & data structuresTransit, cities & urban planning

What it is

Tom Scott races a London black-cab driver who has memorized The Knowledge against a phone GPS across the city, comparing local expertise to navigation software.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN people link it in discussions of taxi drivers' spatial memory and how cabbies handle roadworks and traffic.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “It was interesting to watch.”

    Cabbie's knowledge versus GPS across London.

    rhdunn, 2022-12 · Recommendation · in “The Decline of the City Grid”

  2. “There's a fantastic Tom Scott video on it”

    Cabbies remember roadworks and traffic patterns.

    phist_mcgee, 2026-08 · Recommendation · in “Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: tom scott, london cabbies, the knowledge, gps navigation, route finding

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