Tom's Tech Blog

Follow up to the Elevator Technology post below

Funny thing is that my wife now works in a high tech building in Prague with this same system. Reportedly it is only the second such elevator system in the world.

In addition to the usability bug mentioned in Joel's blog (the receptionists in her building don't tell visitors about the system!), she has some other experiences:

1. The computer system crashed a few days ago, resulting in complete chaos. There are 9 elevators in this "smart" elevator bank, so in order to get on one without the instructions from the central computer, you had to position yourself in the middle in a race-starting crouch position, listen keenly for the chime and make a run for it-- literally. Then, you had to wait until the elevator happened to open its doors on a floor near yours (and depending on your patience, walk up or down the stairs a couple of floors). Getting out of the building required waiting for an elevator too because the exit from the stairs is locked. Mind you that there are floor buttons in the elevators, they are just not functional. Wouldn't you think that if there was a fault in the central computer, that the logical approach would be to default to the buttons in the elevator instead of sending elevators on a random pattern?

2. The elevators are programmed to be efficient, so at rush hour, the elevator waits until it is optimally full before departing for it's optimized route. Sometimes this process can take minutes, so the clever (and impatient) elevator riders have taken to kicking past the door sensors 5 or 6 times until the elevator "thinks" it's full.

3. Scooting into a closing elevator the other day, my wife thought, "well, these elevators are so high tech, they must have sensitive door sensors." So, as the doors are beginning to close, she steps in-- only to be crushed like a nut by the doors-- the bone bruise on her arm still hurts 4 days later.

Maybe there is a reason that there are only two of these systems installed in the world...