Modern Times Streetwise - part 1/4 - 1996 BBC Documentary how become a London cabbie.

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Recommends calpaterson · 2014-05 · on “London black taxis plan congestion chaos to block Uber”

For anyone interested a documentary of the Knowledge test from the 1990s: [this video] The documentary paints an interesting picture

Recommends jdietrich · 2014-09 · on “For London's Cabbies, Job Entails World's Hardest Geography Test”

A lot of detractors miss the fact that the Knowledge is about much more than just memorising routes. The Knowledge is a very egalitarian way of hugely increasing the value of a taxi permit to the holder, creating a strong disincentive against any behaviour that might jeopardise their license. If you've spent four or five years working to get your Green Badge, you'll think twice about cheating a passenger or taking liberties with traffic laws. The exams ("appearances") are conducted in person, and are deliberately intended to be highly stressful. Examiners want to see not only that the candidate knows the routes, but that they can remain calm and courteous under pressure. By design, the Knowl

Recommends michaelbuckbee · 2017-09 · on “Hello Londoners, I am a black cab driver (Green Badge) and I come in peace”

Pre GPS it was a requirement that cabbies have a massive list of places and routes through London memorized (that guy taking 3.5 years to study and pass the entrance exam is pretty par for the course). There's a 1996 documentary on the process that's pretty interesting - [this video] Separately, this is the kind of non robots doing manufacturing automation that I think it's important to think about when we have discussions of future work, etc. Because on the one hand it's stunningly fantastic that what used to take someone 4 years and a series of examinations to achieve is now included for a negligible cost in the pocket supercomputer (of 1996) that we all carry around in our pocket. But, it's al