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

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

Tom Scott plus Demos

Open on YouTube First HN thread

2 HN users recommended this demo in 2 different months between 2022 and 2026.

2007–2026

2 recommendations 1 citation HackerTube score 2

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

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.

Pull quote: “There's a fantastic Tom Scott video on it” (HN, 2026)

Also tagged: london taxi knowledge vs gps, tom scott, london cabbies, the knowledge, gps navigation, route finding

What Hacker News said

3 labeled comments from the HN archive; up to 20 are kept per video, favoring different commenters. Each one links back to the original thread.

Recommends rhdunn December 2022 under The Decline of the City Grid

Cabbie's knowledge versus GPS across London.

There was a recent Tom Scott video ( [this video] ) where he was using a GPS and Tom Hutley (a London cabbie) only relied on his London knowledge to get around, travelling the same distance after reaching certain landmarks. It was interesting to watch.

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Recommends phist_mcgee August 2026 under Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

Cabbies remember roadworks and traffic patterns.

They also have to remember where roadwork is/was and what kind of traffic is best/worst at a given time. There's a fantastic Tom Scott video on it [this video]

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Citations, criticism and jokes

Cites it janosch_123 October 2024 under Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2024)

Sure, Tom Scott drives it in this (he doesn't talk about it being electric): [this video] Here is a review: [link] Here is all the media: [link] My video tutorials are linked above.

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