[HN Gopher] Show HN: America - Road Trip Simulator
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Show HN: America - Road Trip Simulator
APIs are a little like the open road--always waiting, full of
opportunity, but hardly utilized. So here's America, composed of
several APIs that paint a vivid, real-time picture of a good old-
fashioned road trip. Get local classifieds and photos. Tune into
local radio stations. Talk wit other drivers. And more. Exploring
the country by car was an invaluable experience for me during my
time in the states. I've since moved to Barcelona, and find myself
missing the territory. This is my attempt at recreating the magic.
Author : 0x389
Score : 257 points
Date : 2022-10-15 18:39 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (4m3ric4.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (4m3ric4.com)
| codazoda wrote:
| Amazing. I do think I get the feeling you're going for here.
|
| At first, I thought this was some type of choose your own
| adventure or text adventure.
|
| Anyway, good stuff.
| em500 wrote:
| Can you not have a similar experience driving through rural Spain
| or France? Genuinely curious, the few road trips I took in Europe
| (Spain, Scotland) did not seem that different from those in the
| USA (except that roads tended to be narrower which gave me a more
| stressful experience).
| 0x389 wrote:
| Only tried Spain and a little bit of France so far. These parts
| of Europe seemed more urbanized than the US where some areas
| are still really wild and desolated.
| synu wrote:
| You definitely can! I've driven from Ukraine to the
| Netherlands, going through Poland and Germany. The eastern
| parts of France were also quite nice.
|
| I really like how when you are road tripping through Europe
| that there's such different cultures and languages along the
| way, and old historical villages if you're into that sort of
| thing. Mountains, forests, farms.. deserts in Spain, too, which
| I really want to see one day. That will probably be my next
| road trip.
| rosnd wrote:
| I've road tripped hundreds of thousands of kilometers all
| around Europe.
|
| The huge difference is that we don't have all the vast empty
| spaces the Americans do, so it never really ends up feeling the
| same.
| binarysolo wrote:
| Absolutely love the aesthetic/experience, the map w/ the music
| and the little crowdsourced flavor from Craigslist et al really
| add to this. Thank you for this.
| angstrom wrote:
| Have an endorsement!
|
| "I've done 3 cross-country road trips and this captures
| everything I remember about Kansas excluding the IHOP in Wichita
| where we met an overworked waitress nearly running the entire
| place."
| spa3thyb wrote:
| The 'Talkie' was a little surprising.
|
| "Someone here?"
|
| Yes, I'm here.
| metadat wrote:
| Did someone really respond? I tried it just now but only heard
| static in reply.
| 0x389 wrote:
| There was a short outage. Had to upgrade a plan to allow more
| peers. It's back and I just chatted with someone very nice
| from Brooklyn, NY and few other people listening. Extremely
| intimidating for me as an introvert though.
| metadat wrote:
| Haha, thanks I tried it again and it works! Weird yet fun.
| yrgulation wrote:
| This is amazing!
| the_arun wrote:
| Is there a street view on this? That could be another dimension
| of fun!
| 0x389 wrote:
| There is a camera roll "application" that fills with photos
| taken nearby as you progress. I personally find it more
| intriguing than traditional street view services (e.g. google)
| as it captures the country in any condition whether it's snow
| or rain, day or night, highway or a dirt road.
| hcrean wrote:
| I was expecting more video.
| angstrom wrote:
| If this pulled snapshots from Google street view for the car
| view it would be complete.
| lyptt wrote:
| This is a really neat concept. Fairly simple, but great
| execution. I'm digging the camera roll feature.
| whiskeytuesday wrote:
| This is great
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Amazing. This reminds me of Cross Country Canada, which I played
| to death at school.
|
| https://youtu.be/jwwGY88ikFw (I played the colour Macintosh
| version though)
| esskay wrote:
| Turned it on to hear someomne playing Never Gunnu Give You Up
| through the radio...
| taftster wrote:
| I'm only going 22 MPH in Kansas. Ugh! Can I speed up? It's
| Kansas, afterall.
| mrkramer wrote:
| Magnificent simulation game. Make commercial version of it and I
| will buy it.
| metadat wrote:
| This is like a version of Oregon Trail except real-time, and no
| hunting.
|
| Overall, I like it.
|
| I do wish it had the ability to set the pace to "grueling".
| myself248 wrote:
| That was my first thought as well!
|
| As soon as I got a car as a teenager, I started enjoying the
| country by road-trip, but long before that, Oregon Trail taught
| me about the vast distances and varied scenery, all mine to
| discover. This seems to capture both, and it's really cool.
|
| Somewhere I hope I still have some early digital photos from
| one of those trips. It would've been 1998 or 99, shot on an HP
| Photosmart C200, taken on I-40 westbound through Texas
| approaching Amarillo, as the mother of all thunderstorms
| barreled eastbound over us. A friend was at the wheel and I was
| in the back "resting" for the next driving shift, which meant
| futzing with the camera I had bought just before departure. I
| was clicking away at the lightning, marveling at the ability to
| simply delete shots that didn't come out, rather than having
| wasted expensive film. And then 46 shots into my experiment, I
| got it, captured a bolt of lightning in a photo, which I'd
| never been moneyed enough to attempt on film.
|
| I'm now moseying eastbound on state route 36 just outside
| Lebanon KS, feeling an absolute flood of memories. This is
| masterfully executed.
| 0x389 wrote:
| This is incredible, thank you for sharing!
| harrisonpage wrote:
| this is awesome!
| swayvil wrote:
| This technology could possibly be modified to create a truth-
| detector. Which would be monstrously socially beneficial, as well
| as merely entertaining.
| a9ex wrote:
| I am getting poolsuite.net vibes
| lagrange77 wrote:
| Really cool!
|
| Reminds me of apolloinrealtime.org
| antognini wrote:
| Tangentially related, but I'm reminded a little bit of Desert
| Bus, which was an unreleased bideo game from the mid-90s which
| was designed to be the most annoying video game to play.
|
| The idea is that you're driving a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas in
| real time. The maximum speed of the bus is 45 mph so it takes
| about eight hours. The bus constantly tilts right so you have to
| constantly correct it's course, otherwise you'll drive off the
| road and have to be towed back (also in real time).
|
| The only break in the monotony is a bug that splats on the
| windshield at around hour 5.
| dudul wrote:
| Another detail: the game didn't have a pause option.
| devin wrote:
| The way I remember it, the bus didn't "tilt" so much as it was
| supposed to be a simulation of the alignment being off.
| frankfrank13 wrote:
| super cool!
| jonathantf2 wrote:
| Is the talkie functional? Just tried it a few times and nobody
| replied. Maybe everyone else is too shy?
| hilyen wrote:
| I don't think this is working for me, I just see the radio, map
| and status windows and the blue logo background. Am I supposed to
| see something else?
| cuttothechase wrote:
| zoom into the map to see the vehicle move in 2d
| 0x389 wrote:
| You can discover other features in the applications menu in the
| top left corner
| [deleted]
| Nition wrote:
| Made me laugh that there's an Imperial or Metric setting but
| metric isn't available. After all, this is America.
| mastax wrote:
| Geoff Marshall, an English railroad YouTuber, recently did an
| American road trip to "clear [his] head and refresh [his] mind."
| In his video about it titled _I 've Not Been Happy_[0], he talks
| about "beautiful Kansas," and "[the] amazing town White City
| Kansas," and marvels at many things that are mundane to me. It
| was strange to watch but seeing someone else appreciate these
| simple things reminded me to appreciate whats around me.
|
| [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QXktBQnOBc
| aliqot wrote:
| This is so cool! I'm in a motorcycle somewhere in Oklahoma. I
| tried the Talkie but it didn't work, all the sound got very low
| pitched. Will try in something besides firefox later when I reach
| my first landmark.
|
| Has anybody figured out how to take pictures yet?
|
| I'm traveling at about 1 mile per minute in the motorcycle, so
| 60MPH. Is there a speedometer or fuel readout?
| lilneet wrote:
| Yes - Applications > Vehicle.
| aliqot wrote:
| Thank you!
| 0x389 wrote:
| Thank you!
|
| It takes pictures automatically as you progress. For the
| current speed you can check the "vehicle" application. There is
| no fuel data, but you can read tailpipe CO2 emissions in
| "metrics".
| aliqot wrote:
| Thank you :)
|
| - Are there any goals, high scores, etc?
|
| - I noticed there is a meter showing what % I've explored and
| I'm curious if that is for the current route or the total
| number of drive-able routes, or if it corresponds to an
| achievement.
|
| - Is there a way to know when I'm near other drivers who can
| hear my talkie or should I just give a holler and see who can
| hear me?
|
| - How often does the camera take pics? I've gone 11 miles and
| it still says I haven't taken any pictures.
| 0x389 wrote:
| It is intentionally goal-less: there is no end, no
| achievements, you just explore.
|
| The total for exploration percent is the US highway mileage
| according to the Federal Highway Administration, many many
| miles.
|
| That's a good idea to indicate drivers nearby, let's see
| what I can do. Thanks!
|
| You should have new pics every few miles, like 3 or 5.
| Perhaps traffic is limited, experiencing HN effect at the
| moment. Try to reload the page.
| chris_overseas wrote:
| As another data point for you, I've travelled 71 miles so
| far with no photos taken yet. Firefox 106.0b9, various
| ad-blockers installed.
|
| I'm seeing another possible bug, or maybe I just
| misunderstand what is happening. If I refresh the page
| everything is silent and the vehicle is moving, which
| seems fine. The vehicle window however has a button
| labelled "resume". When I click that the button
| disappears, nothing obvious seems to happen other than
| static starts coming out my speakers. There doesn't seem
| to be any way to stop the static other than refresh the
| page. Is that expected?
|
| The classified are probably my favourite part, some of
| them are hilarious!
| aliqot wrote:
| Awesome I really like the aimless nature of it. I'll give
| it a shot and see if I gather pictures as I pass through
| other areas. Thanks again for building this. What's the
| best way for us to help or reward you? Do you have a
| github sponsor thing set up?
|
| your site here remins me of this flash designer called
| cymru i think, who had a very similar layout with a
| little grey alien who'd morph into different poses when
| you interacted with the screen. https://the389.net/8/1/
| appletrotter wrote:
| See Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LtiHla1dNg
| metadat wrote:
| Wow, this is more entertaining than I expected. Check the
| comments to see the highlight moment timestamps!
| em-bee wrote:
| the intro suggests that you are not testing this on firefox. but
| while it seems broken on firefox right now it was actually
| working some time in the past hour so it seems it would not be to
| far away from being able to support firefox as well.
| spdustin wrote:
| The 446Mhz was a nice touch, though it gives away that you're
| back in the EU; that part of the spectrum is firmly within the US
| amateur radio band plan (70 cm), and if this were a real road
| trip, transmitting without a license might bring some grief.
|
| _Might._
|
| I am quite enjoying this simulator, though! I think I might leave
| it running during my workday, try different trips over the coming
| weeks!
| JamesAdir wrote:
| Really cool! But I would love some links to photos or street view
| if it's possible without you needing to surpass Google's free
| tier.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Did you see the camera roll button?
| leovander wrote:
| I was just in the middle of Kansas listening to the radio, and I
| hear two folks on the talkie. When can I pay for a Steam version
| of this?! Great job!
|
| Feature Request: Can we see what our destination is?
|
| Bug: After turning off the radio I was still getting static
| noise.
| devin wrote:
| That's from having the "car" dialog up. If you close it, the
| static goes away.
| [deleted]
| quadcore wrote:
| Love it. As a EU, always dreamed about listening to real country
| music. In the car in Nebraska, its even better. Suggestions:
|
| 1. Optionnally display other's cars
|
| 2. Mute radio when talkie talkie
|
| 3. Display talkie radius if any
|
| 4. Some way to regroup (im not sure)
|
| 5. Apk that continues in background
|
| 6. Some way to make/add plugins
|
| It's wonderful as it is. Thanks for making this.
| 0x389 wrote:
| Thanks for great suggestions and kind words! For EU I'm
| experimenting with a special version called 3ur0p4. Same stuff,
| but you can only take public transport or a bicycle.
| em-bee wrote:
| as someone who crossed half of europe by bike and train
| myself, i would absolutely love that!
|
| where can i check for updates?
| ttkari wrote:
| > you can only take public transport or a bicycle.
|
| Haha, perfect!
| aliqot wrote:
| > Same stuff, but you can only take public transport or a
| bicycle.
|
| hahahah this got a laugh out of me. Really fun app you have
| here. What inspired you?
| 0x389 wrote:
| Back when I worked at Samara (Aribnb's R&D) we needed to
| generate a dataset with more or less realistic road trip
| routes. With stops on the way and realistic destinations.
| Working on that and then exploring the results was fun and
| made me realise I could build it for everyone's fun too.
| That's from technical side, but also my wonderful 5 years
| in the United States and all the trips we had inspired me
| from sentimental side too.
| aliqot wrote:
| That's so cool. I sure appreciate you for making this for
| us and it's cool that your job at the time had creative
| stuff like this to do. This hits that same spot that
| ProgressQuest or Blaseball hits.
| googlryas wrote:
| Funny. I just got back from a 3 month European road trip,
| basically following the Med coast from Gibraltar to Greece.
| Probably 15 times, people lectured me under the guise of a
| question "Why did you rent a car? Why not just take trains?",
| and maybe 10 times "That's so American".
|
| But, I'm glad I did. Literally _every_ one of my favorite
| experiences /places of the trip was completely inaccessible
| through public transit, and honestly I would not have even
| found those places or people if I wasn't driving around
| aimlessly. On top of that, _every_ one of my least favorite
| experiences was in a place that was highly accessible to
| public transit, and mobbed with tourists.
|
| You know what I'm not going to remember? Standing in a mob
| waiting for a train in Cinque Terre. Standing in a mob in
| Rome looking at the Vatican. Standing in a mob in Dubrovnik
| while "Game of Thrones" tours pass.
|
| What will I remember? Watching the sunset over Andalusia from
| an abandoned monastery, sharing a meal with some migrant
| workers on an olive orchard in Tuscany, giving Goran and his
| hobbled sheep a ride and subsequently living with him for a
| week on his lavender farm in Croatia. None of that would have
| been open to me without a car. But, I guess that is just the
| American in me talking.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Oh, I'm Croatian, having lived in Canada for a quarter of a
| century, and fully agree. I've rented a car last few times
| in Croatia. My wife is Canadian and our favourite time was
| when we got sick of phenomenally over-crowded tourist
| destinations, turned off gps, and followed smaller and
| smaller roads we were convinced we're taking us in right
| direction, until a dirt path petered out in somebody's
| vineyard :)
| alar44 wrote:
| As an American musician, modern "country" that you hear on the
| radio is essentially right wing propaganda. If you're into the
| style, I'd recommend not listening to much after 1990. Stick to
| pre 80s.
| orangepurple wrote:
| American "modern country" isn't right wing propaganda. It's
| something far more cancerous. Randy Prozac mocks it in his
| (NSFW + NSFL) single "Budweiser, Me And Homeland Security"
|
| You don't have to stick to pre 80s for quality country.
| Charley Crockett visits the topic in his song Music City USA
| (read the deep dives posts about that song).
|
| These days we have some good options for country and there
| are even gangsta rap collabs with bluegrass (Gangstagrass):
|
| - Charley Crockett
|
| - Tyler Childers
|
| - Jason Isbell
|
| - Sturgill Simpson
|
| - Tyler Childers
|
| - Arlo McKinley
|
| - Benjamin Tod
|
| - Steve Earle
|
| - Dwight Yoakam
|
| - Brandi Carlile
|
| - Amanda Shires
|
| - Colter Wall
|
| - Lucinda Williams
| jcbcn wrote:
| Unique and well made. I like it
| boriskourt wrote:
| The radio feature is super nice. Thank you for juggling all these
| API's for us OP. :)
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| Took me a minute to realize that the Vehicle app makes sound. I
| thought my computer fan was spinning up, lol.
| teewuane wrote:
| What am I doing?
| latexr wrote:
| Is this a riddle or an existential question?
| devin wrote:
| I've had it up for a half hour and am enjoying it. Great job. It
| would be cool if you could pick a place to go or stop, then
| create a travel log and have a travel diary.
| sogen wrote:
| Can speed be modified?
| 0x389 wrote:
| During the setup it offers to choose a vehicle. Think,
| motorcycle is the fastest. EV produces the least tailpipe CO2.
| Vehicle choice also affects route preferences.
| sogen wrote:
| Thanks!
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(page generated 2022-10-15 23:00 UTC)