Google Maps karma

I have to drive to LA in 6 hours (yes, I am writing this newsletter at 3:30 in the morning). I’ll be seeing a friend and working on a fun project, but I wouldn’t wish the drive on my worst enemy. It’s crazy to me that before the pandemic people would just sit in their car for 4 hours of their day and not bat an eye.

On top of that, people in LA drive like maniacs. They’ll cut you off, honk at you, flip you off, and do pretty much anything possible to get to their destination a few seconds earlier.

I’ve had multiple instances in my life where I’ve seen drivers behave aggressively, only to see them suffer the consequences later. This could look like them merging into the “faster” lane, only to have me catch up to them a few minutes later, or it could be them getting into a fender bender (to be clear, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but I’ve seen it happen).

Call it fate, karma, or the almighty intervening, but it seems like there’s a larger entity at play when we’re driving. To that end… what if there was some sort of quantifiable “karma” score you could accumulate based on your driving behavior?

This would be insanely hard to track but would make for a fascinating social experiment if there were repercussions for bad behavior. However, the inverse is also true. If you reward people with better routes for driving nice, pretty soon you’ll have complete gridlock because everyone will be yielding to each other to shave a few minutes off their commute.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but I doubt it’s a karma system.

Have a friend who has to know where you are at all times? Send them this newsletter. https://sorens.beehiiv.com/