Google Maps Race Feature

For the fast, but not necessarily furious

June 19, 2023

Good morning and happy Monday. I’ll be in San Francisco this week for ConFig (Figma’s annual design conference), but I plan to continue daily posts.

This past Friday I had the chance to experience the architectural fever dream that is the Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, we were running late for our reservation so the drive there was a bit stressful. However, we arrived just in time and enjoyed a nice lil date night.

The drive got me thinking, what if there was an option to challenge other people to race to a specific location? You could challenge a friend, and see their general location and the vehicle they’d be driving. You’d have to make a calculated guess based on the map without knowing their exact ETA.

If people were rational, this would be a pretty fun experience. People, however, are not rational. They are extremely competitive too, which would lead to rampant speeding, reckless driving, and probably a lot of accidents.

There could be a case however to implement this in an app like Strava. Challenge your friends to a run and see who takes first place.

Regardless, drive safe and have a great day.

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