What I Learned By Turning an Uber Into My Office.
I recently took an Uber ride in a black Lincoln MKT. It was comfortable enough and I noticed the middle seats folded down to just about desk-height. I leaned forward to petition the driver, who went by A.G., “How would you feel about driving me from D.C. to Philadelphia and back next week?” A.G. shrugged. As long as I was paying he didn’t care where we went.
“That’s one expensive cheesesteak,” A.G remarked.
A week later, A.G. was in my driveway, scratching his head as I lugged multiple displays, cameras and a car battery into the back of his Lincoln. “You bringing all that to your meeting in Philadelphia?”, he asked. “Oh, I don’t have any meetings. I just want you to swing by Dalessandro’s for a cheesesteak and then head back home.” He didn’t understand, but also didn’t seem to care. “That’s one expensive cheesesteak,” A.G remarked. After twenty minutes of setting everything up, we started our 3.5 hour journey to Philly. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught A.G. take a snapshot of my setup. I didn’t mind…I’d do the same thing if I were him.
OK Why Tho? 🤔
Stat 1: The average worker in a big city loses 80–100 hours per year stuck in traffic (up 25% from prior year). In five years, the average worker will spend 4 hours moving between work and home each day.
Stat 2: By 2020, it is estimated that 10 million autonomous vehicles will be on the road. By 2030, 25% of all vehicles will be autonomous.
Could autonomous vehicles help solve our growing commute problem by making the commute time a moot point? What do I care if I’m moving at 70mph or 7mph…either way, I’m working. If I’m not concerned with piloting my vehicle, would that allow me to start my work day the moment I enter my vehicle? Possibly…but how successful would I be at working in that environment? These are the questions that motivated this self-experiment.
What do I care if I’m moving at 70 mph or 7 mph…either way, I’m working.
This experiment was aimed at answering two questions:
- What are the effects of working from a moving vehicle for long hours?
- What are the main pain points (ie. how plausible is this)?
The Setup — 🚕💻🖥🔋
At minimum, I need access to the following:
- Computer
- Video collaboration tools
- Music
- Internet
Here’s a list of the equipment I set up in A.G.’s Lincoln:
- Macbook Pro w/portable laptop stand (ergo + function)
- iPad Pro w/headrest mount (doubles as a second screen and video endpoint screen)
- Galaxy View Tablet (for keeping me connected to my team all day via TeamTV)
- Photive Bluetooth Speaker (music is non-negotiable in my work environment)
- Logitech HD1080p camera (for Spark video calls)
- Yeti Goal Zero (to power all this stuff)
- Verizon Jetpack MiFi (internet solution #1)
- iPhone w/AT&T tethering (internet solution #2)
What I Learned 🤓
Let’s start with the main pain points —
First and foremost, THE NETWORK. At various times, I was switching between Verizon and AT&T every other minute. Coverage didn’t seem to be the main issue, though. Running speedtests frequently showed average down/up speeds of 12–20 Mbps. However, my video calls didn’t seem to reflect that. Looking at the graphs showed erratic network activity. So, while the average may have been 12–20 Mbps, moving at 70mph between cell towers failed to provide a stable, constant speed for real-time video.
Surprisingly, it seems the biggest roadblock to the autonomous vehicle solution (or even smart-cars in general) is not IoT hurdles or complex machine learning, but rather the abominable network experience.
GEAR STABILITY — on a straight stretch of open highway, this wasn’t much of an issue. However, most of our trip was in traffic on roads with many curves. Each time my driver braked or turned, my gear did the same. Equipment mounts designed with both stability and comfort will be a necessity.
VEHICLE NOISE — now don’t get me wrong, the Lincoln is a pretty quiet vehicle from my perspective (I guess my ears normalize), but most people I interacted with on video complained about the noise on my side. I took a SPL reading at 70mph without music — average 89dB, which is somewhere between passing a diesel truck and running a lawn mower.
SEATBELT — I like to wear ironed, button-up shirts. 3.5 hours of sitting with a belt across your shirt is great if you’re going for that “Shar Pei puppy” look. Note to future self: keep a spare in a garment bag. Additionally, I like to pace about when I’m on video calls. Seatbelts and low ceilings don’t allow that…maybe that’s minor…I seemed to adjust fine.
NO BATHROOM — Okay, this one is going to be a serious problem, regardless if you work from an autonomous vehicle or not. As our commute times grow, we may need to draw inspiration from Beijing train commuters, astronauts or (hopefully) some other non-diaper solution.
MOTION SICKNESS — I did experience very slight motion sickness for about the first 20 minutes. Interestingly, this occurred while I was reading a book. Once I switched to typing on my laptop, it went away. I’m sure the results will vary from person to person.
SLEEPINESS — Around 2:30p I got very sleepy and had to take a quick nap. This is abnormal for me. I recall that babies fall asleep quickly in the backseat of a car…unsure if this was the reason behind my droopy eyelids. It could’ve been the Peroni I had with my cheese steak. ️️🤷🏻
Now for the noticeable effects —
I actually felt more productive when it came to focus work, like coding and putting together a presentation I was working on. I took a few video meetings that day, including my 1:1 with my boss. A few of those meetings went swimmingly for about 10 minutes max until my connection dropped or I had to switch providers. My call with my boss was later in the day while traveling 70mph with no traffic. It was horrendous. We finally gave up due to the call freezing after a minute or so. Funny thing is that during this time, my average internet speeds were 12Mbps.
Thanks to TeamTV, I still felt connected to my team. There were times when the connection dropped, but my presence was still felt, and I got more attention from passersby in the San Francisco office who were confused by the objects flying by me in my passenger window.
In conclusion, the commute and congestion issue isn’t going away anytime soon. At this point, I am convinced that autonomous vehicles will play a significant role in the solution to this problem. Surprisingly, it seems the biggest roadblock to the autonomous vehicle solution (or even smart-cars in general) is not IoT hurdles or complex machine learning, but rather the abominable network experience. I doubt we can successfully build the future of mobility upon the backbone of this archaic network infrastructure. That’s a good problem to have, though…I happen to work for a company that knows a thing or two about network solutions. 😉
PS. The cheesesteak was outstanding!
