Show HN: Elevators(john.fun)
1651 points by Jrh0203 46 days ago | 408 comments
tl;dr: Elevator scheduling has evolved from the simple SCAN/LOOK algorithms to Otis' RSR, which scores cars based on ETA, load, direction-matching, and anti-bunching, re-optimizing every 5 seconds. Benchmarks show RSR beats LOOK in most cases, but LOOK wins at high traffic or in small buildings. Counterintuitively, Destination Dispatch kiosks generally produce worse wait times than traditional up/down buttons because locking passengers to a specific car sacrifices the flexibility of continuous re-optimization.
HN Discussion:
  • Personal nostalgia and connection between elevator algorithms and disk scheduling
  • Destination Dispatch results may be skewed by unrealistic random traffic patterns
  • Real-world observations of elevator saturation confirm algorithm limitations discussed in the article
  • ~Human factors like button-pressing behavior and perceived wait time matter more than algorithms
  • Sharing related games/projects inspired by elevator scheduling problems