 |
|
|
|||||
The Interborough Express linethe long-awaited light-rail link between Brooklyn and Queens in New York Cityhasnt broken ground yet. But on my computer screen, one part of the route is already operational. A new simulation game called Subway Builder lets you design, build, and operate subway systems in 26 U.S. cities, from New York to Boston to San Francisco. The game uses real-life U.S. Census Bureau and employment data to map where residents and workers live, allowing you to simulate realistic passenger flows. Players must also contend with real-world constraints like tunnels, viaducts, existing foundations, and road layouts. [Image: courtesy Colin Miller] The goal is to design a subway network that gets the most people to their destinations as quickly as possible. But theres a deeper ambition: to spark more transit-minded thinking in a country that historically has underinvested in it. I would secretly hope that maybe someone in power sees this and says Maybe we can build something like this, says Colin Miller, a software engineer and creator of the game. [Image: courtesy Colin Miller] Building a hyperrealistic transit game Subway Builder launched on October 9 to much fanfare in the transit community. I’ve been playing Subway Builder for *checks notes* all night,” one user posted. I legitimately think this game is going to start a transit revolution in America, wrote another. Over the years, many developers have tried to gamify transit design with offerings like MetroConnect, Brand New Subway, and Mini Metro. But few have attempted to make their simulations realistic enough to replicate real transit-planning challenges at the scale of cities like New York or Seattle. To create Subway Builder, Miller drew on datasets from the U.S. Department of Education, the Federal Aviation Administration, and OpenStreetMap, among others. You can analyze demand statistics on a map of your chosen city; then, once you build a route, explore ridership station by station. One of the most satisfying features for me remains the constellation of red dots that represent riders commuting toward newly built stations and journeying across a network I just built. [Image: courtesy Colin Miller] The cost of building public transit in the U.S. Subway Builder bills itself as hyperrealistic, but there are two key exceptions: politics and budgeting. Miller says he did not take into account the political will in any given U.S. city, nor did he calibrate the games budget to U.S. infrastructure costs. Instead, he used Spanish construction costs, which are among the lowest in the world. (Madrid, for example, tripled its metro network in just 12 years.) If I had it set to realistic American construction prices, it would have made the game unplayable because youd run out of money, he concedes. Players can choose to play in sandbox mode, which comes with no budgetary constraints. Its the games normal mode that reveals a painful fact long criticized by expertsnamely that building transit in the U.S. is mind-bogglingly expensive. On average, domestic rail transit projects cost roughly twice as much per mile in the U.S. as they do in Europe or Canada, and as much as five times more in New York City. The relatively recent Second Avenue Subway expansion, for example, cost about $2.5 billion per mile. For reference, the Los Angeles Purple Line extension cost $800 million per mile, while Madrids extension was $320 million per mile. When I played the game, I quickly learned that even $3 billion would get me only three lines and about 20 stations in Brooklyn. I also learned that building a subway route is just the beginning of a long road plagued by never-ending signal failures, broken-down trains, and overall operational costs. And considering that every dollar collected from fares helps fund new routes and buy new trains, I gained a bit more sympathy for the MTAs recent war on fare evasion. [Image: courtesy Colin Miller] A tool for publication imagination Much ink has already been spilled on the state of mass transit in the United States. Transit advocates such as Yonah Freemark have frequently lamented declining ridership and funding shortfalls in American cities. Others, like Brent Toderian, have emphasized the role of transit in shaping equitable, walkable urban environments. While public transit has recently blossomed in many U.S. cities, the system remains plagued by some of the worlds highest construction costs, red tape, political fragmentation, and a misguided adulation for the freedom that cars provide for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. Hayden Clarkin, a transport engineer and planner who recently published a Hitchhikers Guide to Building a Lot of Subways, argues the U.S. has the ability to build a world-class transit system but lacks the will. Imagine what we could achieve if we built up our institutional capacity and if leaders spent as much political capital on transit as they do on expanding highways, he told me via email. The systems other G7 nations have enjoyed for decades are not beyond our reachthey are a choice we can and must make. For Clarkin, games like Subway Builder arent just entertainment. He believes they could actually have real-world impact. This is a tool for public imagination, he says. Im genuinely excited for the day someone takes their in-game map to a city council meeting and says, Look at what we can achieve!
Category:
E-Commerce
To announce its entrance into 5G home internet service, Mint Mobile found the real-life version of a new AI-generated actress, even if only in (nick)name. Tilly Norwood is the name of a so-called AI actress launched by AI talent studio Xicoia. It also happens to be the name of a woman who stars alongside Ryan Reynolds in Mint Mobile’s new ad for its home internet service, which its branding “Minternet.” “It’s hard to believe that Mint is launching 5G home internet. It’s also hard to believe that a real version of an AI actress is out there,” a Maximum Effort representative tells Fast Company. “And thanks to the incredible and somewhat disturbing stalking detective abilities of our team, we found her. Just outside of Dallas, Texas, just one day before filming the commercial. Luckily she responded to our random DMs and was happy to assure the world that both she and the internet are very real.” The fake Norwood has inspired backlash and a Wikipedia page, and the labor union SAG-AFTRA refused to say in a statement that the AI character is an actual actor, instead stating its “a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performerswithout permission or compensation.” As it happens, the real NorwoodNatalie “Tilly” Norwoodis a real Mint Mobile customer. In the commercial, Reynolds, a former Mint Mobile co-owner who still makes ads for the wireless service provider through Maximum Effort, a production company he cofounded, asks if Norwood is real and “not an AI-generated combination of actors.” “I’m a combination of my parents,” the real Norwood says. Mint Mobile’s parent company was acquired by T-Mobile in 2023 in a deal worth up to $1.35 billion, and its 5G home internet service shows the brand is broadening its ambitions beyond mobile. The brand says its home internet service will use T-Mobile’s 5G network, and Mint Mobile is offering it for as low as $30 a month for customers with a Mint Mobile phone plan who prepay for three months. In an advertising landscape that could increasingly see more AI-generated ads, sticking to real people is a smart strategy. A 2024 YouGov poll of respondents from 17 markets around the world found 51% were uncomfortable with a brand creating a virtual ambassador (34% were comfortable with it; 15% didn’t know how they felt about it). In other words, using a fake Tilly Norwood in your ad could turn away half your audience. Meanwhile, the real living, breathing Tilly Norwood appears to be anything but polarizing.
Category:
E-Commerce
The J.M. Smucker Co. says it doesn’t have a problem with other companies selling their own prepackaged, crustless sandwiches like its own popular Smuckers Uncrustables. They just have to get their own design. Uncrustables is on its way to becoming a $1 billion brand, so of course there will be knockoffs, but according to Smucker, a recent Trader Joe’s version of Crustless Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jam Sandwiches is a bit too blatant. The company is using the design of the Trader Joe’s product and packaging to prove its point in a new lawsuit. Smucker accused the grocery store chain of “an obvious attempt to trade off of the fame and recognition” of Uncrustable’s protected design marks in a suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The round shape and crimped edges of Trader Joe’s crustless sandwiches, which it released in late summer, look too similar to Uncrustables, Smucker says. [Photos: Smucker’s, Trader Joe’s] “Smucker does not take issue with others in the marketplace selling prepackaged, frozen, thaw-and-eat crustless sandwiches,” attorneys for the Orrville, Ohio-based food and beverage manufacturer wrote in the suit. “But it cannot allow others to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales.” Smucker, which reported annual net sales of $8.7 billion in the most recent quarter, says it has invested nearly $1 billion over 20 years to grow its brand of crustless sandwiches into the No. 1 frozen handheld brand in its category. It’s paid off even as Smucker’s snack brands like Hostess Twinkies and Ding Dongs, which have recently rebranded, struggled in a shifting snack food landscape. CFO Tucker Marshall said on Smucker’s August earnings call that Uncrustables is a “growth brand” for the company, along with the pet food brands Meow Mix and Milk-Bone. Marshall said that “people who are consuming Uncrustables for the most part are athletes, families with kids,” and that the brand performs strongly at universities and convenience stores. “We really haven’t seen any impact at all from the GLP-1,” Marshall added, referring to weight-loss medications that are driving a trend toward healthier, high-protein snacks. The importance of Smuckers Uncrustables in the companys portfolio helps underline the urgency of the lawsuit. In the suit, Smucker argues its trademarks for images like a “pie-like shape with distinct peripheral undulated crimping” as well as “a round crustless sandwich with a bite taken out showing filling on the inside” are being duped by Trader Joe’s without authorization. The suit extends to packaging concerns, as Smucker believes even the blue used for Trader Joe’s box of crustless PB&J sandwiches is strikingly similar to the blue used in the Uncrustables logo. Smucker is seeking damages and demanding that Trader Joe’s destroy all the products, packaging, and promotional materials that use the current designs. Trader Joe’s did not respond to a request for comment. There are other crustless sandwich brands that don’t use the Uncrustables-style circular shape and crimped design, like the square-shaped Jams and Walmart’s Great Value No Crust Sandwich. Chubby Snacks originally launched with circular sandwiches before getting hit with a cease-and-desist from Smucker. It pivoted in 2021 to a cloud-shaped sandwich. Smucker’s suit follows a May lawsuit filed by Mondelez International against Aldi accusing the grocery store chain of duping the packaging of popular snack brands like Oreo and Nutter Butter. Aldi unveiled redesigned private-label packaging in September amid a wider industry trend toward upgrading generic branding that has spanned from Amazon to Walmart. As lawsuits like those from Smucker and Mondelez show, with a rise in private-label competition, the big industry players are ready to protect their own branding, and with teeth if necessary.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||