Thousands are steering one virtual car (slowly) across America in this chaotic Google Maps experiment
What happens when a thousand people try to steer one car? You get Internet Roadtrip, a virtual joyride slowly creeping across America on Google Street View, powered entirely by collective chaos.
Every nine seconds, the site tallies votes from all online participants to decide which direction to turn, whether to honk the horn, and what radio station to play. Then, the car inches forward a few more feet. A red line on the map marks its meandering path, which so far has stretched from Boston to the coast of Maine. At the time of writing, they're heading to Sears Island, Maine.
At the bottom of the screen, a digital steering wheel swings left or right as the backseat drivers fight over turns.
Twitch plays roadtrip: A crowdsourced joyride through Google Street View
Neal Agarwal, the developer behind the project, told 404 Media that the idea had been on his mind for a while. "I’ve had the idea of ‘Twitch plays self-driving car’ for a long time, but that’s probably not street legal, so this is the next best thing."
He cited Twitch Plays Pokémon and Reddit’s /r/Place as inspirations. "I think communal experiences on the internet are so fun, especially when there’s some shared goal," Agarwal added.
Although the car is fictional, the Street View imagery is very real. Users get to experience small-town America together, like arguing over detours to towns with funny names or "bothering" pedestrians. Someone even convinced the group to pass through Woonsocket, Rhode Island, purely for the funny name.
Radio stations and random detours
As the car creeps forward at roughly 3 miles per hour, the soundtrack constantly changes. The radio pulls from actual streams local to the car’s location. One morning, users bailed on Deana Carter’s "Strawberry Wine" and voted to switch to a Maine college station playing David Bowie instead.
Chatter from the official Discord server fuels the experience. A side panel on the website streams conversations in real time, making it feel like everyone is stuffed into the same digital backseat. "We got to see water!!" one person said, while others complained about not being let onto Sears Island.
"The internet road trip car has a radio that gets like 5 local stations, wrote yekokataa on Tumblr. "Everyone in the car has gotten really into WBOR, a college station in maine. (we're still in maine. we're going to be in maine for days) they've decided to take the car to the station but in order to make sure they arrive during the day while the djs are on air, they're killing time by driving around backroads on islands."
Occasionally, the car even honks when the chat agrees to spam the "honk" command enough times. As the backseat drivers left Sears Island behind, they agreed to honk goodbye.
The internet roadtrip is determined to get to Canada
Despite its glacial pace, the community behind Internet Roadtrip is determined. They're plotting ways to cross the Canadian border and dreaming of hitting all 50 states. One user even created a 30-hour timelapse of the car’s progress so far.
A major moment came when a participant called into WMUAx 91.1 FM in Massachusetts while the car passed through the area. "This is so cool," one of the DJs said on air.
At this rate, reaching Canada may take a week, or even longer. But with thousands of digital passengers sharing the ride, no one seems to mind the detours.
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