This morning I cruised through the streets of a scenic Maine town while classic country music played on the radio. Several of the 900 people in the backseat of the car on the day I hopped in counted pride flags as we passed them. Every time we came across an intersection, several of them would reach up and try to jerk the wheel onto a new road.
This is the Internet Roadtrip, a pleasant cruising journey across America one Google Street View screenshot at a time. Anyone on the website is also on the road trip and can vote on where the car will go, what radio station to listen to, and whether or not to honk the horn. The site counts votes at every new section of Street View and makes a decision about where to take the car every nine seconds. Then, it moves a few feet forward.
It’s a road trip made entirely of backseat drivers, all jockeying to spin the wheel. A steering wheel at the bottom of the screen shifts from left to right as the votes come in, indicating the direction the car will take. A window in the upper right tallies the votes as they come in. Another window tells you the exact address of the car. The radio stations are pulled from internet streams near the car’s location.