Full marks to the production team both for the routing, and for the costumes. ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscottplus - with a 30-day money-back guarantee! ■ And thanks to Clipper Cab www.clipper.cab/ for providing the electric-converted TX4, which was one of their two prototypes!
I work as a Google engineer in London. I'm not sure if Tom would have been aware of the irony that when his GPS was stuck on re-routing he was literally outside the window of the Google engineering office in London.
Tom Scott’s barely contained adrenaline fueled “It’s not a race. It’s not a race” smash cut to Taxi Tom’s “Drive drive drive your car” had me absolutely rolling
One of the coolest ever Tom Scott Plus vids yet! I've driven down Knightsbridge a sum total of once, after whatever time of day the congestion charge stops, and I never want to do that ever again! Hats off to both of you for this and I honestly don't know how the cabbies do it without losing the will to live, never mind keeping the cool calm collected persona that typifies the London cabbie! You are amazing!
Legend has it, the founder of a Dutch company had a lucid dream in 1990 of two drivers named Tom, driving around London. In that dream real-time computer-generated directions were equivalent to the competence of a well-trained cab driver. That company was TomTom.
It was really interesting to see how cautious Tom (the taxi driver) was when the customer was leaving the cab, constantly checking his mirrors and blind spots for hazards while they reach the curb. Awesome stuff!
22:16 That cut killed me. "I don't know how Tom does it for hours and hours!" "Drive, drive, drive your car, gently down the road! Merrily, merrily, merrily, obey the highway code."
"Tom VS Tom" could easily be an entire show. This absolutely felt like it, more so than just a one off thing. The difference in attitudes between the two was perfect.
Today I learned that it takes more training to get your London taxi drivers license than it takes to become a police officer in the United States...Fantastic video, terrifying realization though.
While Team GPS lost, I think this is actually a testament to how good GPS is. A trained professional driver was barely able to win against it. I see so many people ignore GPS directions because they think they know better. But the GPS has so much data.
Truthfully, the Taxi driver Tom was also handicapped. He couldn't use his phone for traffic updates, which he does use while driving his taxi. He would have won by a larger margin if he could have done that.
Ah, you innocent child, untainted by car ownership. This is literally everyone the moment they turn the ignition on, and absolutely not unique to cab drivers. 😉
@@safcjcp I'm always reminded of that old Goofy cartoon from the 50's or thereabouts, titled "Motor Mania". As a kid I didn't understand it, but as an adult? Oh, yes... So accurate. 😂
Tom #1: "It's not a race, it's not a race ... I wonder how Tom does this every day" Tom #2: "Drive, drive, drive your cab gently down the road ... Merrily, merrily, merrily ... obey the highway code" Best cut of this video, no contest xD
I mean you have to give Tom credit here, he was using an iPhone to navigate and still wasn't weeks off. It would literally be better to use a blind person who has never visited London to get it right than to use an iPhone.
London cabbie drivers are amazing. The training they go through is extraordinarily rigorous. They train by riding around on bicycles and a map secured on the handle bars. Literally they know London like the back of their hands. They have to memorize all the roads, routes, places. If you want to know what's interesting to see, best night clubs, shopping... ask a cabbie. Can say for certain in this video, the cabbie was calm and collected. No stress.
A big part of why Tom the Taxi Driver "won" is the extra time it takes for Tom to research where Einstein lived, etc. A cabbie knows even when the passenger doesn't quite know where they need to go.
Maybe an extra 10 seconds per search. 'Jimi Hendrix house London' or 'Einstein house London' gives you the address straight away. A taxi driver might need that long just to remember.
Tom Scott probably would've won if there was a major backup on one of the roads, since he had access to outside information, while the taxi driver didn't. The race wasn't a surefire guarantee any way.
As someone who previously had two guys named Tom as roommates, I understand the confusion, production team. Congratulations on Tom on winning this one. Tom, hope you do better next time.
I took a London cab where the driver refused to take payment because he was disappointed he missed a turn he wanted to take. It added 30 seconds to our trip. I tried very hard to pay him and he literally threw my money out of the cab at me and drove off. World class
One thing I appreciate about Tom Scott is that he knows enough about VPNs that he doesn't just read off a sheet filled with lies like other RUclipsrs do when they are sponsored by VPNs
Don't know why, but I was rooting for the cab driver from the very start. He seems to love his job and spend a decent amount of time getting good at it. I would hate to see these kind of professionals be overtaken by technology.
Imagine all that years of effort spent just for taxi driving though. He could've been a doctor who could save lives for example. It's alright for exotic skills. But for day-to-day life it's better for humanity to spend time on more meaningful things and let machines do the works.
many years ago in the late 90s or early 00s, on the BBC program "So You Think You're A Good Driver?" they did basically exactly this as a piece - except it was Taxi Driver verses a driver and navigator using just the London A to Z. The navigator in the "map car" was my dad, who at the time was president of the British Cartographic Association. He did not and had never lived in London, yet the map car beat the taxi driver handily. Both cars actually did the same route for that show, and the map car had the lead for most of it. They even managed it quicker than the camera car on one leg.
I was a delivery driver around London about 30yrs ago and used an A to Z to navigate. I had it on the seat beside me and used a Bulldog clip to mark the next page en route. I'd snatch a quick look when stopped in traffic and would memorise the last few side streets before my final stop.
@@thomasdalton1508 no extenuating circumstances as far as I can recall, just a normal day of London traffic. If you've got a dedicated navigator in the passenger seat, who is literally an expert at understanding maps, the driver just has to follow instructions and doesn't have to put as much thought into alternative routes when you hit traffic. This is well before the days of commercial sat navs, with your only traffic reports being the one on the radio once an hour.
@@EForrest88 Then it wasn’t really a fair comparison, because the “map car” had an expert map-reader while the cabbie had to carry all the same knowledge in their head without a support person.
I recently saw a documentary on people studying for The Knowledge and going through the exams. Amazing how motivated and skilled these cabbies are. Mad respect!
What i was amazed by is the fact that the passenger could say Jimmy Hendrix house and Tom the cap driver just knew where that was. You might know streets and such, but its really important to know landmarks and stuff on those streets, cause tourists coming into town wont know the streets, they will just say stuff like Jimmy Hendrix house. And so its incredible that Tom the cap driver can remember all these details and how to get there the fastest way.
2:32 "I'm required to follow all traffic laws. I'm required to follow the speed limit..." - I was totally ready for him to say "the actual taxi has to do none of that". Because, out of experience, they just don't.
This was a lot of fun! Love that the prompts weren’t just the locations directly but showcased the strength of the Knowledge, familiarity with place and culture. Some destinations just have only one main route and if you’re stuck in traffic then you’re stuck in traffic but it’s the convenience not having the driver fumble with the gps that makes the difference. Hope Tom does this again but versus the TfL network, or comparing different apps (though that one might be hard to sponsor).
That would be more something Taxi Tom could do. as he is allowed to go in the bus lanes. And then like the person before me said in combination if Geoff, As he is a expert on the TfL network both above and below ground.
And not just any city! One of the biggest cities in the world! Idk how London is laid out but older cities are typical confusing to navigate in my experience.
@@lmnop29 absolutely, it felt like in half the shots I was going that's a road?! looks more like an curving ally between buildings to my American brain. hats off to any of the London cabbies and those in similar cities to know how to navigate those roads reliably from memory.
This was so much fun!! I had no idea "The Knowledge" was a thing. (Kinda wish they did that in more places... I'm a reference librarian, and I've had cab drivers come in for directions at least three times when they couldn't find a pickup address in our neighborhood.) I've only been to London once in my life, but the cab drivers who helped us there were uniformly welcoming and pleasant and happy to point out the sights to a newcomer (and now I know why they knew them all!)
This was delightful. The costumes were incredible, Taxi Tom was so fun. I'm sure it wouldn't even be close if he had live traffic data as well as his knowledge.
I would have liked TomtheTaxiDriver to have been given Tom Scott's destinations to talk through the route for at the end. See if they are the same as GPS or what differences he might take and if he could call where Tom (Scott) encountered traffic and not if then told the way he actually went.
I love how the cations switched to a serif font for the posh english. Noone I watch has captions as good as Tom Scott's Channels. Big props to @caption_plus!
Unfortunately I'm a relatively newer viewer. Would anyone be willing to hunt down the link as a general RUclips search doesn't seem to pop up with what you've mentioned
Can we take a moment to appreciate that at 8:54 the captions switched from a sans serif to a serif font to signify the posh voice? That and the colored captions... bravo. Whoever does captions here needs a raise and some mystery biscuits
Great to see Tom with Tom, I've been watching Tom for a few years now but only discovered Tom roughly 18 months ago. I'm glad this video now exists with them both.
I've been following Tom's channel for a few years now and I absolutely love to see a competition between him and Tom. Afterall, Tom is so good at what he does, I hope Tom will do better next time.
That sort of knowledge tests used to be standard practice for taxi drivers, but London’s definitely has a reputation for being a lot harder than average.
I'm not someone who generally needs subtitles, but I want to shoutout the amazing work that the subtitle team that works on these videos does. Best subtitles in youtube. The minor touches and attention to detail bring these from good to great.
As a london Cabbie I had passengers ask why I had sat nav? It’s a tool to help like having an A-Z in the cab. my brain usually kicked in faster than the sat nav to get the general direction . And if it’s two in the morning and your passenger is tipsy and want to head far out of london to Essex for example the sat nav is going to be a life saver so he can get forty winks and I can drive in peace with the knowledge that the navi is heading in the right direction,
Car spotting time! * 6:27 Bentley Continental GT 8:20 Maybach sedan 10:35 Rolls-Royce Cullinan 13:18 bike guy 16:25 Rolls-Royce Phantom probably some I've missed earlier on from being distracted
Awesome to see you getting Tom on - I've been subbed to him for a good while now and his videos are fantastic. The more people who see him and his content the better! He's a tip-top lad.
Always find it funny when two channels I watch (that I think are obscure in themselves) do a collaboration! Great to see taxi driver tom getting the exposure he deserves
I delivered pizza for years, and everytime I transferred to a new area, I used GPS to learn the area. After a couple months, I'd slowly ween myself off GPS. My delivery times consistently got significantly faster when I was no longer using GPS.
@@jama211 Google Maps and similar have gotten WAY smarter just in the last few years. For instance, knowing when there are stop signs and lights on your route, or even just the suggestion of alternate routes in case you see something ahead that the GPS doesn't know about yet, like a fresh crash.
It would have been interesting to see the taxi fare if they'd both been started at the same time too. Would GPS or The Knowledge be better value for money?
Where I live in some cases taking longer costs less and taking less costs more (km fare vs time fare), the difference in this case would be a few cents at the sacrifice of a few seconds in an unpredictable manner
I am fairly sure at this point that Tom is basing these collaborations on my RUclips subscriptions. If GeoWizard appears in the next Tom Scott Plus then he definitely is...
18:14 was a very crafty cut to keep things moving. Lots of those, but this really showed me how much nipping and tucking your editors do. Kudos to the team.
This episode is really a gem not only because of the competition aspect, but for a non native speaker it's full of idioms and phrases which help to improve understanding and speaking fluent English. I enjoyed the conversation (as well as the lovely girls 🥰). Well done! 👍
These collabs make you realise how small RUclips communities can be. 90% of the collabs are with people I already subscribe to, which makes sense. Great video.
You're right, Tom, about it being tiring driving in central London. I used to drive for a god awful firm picking up student's & nurse's tea chests of tat to be shipped back to Australia, S. Africa ect. by sea whilst they flew. Between 20 & 30 pick ups inside the M25 &I had a 30 minute window to get to them and this meant that they always had a flight to catch. So any hold-up, accident, traffic, road works etc. could stuff your day up so very easily. I'd be getting calls from my boss saying "Where the hell are you?" and also from the customer yelling "I've got a bloody plane to catch!". The pressure was just too much! My route was put together the night before in a mythical London with no traffic or delays. Also, this was just before sat-nav was commonplace & I had the Master Atlas of Greater London on my lap all day! I just hit a brick wall after a while. White van manning can be a thankless task. No tachograph either in 3.5 tonners so 16 hour days weren't uncommon. Edit: There's another collaboration video to be had with Taxi Tom. London cabbie's brains change as they learn "The Knowledge". Their hippocampus in their brains grows! It's the area of the brain that controls navigation & spatial awareness & it'd be interesting to see what the current research is related to the plasticity of our brains when confronted with such herculean learning tasks!
The Knowledge absolutely fascinates me. I’m a big maps and directions guy really geared toward the spatial stuff and this seems like the Holy Grail to me. It inspired me so much that I began to do the same thing in Philadelphia on my bike, learning every tiny little street and landmark as well as I could. Philly is vastly smaller, less dense, and less labyrinthine than London, but still presents what seems like an impossible task. Extreme respect for the achievement of these cabbies.
This was very fun and chill, even thought Tom Scott was so "stressed" about this whole is not competition situation. The producers were great, editing was on point and Taxi Tom was lovely.
Back in the day, I used to have a TomTom GPS. I used to call the male English voice I used (I'm an ex-pat Brit living in the US) and then, by extension, the GPS unit, itself, "Tom". Tom was stolen out of my car. I would like to dedicate my watching of this video to Tom(Tom)'s memory.
I forgot about Tomtoms. This is the one time I would actually want Tom to have had product placement. A race between 2 Toms with one using GPS...This has to happen again. possible title; Are 3 Toms better than 1 (at navigating London)? Of course, a taxi driver called Noel Edge would complete the series. 'Noel edge with the knowledge vs Tom with a Tomtom' or an enthusiastic fan of London taxi drivers called Noel Edge 'Noel Edge with knowledge of the knowledge vs Tom with a Tomtom'. :)
As someone who drives around London a lot as a technician, I was fascinated by this. I probably have roughly similar knowledge to Tom Scott. I nearly always use satnav/GPS, even if I know the way, for the BEST route and so that I can concentrate on being safe and not violating bus lanes etc, rather than worrying about the route. That said, I always look up my destination and try to pinpoint the precise location rather than entering the postcode and hoping for the best as many people do. I have recently changed vehicles and have been introduced to the joys of Android Auto. Unless there's some big ambiguity with what is entered, it will just calculate the route and it won't show the destination as the Google Maps app will do on the phone screen. I realise that this is because even if you're safe and parked, it's designed for use on the move and so does not burden the driver with surplus information while operating the vehicle. I have not yet worked out if you can look up and plan the route on the phone app before moving off and then transfer to the car display. If anyone knows if that's even possible, please let me know.
It is! Just look up the route/edit it by searching it on regular ol' Google Chrome or other browser, then when you hit the button to actually start navigating, that's when it sends the info to the Android Auto screen. (You can also do this to add a stop when it won't let you use the search bar while moving even at 0.01mph!) That said, I wouldn't recommend taking the time to do so- the technology has advanced to the point that you can zoom in on the Android Auto screen and see individual buildings (with street numbers, if known) and side streets all labelled. It's far easier and faster to do the fine adjustments on the fly when you're at the stop light before the last turn or some such.
I used to work on multiple building sites round London and I got really good eventually with lots of practice. I was once sent from Mayfair to Chigwell. Stopped in Essex when I thought I was close, I was less than a mile from the address, on a motorbike back in 2000 before smartphones, I had an A to Z in my jacket. Great test, today I have Maps on most of the time and sometimes spot the false fastest route. Check arrival time before diving off route then check arrival time again, its quite often sooner
FYI, Tom S did have a disadvantage using google maps. They changed the algorithm a while back so it no longer defaults to the fastest route but instead takes into account emissions & total distance. For pure fastest route, need to use Waze instead
@@kesakko90 Yes, because Tom was unable to use bus lanes and the point of the video was to pit human knowledge against technology. Both of those restrictions on taxi tom were there because of the type of challenge. Lets not forget tom was required to follow the GPS even when he knew another route was faster.
As much as I like Tom Scott, I was really hoping for Tom the taxicab driver to win this! I've always wondered if human route knowledge can beat the algorithms and it is good to see a human prevail.
That shows the difference between them here well. They might arrive at about the same time here, but Taxi Tom is sooo much more relaxed. You don't just have to be good, you have to be able to do a job for a whole day. And again the next day, etc, etc.
Its not just about having a static map in your head of all the streets. Its also important to know the current status of the streets - such as live traffic and road works, which is constantly changing. Cabbies try to mitigate this via sharing info on the radio, but in reality its no substitute for technology.
![BRASIL vs. URUGUAY [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-hWBAuxF1eY/mqdefault.jpg)
Full marks to the production team both for the routing, and for the costumes. ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscottplus - with a 30-day money-back guarantee! ■ And thanks to Clipper Cab www.clipper.cab/ for providing the electric-converted TX4, which was one of their two prototypes!
Tom I love you
me too
Everyday when Tom Scott plus uploads always a banger
I will use your sponsor because I love you
i listened to andrew tate & started following my dreams.. now i do food reviews on my RUclips channel
Had so much fun with you and the team Tom, thank you 🙏🏻
And for those wondering, yes the result really was as close as the edit makes out 😱
you're welcome
What do you think the difference would've been if you'd been allowed to use bus lanes?
oh now the remach should be (other) tom getting like a 20 min head start with no gps
So if the app wouldn't have lost connection Tom Scott would've won?
is there a plan for annual RUclips Tom competition?
I work as a Google engineer in London. I'm not sure if Tom would have been aware of the irony that when his GPS was stuck on re-routing he was literally outside the window of the Google engineering office in London.
🤣
"Yo mate! Help with your GPS updates?"
We don't consume what we sell 😂
I'm the 666th like because what the hell lmao
@@arunsp767 🤭
I loved the difference in temperament between the two Toms. Taxi Tom was pleasant and relaxed, while Tom Scott was like: “We’re here. Get out.” 😂
"Go. Go. Why won't you go??"
@@maciej4250 ped: what a jack... you came from NY is it?
Tom Scott’s barely contained adrenaline fueled “It’s not a race. It’s not a race” smash cut to Taxi Tom’s “Drive drive drive your car” had me absolutely rolling
One of the coolest ever Tom Scott Plus vids yet!
I've driven down Knightsbridge a sum total of once, after whatever time of day the congestion charge stops, and I never want to do that ever again! Hats off to both of you for this and I honestly don't know how the cabbies do it without losing the will to live, never mind keeping the cool calm collected persona that typifies the London cabbie! You are amazing!
One of them works with possibly tipping customers
Legend has it, the founder of a Dutch company had a lucid dream in 1990 of two drivers named Tom, driving around London. In that dream real-time computer-generated directions were equivalent to the competence of a well-trained cab driver. That company was TomTom.
Fantastic.
Underrated
Brilliant
My family used to have a TomTom SatNav
Wow that’s such a coincidence
It was really interesting to see how cautious Tom (the taxi driver) was when the customer was leaving the cab, constantly checking his mirrors and blind spots for hazards while they reach the curb. Awesome stuff!
Tom Scott's mission to collab with every other Tom on RUclips is a go.
The Tom Tom Club
A Tom version of Are you Dave Gorman.
@@ericvicaria8648 In this video it could even be the "TomTom" Club, although only one was allowed to use his
Would have been funny if this video was sponsored by TomTom GPS devices :D
I want Tom to do a collab with the other Tom Scott who does videos on Battleship Texas
"I'm required to follow all traffic laws" and "I'm allowed to drive like I normally would in London" sound like 2 mutually exclusive goals.
I think that applies to most cities around the world.
@@dan8ball22 London is different, bro
Stockholm be like
for a starter, they drive on the wrong side of the road 🤣🤣🤣
@@Skelterbane69 gothenburg is worse
22:16 That cut killed me.
"I don't know how Tom does it for hours and hours!"
"Drive, drive, drive your car, gently down the road! Merrily, merrily, merrily, obey the highway code."
i wuld have laughed but you spoiled it for me
@@therealtriangle who clicks on a timestamp that's 2 mins from the end of a video...?
@@therealtriangle that's kind of on you... Moron
@@harrry4052who said he clicked on the timestamp?
@@harrry4052 i didnt i read the text
19:25 loved the instiinctive meter reach 😂
Kirsten and Han were absolute joys in the episode, really hope they are both in more content!!!
Agreed.
they were hilarious and made the video even more fun
I personally prefer females to not be in the content I watch.
They were very entertaining. I do hope they get featured more often.
It's poetic that a video involving one following a GPS has TomTom as the drivers.
omg that's brilliant
Holy
Oh, excellent! :D
You win the internet for today
They really missed out on a sponsorship deal.
‘He has a good understanding of London, through sheer osmosis’ 😂 I like this guy he’s so humble and funny
his brain just picked random words from dictionary 😂
@@eeeeeek english humor xD
The words actually make sense. This is not an uncommon expression. It's not random.
@@belgianvanbeethoven must have come from the tea
@@eeeeeek Who knows... 😆
"Tom VS Tom" could easily be an entire show. This absolutely felt like it, more so than just a one off thing. The difference in attitudes between the two was perfect.
Land’s end to Jon o groats sounds like it would be a good sequel…….
Tom Scott vs Tom Clark of the Yogscast in a Benga Showdown
He should have used a TomTom for a win
Tom vs Tom with TomTom.
as someone from somewhere where Tim Tam could be a person or a chocolate, they could cheat a bit and go with Tims too hahha
Today I learned that it takes more training to get your London taxi drivers license than it takes to become a police officer in the United States...Fantastic video, terrifying realization though.
A true Tom Tom race.
ill be very honnest, i cant say im suprised about that
And subsequently, very few people get shot by taxi drivers here.
@@jasperfk🤣🤣
It also takes more training to be a London cab driver than most other jobs.
While Team GPS lost, I think this is actually a testament to how good GPS is. A trained professional driver was barely able to win against it. I see so many people ignore GPS directions because they think they know better. But the GPS has so much data.
Truthfully, the Taxi driver Tom was also handicapped. He couldn't use his phone for traffic updates, which he does use while driving his taxi.
He would have won by a larger margin if he could have done that.
Well, don't ask me how many times the GPS had lost us along the way.
@@magnemmar4869 Possibly true, but would it have been enough that it is worth 3+ years of education and many more years of experience?
Imagine if the taxi driver uses gps too, both combined, he would be much faster
It really just shows how little difference there is between similar routes to the point of not mattering
I love how Tom inherits a cabbies disdain for other road users immediately upon getting into the cab.
Ah, you innocent child, untainted by car ownership. This is literally everyone the moment they turn the ignition on, and absolutely not unique to cab drivers. 😉
@@EvenTheDogAgrees i would never want to drive a car if I lived in such a big city, so much of a hassle. Public transport can be such a blessing
@@EvenTheDogAgrees other drivers are bad but go into London and the fumes must make them worse
@@Menon9767 I don't disagree. When I worked in Brussels, I was glad I could take the train rather than go by car. ;)
@@safcjcp I'm always reminded of that old Goofy cartoon from the 50's or thereabouts, titled "Motor Mania". As a kid I didn't understand it, but as an adult? Oh, yes... So accurate. 😂
Scott trying to convince himself that it isn’t a competition, test or race is so delightful to watch.
you had to say Scott or they would think you meant Tom
@@therealtriangle as opposed to Tom
Tom #1: "It's not a race, it's not a race ... I wonder how Tom does this every day"
Tom #2: "Drive, drive, drive your cab gently down the road ... Merrily, merrily, merrily ... obey the highway code"
Best cut of this video, no contest xD
22:15
Answer: he’s gone slightly insane😂
It's always a race, even when it's not 🤣🤣
I mean you have to give Tom credit here, he was using an iPhone to navigate and still wasn't weeks off. It would literally be better to use a blind person who has never visited London to get it right than to use an iPhone.
@@js0988 He was using Google Maps.
London cabbie drivers are amazing. The training they go through is extraordinarily rigorous. They train by riding around on bicycles and a map secured on the handle bars. Literally they know London like the back of their hands. They have to memorize all the roads, routes, places. If you want to know what's interesting to see, best night clubs, shopping... ask a cabbie.
Can say for certain in this video, the cabbie was calm and collected. No stress.
A big part of why Tom the Taxi Driver "won" is the extra time it takes for Tom to research where Einstein lived, etc. A cabbie knows even when the passenger doesn't quite know where they need to go.
🤓☝
@@Bogdan100pink lmao
Maybe an extra 10 seconds per search. 'Jimi Hendrix house London' or 'Einstein house London' gives you the address straight away. A taxi driver might need that long just to remember.
Tom Scott probably would've won if there was a major backup on one of the roads, since he had access to outside information, while the taxi driver didn't. The race wasn't a surefire guarantee any way.
@@jakobjas4212 Dunno about you, but searching that on my phone would take at least 60 seconds.
As someone who previously had two guys named Tom as roommates, I understand the confusion, production team. Congratulations on Tom on winning this one. Tom, hope you do better next time.
C’mon, spoilers
Been there, lived that. I once wrote a phone message: "Scott, Scott called. -Scott"
Try working with four Lucy's!
I like that you very well may not have finished the video before putting this here
But who's the best Tom?
I took a London cab where the driver refused to take payment because he was disappointed he missed a turn he wanted to take. It added 30 seconds to our trip. I tried very hard to pay him and he literally threw my money out of the cab at me and drove off. World class
pride mate... pride... the Knowledge is like their own pride
Seems way too hard to believe
I love when people make stuff up on the internet!
A London cabbie I took a trip with paid me his entire salary for the year because he parked slightly too far from the pavement. World class.
One of my taxi drivers paid off my mortgage because he forgot to put on his high beams. World class.
Love how tense Tom is, while Tom is driving so casually
I thought Tom was not that bad, but Tom was definitely going strong.
Ah yes, Tom is really being Tom today
Tom losing was a shame... I hoped Tom would lose.
Tom's performance was excellent but I wished that Tom would win
Tbf, Tom did absolutely amazing.
Almost comparable to tom
One thing I appreciate about Tom Scott is that he knows enough about VPNs that he doesn't just read off a sheet filled with lies like other RUclipsrs do when they are sponsored by VPNs
It would be interesting having a third Tom on a bike or using public transport, not having to deal with traffic jams
Sounds like a Top Gear episode.
@@Pearcewreck reminds me of the point-to-point London challenge of car v marathoner.
@@Pearcewreck I think it _was_ actually.
Top gear did that already, the car came in dead last.😂
Don't know why, but I was rooting for the cab driver from the very start. He seems to love his job and spend a decent amount of time getting good at it. I would hate to see these kind of professionals be overtaken by technology.
Tom would have lost if Tom wasn't allowed to use Bus Lanes, so all in all, might as well go for a walk instead...
Imagine all that years of effort spent just for taxi driving though. He could've been a doctor who could save lives for example. It's alright for exotic skills. But for day-to-day life it's better for humanity to spend time on more meaningful things and let machines do the works.
@@WilliamParkerer I suppose you never had to use a taxi then :/
@@CClarinet123 No one should drive.
@@WilliamParkerer Not everyone wants to be a doctor and scientist.
An unexpected crossover. Glad to see Tom (taxi Tom) get this deserved exposure.
Agreed!
Which taxi?
many years ago in the late 90s or early 00s, on the BBC program "So You Think You're A Good Driver?" they did basically exactly this as a piece - except it was Taxi Driver verses a driver and navigator using just the London A to Z. The navigator in the "map car" was my dad, who at the time was president of the British Cartographic Association. He did not and had never lived in London, yet the map car beat the taxi driver handily. Both cars actually did the same route for that show, and the map car had the lead for most of it. They even managed it quicker than the camera car on one leg.
Were there extenuating circumstances? Looking stuff up in an A to Z isn't quick, so I'm surprised they could beat a cabbie.
I was a delivery driver around London about 30yrs ago and used an A to Z to navigate. I had it on the seat beside me and used a Bulldog clip to mark the next page en route. I'd snatch a quick look when stopped in traffic and would memorise the last few side streets before my final stop.
@@gerry343 How long did it take you to figure out the route before you started?
@@thomasdalton1508 no extenuating circumstances as far as I can recall, just a normal day of London traffic. If you've got a dedicated navigator in the passenger seat, who is literally an expert at understanding maps, the driver just has to follow instructions and doesn't have to put as much thought into alternative routes when you hit traffic. This is well before the days of commercial sat navs, with your only traffic reports being the one on the radio once an hour.
@@EForrest88
Then it wasn’t really a fair comparison, because the “map car” had an expert map-reader while the cabbie had to carry all the same knowledge in their head without a support person.
I recently saw a documentary on people studying for The Knowledge and going through the exams. Amazing how motivated and skilled these cabbies are. Mad respect!
What i was amazed by is the fact that the passenger could say Jimmy Hendrix house and Tom the cap driver just knew where that was. You might know streets and such, but its really important to know landmarks and stuff on those streets, cause tourists coming into town wont know the streets, they will just say stuff like Jimmy Hendrix house. And so its incredible that Tom the cap driver can remember all these details and how to get there the fastest way.
Thats normal mate
@@jessy7093Unusual for some Americans sadly
2:32 "I'm required to follow all traffic laws. I'm required to follow the speed limit..." - I was totally ready for him to say "the actual taxi has to do none of that". Because, out of experience, they just don't.
A licensed London taxi is, naturally, exempt from all laws of Britain and of physics.
Next bit was "I have to drive like I would usually would." I expected the next line would be "but those two conflict."
@@Tara_Li Me too
Now check out London Bus Drivers.
Most speed limits in inner London are entirely aspirational.
This was a lot of fun! Love that the prompts weren’t just the locations directly but showcased the strength of the Knowledge, familiarity with place and culture. Some destinations just have only one main route and if you’re stuck in traffic then you’re stuck in traffic but it’s the convenience not having the driver fumble with the gps that makes the difference. Hope Tom does this again but versus the TfL network, or comparing different apps (though that one might be hard to sponsor).
this seem like a collab op with the one and only, Geoff Marshall
He could try again but he has a navigator using gps and Tom can take a different route if he thinks best.
That would be more something Taxi Tom could do. as he is allowed to go in the bus lanes. And then like the person before me said in combination if Geoff, As he is a expert on the TfL network both above and below ground.
@@chemicalfrankie1030 google maps doesn't go through small roads(at least not in Australia) so it is often slower than if you know the route.
@@chemicalfrankie1030 before departing at every stop, and when Tom Scott's gps didn't reroute after he couldn't do the U-turn the GPS suggested
I appreciate that your producers also get to enjoy their time infront of the camera more and more, they're wonderful!
For those too lazy to watch till the end: Tom wins.
This got me. Lmao
Battle of the Dans energy
The editing is unbelievably perfect! The cuts are seamless between the two of them; it's almost as if they're answering each other's questions.
And here I was feeling quite competent being able to find my way around the urban outskirts without a map. This guy memorized an ENTIRE DAMN CITY.
I know, right? I know my way around like… 3 towns, maybe 4? And this guy just SMASHES my fidelity of knowledge.
And not just any city! One of the biggest cities in the world! Idk how London is laid out but older cities are typical confusing to navigate in my experience.
@@lmnop29 absolutely, it felt like in half the shots I was going that's a road?! looks more like an curving ally between buildings to my American brain. hats off to any of the London cabbies and those in similar cities to know how to navigate those roads reliably from memory.
@@niteflite1287 The main form of transport was walking. Many old cities have roads that barely take a car. And some that are too narrow even for that!
The improvs were a real bonus for the video, it made everything much more entertaining.
Excited to see someone do a colab with Tom the taxi driver, watched a couple of his videos before, his knowledge and cabbie life is fascinating
The producers were so awesome with keeping the rides fun. Massive props to them both!
One of the things I like more about Tom's content is that he always show the passion that the protagonists of their videos have for their work
This was so much fun!!
I had no idea "The Knowledge" was a thing. (Kinda wish they did that in more places... I'm a reference librarian, and I've had cab drivers come in for directions at least three times when they couldn't find a pickup address in our neighborhood.)
I've only been to London once in my life, but the cab drivers who helped us there were uniformly welcoming and pleasant and happy to point out the sights to a newcomer (and now I know why they knew them all!)
Personally, I think the cab dirivers are some of our city's greatest people
it's very unique to London. Most other places don't expect the drivers to know much at all, maybe at most a few major touristy spots.
To state the obvious, the Knowledge was very valuable before GPS and smart phones.
In their defense, it's fair to assume that a librarian can know ANYTHING.
@@WyvernYT 😆 We don't know everything... but we DO know where to look it all up. ^_^
This was delightful. The costumes were incredible, Taxi Tom was so fun. I'm sure it wouldn't even be close if he had live traffic data as well as his knowledge.
I love how much fun the producers are having in this one
I especially liked the Ghost of Issac Newton happily saying "It's science!"
It's great to see the producers be part of the story.
I love how Tom Scott was like "This isn't a race. This isn't a race." While Taxi Tom is like "I AM GOING TO WIN."
I would have liked TomtheTaxiDriver to have been given Tom Scott's destinations to talk through the route for at the end. See if they are the same as GPS or what differences he might take and if he could call where Tom (Scott) encountered traffic and not if then told the way he actually went.
I love how the cations switched to a serif font for the posh english. Noone I watch has captions as good as Tom Scott's Channels. Big props to @caption_plus!
never expected tom to win, I had thought that tom surely would have won
Whereas I was completely unsurprised when Tom won.
Dunno… I was kinda betting on London to win.
@@jursamaj
London definitely won.
This has the old Tom Scott's videos vibes, it makes me remember that one video where Tom and Matt had to appear in as many TV news shots as possible
Unfortunately I'm a relatively newer viewer. Would anyone be willing to hunt down the link as a general RUclips search doesn't seem to pop up with what you've mentioned
@@CapuchinMonkey1 The video is titled "Breaking the News: Tom Scott and Matt Gray bonehead the budget"
Can we take a moment to appreciate that at 8:54 the captions switched from a sans serif to a serif font to signify the posh voice? That and the colored captions... bravo. Whoever does captions here needs a raise and some mystery biscuits
8:51 I like how the subtitles change to a serif font for the posh voice :D
Great to see Tom with Tom, I've been watching Tom for a few years now but only discovered Tom roughly 18 months ago. I'm glad this video now exists with them both.
I just found out about Tom a few months ago when Tom gave him a shoutout. I'm glad that Tom does a lot to expose viewers to other creators like Tom.
I've been following Tom's channel for a few years now and I absolutely love to see a competition between him and Tom. Afterall, Tom is so good at what he does, I hope Tom will do better next time.
Once again Tom Scott making me curious about a topic I had never once considered in my entire life.
London cabbies' knowledge is just crazy to me. So impressive. 🤯
That sort of knowledge tests used to be standard practice for taxi drivers, but London’s definitely has a reputation for being a lot harder than average.
@@ragnkja well ubers and other companies dont even have to bother because they claim to not be real taxis
I'm not someone who generally needs subtitles, but I want to shoutout the amazing work that the subtitle team that works on these videos does.
Best subtitles in youtube. The minor touches and attention to detail bring these from good to great.
Never seen colored subtitles on RUclips and
I cannot believe i just found out tom scott had long format videos now. I aways watch the other channel wishing it was like half an hour long
The chemistry between Kirsten and Taxi Tom is contagious ❤️
They became best friends in one taxi ride. It's like a buddy comedy.
Yikes
lmao they're just doing their job
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 like the opposite of that. Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx movie
I was thinking about it, they're going together very well
It would have been very interesting to see how much Tom the Taxi Driver's route was different from what Google would have suggested
Very impressed with Taxi Tom. And with the route planner for being so accurate in the planning stage.
22:21 Brilliant cut right there. That was fun
As a london Cabbie I had passengers ask why I had sat nav? It’s a tool to help
like having an A-Z in the cab. my brain usually kicked in faster than the sat nav to get the general direction . And if it’s two in the morning and your passenger is tipsy and want to head far out of london to Essex for example the sat nav is going to be a life saver so he can get forty winks and I can drive in peace with the knowledge that the navi is heading in the right direction,
Car spotting time!
* 6:27 Bentley Continental GT
8:20 Maybach sedan
10:35 Rolls-Royce Cullinan
13:18 bike guy
16:25 Rolls-Royce Phantom
probably some I've missed earlier on from being distracted
Good eye, I only noticed the last one and purely because it was right in the middle of the view and the door handles made it so obvious.
6:28 bently continental
15:37 Maserati ghibli*
Cyclist blowing a kiss to the cameras!
Who cares? They are just objects.
Ah yes the hiding oligarchs
I think not just did the taxi win, he was so relaxed whereas using the sat nav looked so stressful
Wondering if he was in the correct lane or not is the perfect demonstration of that
Thats because tom scott is a stressful person tho
Tom Scott getting a massage would stress him out
Most of the time those “rage moments” are exaggerated for content.
I like how this 'who's the best Tom' series is working out
I enjoy that the character wearing a tiara was simply labeled "rich" while the one in the hat was "royalty"
Awesome to see you getting Tom on - I've been subbed to him for a good while now and his videos are fantastic. The more people who see him and his content the better! He's a tip-top lad.
Always find it funny when two channels I watch (that I think are obscure in themselves) do a collaboration!
Great to see taxi driver tom getting the exposure he deserves
I delivered pizza for years, and everytime I transferred to a new area, I used GPS to learn the area. After a couple months, I'd slowly ween myself off GPS. My delivery times consistently got significantly faster when I was no longer using GPS.
super interesting! Do you think the time shaved off came from not having to interface with the GPS, or shortcuts/better routes?
@@tanishaarora3976 Combination of both really.
Those are old GPS's though I would imagine? The apps now are WAY smarter, especially with regards to things like traffic
@@jama211 I just used Google Maps.
@@jama211 Google Maps and similar have gotten WAY smarter just in the last few years. For instance, knowing when there are stop signs and lights on your route, or even just the suggestion of alternate routes in case you see something ahead that the GPS doesn't know about yet, like a fresh crash.
"The Knowledge" is one of the hardest exams to take, much respect to Tom for passing it.
This was fabulous! Hats off to both Toms and the production team! I loved the costumes and the accents. They were a wonderful touch!
It would have been interesting to see the taxi fare if they'd both been started at the same time too. Would GPS or The Knowledge be better value for money?
Where I live in some cases taking longer costs less and taking less costs more (km fare vs time fare), the difference in this case would be a few cents at the sacrifice of a few seconds in an unpredictable manner
I am fairly sure at this point that Tom is basing these collaborations on my RUclips subscriptions. If GeoWizard appears in the next Tom Scott Plus then he definitely is...
18:14 was a very crafty cut to keep things moving. Lots of those, but this really showed me how much nipping and tucking your editors do. Kudos to the team.
I absolutely adore the caption team. The posh captions being in Times New Roman completely caught me off guard
This episode is really a gem not only because of the competition aspect, but for a non native speaker it's full of idioms and phrases which help to improve understanding and speaking fluent English. I enjoyed the conversation (as well as the lovely girls 🥰). Well done! 👍
I want to see a part 2 of this:
Tom and Tom in a cab, vs Geoff Marshall trying to get to certain locations.
These collabs make you realise how small RUclips communities can be. 90% of the collabs are with people I already subscribe to, which makes sense. Great video.
You're right, Tom, about it being tiring driving in central London. I used to drive for a god awful firm picking up student's & nurse's tea chests of tat to be shipped back to Australia, S. Africa ect. by sea whilst they flew.
Between 20 & 30 pick ups inside the M25 &I had a 30 minute window to get to them and this meant that they always had a flight to catch. So any hold-up, accident, traffic, road works etc. could stuff your day up so very easily.
I'd be getting calls from my boss saying "Where the hell are you?" and also from the customer yelling "I've got a bloody plane to catch!".
The pressure was just too much! My route was put together the night before in a mythical London with no traffic or delays. Also, this was just before sat-nav was commonplace & I had the Master Atlas of Greater London on my lap all day!
I just hit a brick wall after a while. White van manning can be a thankless task. No tachograph either in 3.5 tonners so 16 hour days weren't uncommon.
Edit: There's another collaboration video to be had with Taxi Tom. London cabbie's brains change as they learn "The Knowledge". Their hippocampus in their brains grows! It's the area of the brain that controls navigation & spatial awareness & it'd be interesting to see what the current research is related to the plasticity of our brains when confronted with such herculean learning tasks!
The cyclist blowing a kiss to the camera was brilliant
?
nvm
13:17 timestamp of the chad in question for whoever needs it
I love seeing more of the Tom Scott team, they seem like such a good bunch.
The Knowledge absolutely fascinates me. I’m a big maps and directions guy really geared toward the spatial stuff and this seems like the Holy Grail to me. It inspired me so much that I began to do the same thing in Philadelphia on my bike, learning every tiny little street and landmark as well as I could. Philly is vastly smaller, less dense, and less labyrinthine than London, but still presents what seems like an impossible task. Extreme respect for the achievement of these cabbies.
This was very fun and chill, even thought Tom Scott was so "stressed" about this whole is not competition situation. The producers were great, editing was on point and Taxi Tom was lovely.
Back in the day, I used to have a TomTom GPS. I used to call the male English voice I used (I'm an ex-pat Brit living in the US) and then, by extension, the GPS unit, itself, "Tom". Tom was stolen out of my car. I would like to dedicate my watching of this video to Tom(Tom)'s memory.
I forgot about Tomtoms. This is the one time I would actually want Tom to have had product placement. A race between 2 Toms with one using GPS...This has to happen again.
possible title; Are 3 Toms better than 1 (at navigating London)?
Of course, a taxi driver called Noel Edge would complete the series. 'Noel edge with the knowledge vs Tom with a Tomtom' or an enthusiastic fan of London taxi drivers called Noel Edge 'Noel Edge with knowledge of the knowledge vs Tom with a Tomtom'. :)
As someone who drives around London a lot as a technician, I was fascinated by this. I probably have roughly similar knowledge to Tom Scott. I nearly always use satnav/GPS, even if I know the way, for the BEST route and so that I can concentrate on being safe and not violating bus lanes etc, rather than worrying about the route. That said, I always look up my destination and try to pinpoint the precise location rather than entering the postcode and hoping for the best as many people do.
I have recently changed vehicles and have been introduced to the joys of Android Auto. Unless there's some big ambiguity with what is entered, it will just calculate the route and it won't show the destination as the Google Maps app will do on the phone screen. I realise that this is because even if you're safe and parked, it's designed for use on the move and so does not burden the driver with surplus information while operating the vehicle. I have not yet worked out if you can look up and plan the route on the phone app before moving off and then transfer to the car display. If anyone knows if that's even possible, please let me know.
It is! Just look up the route/edit it by searching it on regular ol' Google Chrome or other browser, then when you hit the button to actually start navigating, that's when it sends the info to the Android Auto screen. (You can also do this to add a stop when it won't let you use the search bar while moving even at 0.01mph!) That said, I wouldn't recommend taking the time to do so- the technology has advanced to the point that you can zoom in on the Android Auto screen and see individual buildings (with street numbers, if known) and side streets all labelled. It's far easier and faster to do the fine adjustments on the fly when you're at the stop light before the last turn or some such.
I used to work on multiple building sites round London and I got really good eventually with lots of practice. I was once sent from Mayfair to Chigwell. Stopped in Essex when I thought I was close, I was less than a mile from the address, on a motorbike back in 2000 before smartphones, I had an A to Z in my jacket. Great test, today I have Maps on most of the time and sometimes spot the false fastest route. Check arrival time before diving off route then check arrival time again, its quite often sooner
I loved how Tom did that thing, but then Tom also did another thing. Also Tom had an idea, whilst Tom had a plethora of ways. Tom was brilliant.
I appreciate the "posh voice" subtitles at 8:55 being put in TImes New Roman.
FYI, Tom S did have a disadvantage using google maps. They changed the algorithm a while back so it no longer defaults to the fastest route but instead takes into account emissions & total distance. For pure fastest route, need to use Waze instead
It's possible to turn off the fuel-efficient routes option on the GMaps Android app at least, but I'd agree that Waze usually gives a faster route.
Taxi Tom had a disadvantage because he wasn't allowed to use the tools he normally does like bus lanes and a phone to check traffic/accidents...
Just so people know, you'll get in trouble for using waze in some European counties and /or some features will be unavailable
@@kesakko90 Yes, because Tom was unable to use bus lanes and the point of the video was to pit human knowledge against technology. Both of those restrictions on taxi tom were there because of the type of challenge. Lets not forget tom was required to follow the GPS even when he knew another route was faster.
@@sarahbrivio4159 Oh really? Interesting, why is that?
Serif fonts for the posh voice in the captions was GREAT.
As much as I like Tom Scott, I was really hoping for Tom the taxicab driver to win this! I've always wondered if human route knowledge can beat the algorithms and it is good to see a human prevail.
The different colors and fonts in the subtitles for each character add a lot to the video
Well done to Tom, but I really think Tom knocked it out of the park there.
Tom Scott constantly having to talk himself into not being too competitive is such a mood XD
Props for the different passenger personalities... :) They made my day!
Best from Switzerland: Mad
I loved how when Han was doing the posh character the subtitles switched to a Serif font. That's the kind of easter egg I can get behind 😅
That shows the difference between them here well. They might arrive at about the same time here, but Taxi Tom is sooo much more relaxed. You don't just have to be good, you have to be able to do a job for a whole day. And again the next day, etc, etc.
I love the change in font of the RUclips subtitles when the producer puts her "posh" voice one XD, I didn't know you could do that with subtitles
The collab we needed but never expected! I'm so excited to watch through all of this!
"Could be worse - the meter could be running!" Witty smalltalk on point, you just know this guy makes bank in tips.
Its not just about having a static map in your head of all the streets. Its also important to know the current status of the streets - such as live traffic and road works, which is constantly changing. Cabbies try to mitigate this via sharing info on the radio, but in reality its no substitute for technology.