Viewing one Texas adventurer’s recent TikTok, it’s tempting to slam your fist on the table and shout, “The future is here,” or some other equally over-the-top proclamation.
Dan “Axe” DeKruif’s (@nolimitsnoregrets), who has a YouTube channel under the same name as his TikTok, is basically an everyman Renaissance man. DeKruif writes. He builds custom bikes and cars. He doles out advice and shares his adventures across his multiple channels. And he does all this from the perspective of a survivor—of multiple open heart surgeries.
He’s living his best life, all the time. And so it seems that’s where this short, seemingly off-brand video comes into play. It’s a reminder that there is joy and adventure in the small things, too—like encountering innovation in the “wild.”
Going Up, Sir
Back in the day (like in 1857), elevators were operated by discreet dudes in gold-button-embellished suits who’d make small talk as they took you to your destination. People needed them because those early elevators weren’t automated. So those operators helped make the ride more than friendly; they made it safe.
DeKruif’s video is a first-person view. The camera zooms in close on a silver paneled keyboard. No up button, no down button, just a gleaming keypad.
“This is a weird-a– hotel,” he says at the start of his video. His video has been viewed over 4,000 times. “So you push in the floor number you want…” he starts.
There’s a long pause while he pans up and down the deserted hotel hallway.
He’s hashtagged this video #vacation, #travel, and #hoteloddities because in order to call the elevator, the hotel guest punches in the desired floor number, the letter “A” and a directional arrow pops up, and then the guest waits.
When elevator “A” arrives, he continues narrating. “And then when you get inside, there’s no numbers on the walls,” he says.
“It’s just different getting used to it,” he says.
What’s Happening With This Elevator?
Commenters point out that it’s an efficiency upgrade. “They call it a ‘destination dispatch system,” one viewer explained. “In really busy buildings it helps because the computer can make decisions about which elevator goes where to increase efficiency.”
OK, that kind of makes sense, but now everyone wants to know how exactly it works.
“How does it work if there are other people wanting to go to dif floors? They assign you a letter so you know which one is yours?” one questioned.
Another user came through with the answer: “There’s multiple elevators.”
How Destination Dispatch Works
The first thing you should know is that there’s a branch of math that focuses exclusively on how people wait in lines. It’s called “the queuing theory.” Researchers say that “annually, the combined total time that Americans waste waiting for an elevator is 59 years.”
Destination dispatch just got a lot more interesting, right?
Here’s what it does: Instead of functioning like a typical elevator—multiple people pile in, and the man headed to the 17th floor has to stop at seven other floors on the way up—destination dispatch groups riders together.
How’s this accomplished?
After the rider punches in their floor number, they’re assigned an elevator. When it arrives, they’ve been grouped together with other passengers headed to nearby floors so that each ride is as efficient as it can be.
Now maybe there’s a future where we wait collectively less than half a century for the elevator to arrive.
BroBible reached out to DeKruif via TikTok direct message and through his website. We’ll update this if he updates us.