Get in the car, loser, we're going on an Internet Roadtrip with a thousand backseat drivers

Friends, it is my sad duty to inform you that One Million Checkboxes creator Neal Agarwal is up to more of his crowdgaming mischief. He’s published another online squabbling sim called Internet Roadtrip. It’s a roaming Google Streetview cam in which viewers vote on the direction of travel every 10 seconds. The thinking behind Saltybet applied to the experience of driving your kids to Disney Land, in short. It is possibly a commentary on self-piloting vehicles, but mostly, it is a celebration of the raucous magic of chatboxes. You can also vote to honk the horn.

At the time of publication, the vehicle has travelled 573 miles and there are around 1000 drivers online. 1000 strangers, some of whom appear to be either pleasantly stoned or wildly over-caffeinated, screaming instructions at a phantom Tesla. Currently, we are coasting down Church Street in Gardiner, Maine, and there is a heated argument in chat about the politics of turning right or left of the church.

The leftists carry the debate, for once, and we sail down the highway past a crop of trees. #1 Eastern White Pine Fan takes a moment to grieve the plight of the majestic ash. “It’s so bittersweet,” they write. “i love them but they're almost all dead on the east coast now, since the emerald ash borer devastated all ash species native to north america.” Thank you, #1 Eastern White Pine Fan.

A contingent of viewers are obsessed with driving to Canada. “Can we get to Canada before GTA 6,” asks user Crab, thus doing the SEO-minded news writers in the viewership a real solid. The Canada faction are opposed by a posse of staunch Agarwal fanbois who are hellbent on making the vehicle circle Neal Street forever.

User Pingu throws a spanner in the works by abruptly demanding that we head to Mexico. It’s clear that quite a lot of the commenters are locals. “EVERYBODY STAY ON 9,” insists Pothos, Leader Of The Pathists. Oh we’re on Maine Avenue now, crossing a bridge. There is a Dunkin’ Donuts. Can we stop for doughnuts? Alas no, but we can honk if we love doughnuts. Which we do.

Find Internet Roadtrip here. It's free, but Agarwal is accepting donations by way of that clickable coffee cup. As is the way of anonymous communications platforms, the chat is probably going to become a trashfire at some stage. I sense that Agarwal has applied automatic filters for slurs and hate speech, but as we have found when moderating RPS comments, bigots can be creative. If you’re just here to settle back and enjoy the ambience of, right now, Cheney Road in Chelsea, Agarwal has considerately built in an FM radio. You have to vote to change the station, mind.