My company did some work with TfL when Oystercards were being rolled out. A very clever bloke at work was tasked with working out an algorithm that would retrospectively minimise a passenger's spend based on their journey history - so e.g. If they'd done 9 single journeys in a week it might decide they'd have been better off buying a weekly pass, and adjust their balance accordingly. You have monthly and even annual passes to factor in as well of course.
He spent about 20 minutes one lunchtime trying to explain it to me, but it went straight over my head (I think 'alpha-beta pruning' was in there somewhere), but anyway it was all for naught as - hardly surprisingly - TfL had little appetite for software that would actually reduce their revenue.
He spent about 20 minutes one lunchtime trying to explain it to me, but it went straight over my head (I think 'alpha-beta pruning' was in there somewhere), but anyway it was all for naught as - hardly surprisingly - TfL had little appetite for software that would actually reduce their revenue.