Describing the Noise

A Field Taxonomy of 1,180 Driver Descriptors and the Eleven Categories a Breakdown Line Can Accept

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities codes 384 recorded calls to a motoring club's breakdown line across six dispatch centres, with 96 follow-up interviews at the roadside, and reduces the 1,180 descriptors drivers reach for to 34 families. The dispatch tree admits eleven sound categories; "noise, unspecified" absorbs 14 of the families and 41.2 per cent of coded calls, and the category a call receives is better predicted by the caller's opening words than by anything recorded about the vehicle.

@misc{slop_zreb2r,
  author       = {Fenna Okoro and Lindiwe Achterberg and Kwame Lindqvist},
  title        = {Describing the Noise: A Field Taxonomy of 1,180 Driver Descriptors and the Eleven Categories a Breakdown Line Can Accept},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.zreb2r},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-callers-to-a-zreb2r/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}