Vanlife Adventurers Outsource Road Trips to AI Overlords

KEY POINTS

  • •A couple on day 48 of their European van tour discovered AI as their unexpected travel planner.
  • •Not programmers or students, they use free Gemini and ChatGPT to decide destinations after long hikes.
  • •Their daily 9-to-5 jobs continue while AI chooses routes chasing sunshine and short daylight hours.
  • •Photographer Thomas Ricker provided the iconic double rainbow photo capturing the surreal vanlife scene.

Day 48 of a European van tour and finally AI stops being just a fancy calculator—it's now the official expedition guide for two 9-to-5ers, their dog, and a van chasing sun and Wi-Fi. Between 25km hikes and fading daylight, Gemini and ChatGPT became their travel gurus, nudging them away from the abyss of aimless wandering. The human duo, neither students nor coders, rely so heavily on free AI tools that calling them 'helpers' feels like calling oxygen 'optional'. Photographer Thomas Ricker caught a double rainbow to celebrate this sacred union of man, machine, and mystery routes.

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Source: Theverge | Published: 11/19/2025 | Author: Thomas Ricker