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Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

nytimes.com

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Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#71

Post by edgyswingset »

megablast wrote: post #70
edgyswingset wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My one and only experience using Uber was with a driver who had no clue where anything was, clearly wasn't from around the place, and from what I could tell violated two traffic laws. So what do I do, give him a bad rating? No, because this person probably needed the money, and a rating under 4.5 gets you shitcanned in an already rigged system. Quite the revolution indeed.

Oh well, as long as you get a cheap ride, who cares if the asshole can't drive and doesn't care about other road users.

A bus ride is cheap. A 20 dollar fare to go 10 miles is expensive.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#72

Post by Naritai »

bbarn wrote: post #64
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Driving' in Los Angeles is totally different. You dont need all your faculties when driving consists of waiting 2 minutes, let foot off brake for 30 seconds, put foot back on brake, repeat 100x. Otherwise, I completely agree. I've owned manual shift cars my whole life. I find that a number of drivers dont really understand how a car and basic physics works. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I would blow my brain…

>Im going to wait on owning one until an auto company open sources their code and there has been enough time to examine it thoroughly. In short, bring on the self-driving cars but do not make them mandatory. Just make licensing much more strict. At some point, we'll need to hold people to the same standard as the machines, and then.. when most people can't, we make it mandatory.

'make licensing more strict' is basically going to bring the standard up to the level of machines anyway... every time there is an accident, lawmakers will create 's law', which tightens the requirements a bit further. Sadly, I also predict that this is the only mechanism by which requirements will be tightened.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#73

Post by jackgolding »

bigethan wrote: post #49

As a cyclist in SF, Uber/Lyft drivers are the most dangerous thing going. They're driving by staring at their phone's map for directions and pickup/dropoff. Once they stop, they stare at their phone for the next ride. Very little situational awareness. It'd be nice if there was some sort of way for them to indicate they drive erratically. Perhaps by painting their cars all yellow or something...

In Melbourne I've had Uber driver's actually point out other Uber drivers by their erratic U-turns and swerving, bizarre!

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#74

Post by edgyswingset »

wvenable wrote: post #66
edgyswingset wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My one and only experience using Uber was with a driver who had no clue where anything was, clearly wasn't from around the place, and from what I could tell violated two traffic laws. So what do I do, give him a bad rating? No, because this person probably needed the money, and a rating under 4.5 gets you shitcanned in an already rigged system. Quite the revolution indeed.

Isn't that the point of the rating system? I don't want to be killed by my next Uber ride because you feel bad rating them appropriately. I've never had a bad Uber experience but I have had some downright frightening cab rides and I'd love to be able to rate that.

Yes, except it's not really a fair system. A 4.5/5.0, to me, is an excellent score. That's an A- if it were a grade on a math test. Yet in Uber, a 4.5 means you get your driving privileges revoked. How does that make sense? It isn't a system in which I can fairly and accurately vote someone's work.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#75

Post by Plasticover »

apsec112 wrote: post #65

Headline: "Blame Apps" Evidence given in the article: - "Safety experts say" that it's true. The experts are not named or quoted. No evidence or reasoning is given to support the claim. - Highway fatalities are up this year. However, they're still significantly down from 2007, when the iPhone was first introduced. Mobile has been booming for almost a decade - if we should "blame apps", why hasn't it been a concern be…

"One driver who caused a fatal accident was using Snapchat shortly before the crash. This driver was also going at 115 mph. It goes without saying, therefore, that Snapchat is to blame, not speeding or general recklessness."

The Snapchat was taken by the passenger. They were even hinting at racing being a factor. It seems like a bad example all around. I am sure apps contribute to some road fatalities but this was clearly a case of a driver crashing because they were going 115 miles a fucking hour on a populated road.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#76

Post by hueving »

apsec112 wrote: post #65

Headline: "Blame Apps" Evidence given in the article: - "Safety experts say" that it's true. The experts are not named or quoted. No evidence or reasoning is given to support the claim. - Highway fatalities are up this year. However, they're still significantly down from 2007, when the iPhone was first introduced. Mobile has been booming for almost a decade - if we should "blame apps", why hasn't it been a concern be…

Standard NY times reporting quality. You have to take it with a grain of salt or be in a position where their editorial viewpoint aligns with yours enough for you to ignore these evidence requirements.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#77

Post by Plasticover »

ChristianGeek wrote: post #47
giancarlostoro wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I miss is my iPod Classic. I used to listen to music in my car and I would feel for the buttons to skip songs. Of course if I needed a newer playlist I would have to wait till the car wasn't moving (red light), now in my newer car I have bluetooth and thankfully it has buttons for skip in the steering wheel. My iPoc Classic is dead though, so I am forced to use my phone, which I wish someone would come out…

The iPod Classic didn't have buttons to skip songs...you used the sides of the click wheel (which, from a tactile standpoint, was better than buttons). BTW, there are Bluetooth remotes available for the iPhone.

Not to sound to pedantic but a click wheel is button.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#78

Post by hueving »

frakr wrote: post #68
bigethan wrote: post #49

As a cyclist in SF, Uber/Lyft drivers are the most dangerous thing going. They're driving by staring at their phone's map for directions and pickup/dropoff. Once they stop, they stare at their phone for the next ride. Very little situational awareness. It'd be nice if there was some sort of way for them to indicate they drive erratically. Perhaps by painting their cars all yellow or something...

It's also a bit worrisome that the driver apps only give the driver ~30 seconds to accept a new ride request. The requests almost always come in while they are driving. Drivers are forced to pay attention to their phone and try to figure out if they want to accept the ride, all while driving. It's incredibly distracting and they never have enough time to pull over and safely accept the request. This puts the driver a…

Well the arbitrary response time is driven by users requesting rides. If Uber takes that long to match me with a driver, I assume the app is busted and I switch to Lyft.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#79

Post by untog »

hueving wrote: post #78
frakr wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a bit worrisome that the driver apps only give the driver ~30 seconds to accept a new ride request. The requests almost always come in while they are driving. Drivers are forced to pay attention to their phone and try to figure out if they want to accept the ride, all while driving. It's incredibly distracting and they never have enough time to pull over and safely accept the request. This puts the driver a…

Well the arbitrary response time is driven by users requesting rides. If Uber takes that long to match me with a driver, I assume the app is busted and I switch to Lyft.

That doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#80

Post by hueving »

edgyswingset wrote: post #74
wvenable wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that the point of the rating system? I don't want to be killed by my next Uber ride because you feel bad rating them appropriately. I've never had a bad Uber experience but I have had some downright frightening cab rides and I'd love to be able to rate that.

Yes, except it's not really a fair system. A 4.5/5.0, to me, is an excellent score. That's an A- if it were a grade on a math test. Yet in Uber, a 4.5 means you get your driving privileges revoked. How does that make sense? It isn't a system in which I can fairly and accurately vote someone's work.

Continuing the test analogy, I don't want to eat at a restaurant that got rated a B by the health department. There are many cases where not being good enough to get an A- means you aren't good enough to do it professionally. This is no different.
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