Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 255 posts

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

#101

Post by jobu »

m3rc wrote: post #34
niftich wrote: post #29

Apps are a plausible contributor. But I also noticed that some new cars ship with infotainment systems that consist solely of a (bad) touchscreen; as new cars slowly replace old ones, the number of cars with actual physical buttons for the music player or radio is dwindling. This is awful because the lack of physical buttons prevents the tactile feedback needed to operate the device without having to look at it. Luck…

I can't stand touchscreen systems. Instead of a single physical switch to turn AC on or off it's two latency laden taps. Part of it's menu design but I can't help but feel like it's always gonna happen with touchscreen centric designs.

It's unbelievable how far behind the technology curve most car companies are.

We recently test drove a used 2015 Suburban with a touchscreen console. The MSRP for it in 2015 was almost 90k, and the touchscreen was laggy, unresponsive, and terrible resolution. 20 years ago I worked on a touchscreen point of sale system that was better than that shit.

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

#102

Post by milkytron »

ramblenode wrote: post #97
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…

I'm not sure if I've become more cognizant of bad journalism over time or simply hold journalism to a higher standard with the rise of publicly available data sets which could be used for real insight into questions like this. Whichever one, I am infrequently satisfied with the level of evidence that supports an article's conclusion. I would love to see a truly data-driven news publication that made quantifying uncer…

Unfortunately, news today isn't meant to be as accurate as it is meant to be popular. Sure, accuracy will provide stability in the long term. But for immediate popularity, appealing titles are what creates viewers, which is revenue in terms of ads.

It's the sad reality of click bait, and it's hard to place blame. Is it the ad network? The"news" outlet? The viewers?

Maybe it's all three, but what I do know is that there is a problem with news on the web.

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

#103

Post by Hondor »

lettergram wrote: post #51

I don't know why this is bothering me... But does anyone know why the title wasn't: " largest spike in..." As opposed to "biggest spike in..."?

What's the difference? Biggest sounds more familiar to me. Maybe local cultures differ? For that matter, why would you ever need the word "large"? Doesn't "big" always have the same meaning?

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

#104

Post by mvindahl »

m3rc wrote: post #34
niftich wrote: post #29

Apps are a plausible contributor. But I also noticed that some new cars ship with infotainment systems that consist solely of a (bad) touchscreen; as new cars slowly replace old ones, the number of cars with actual physical buttons for the music player or radio is dwindling. This is awful because the lack of physical buttons prevents the tactile feedback needed to operate the device without having to look at it. Luck…

I can't stand touchscreen systems. Instead of a single physical switch to turn AC on or off it's two latency laden taps. Part of it's menu design but I can't help but feel like it's always gonna happen with touchscreen centric designs.

Almost everyone is carrying a touch screen in their pocket, complete with internet access, navigation, music, audiobooks, everything. Car manufacturers should just solve the problem of how to plug in the phone since they'll never deliver anything smarter or more powerful anyway. And, yes, physical knobs for things that you might do when driving, such as adjusting sound volume. The rest of the effort they should direct at the thing which they are good at; building cars.

Equivalently, TV manufacturers should stop trying to make their TVs smart and leave this to 3rd party devices such as the Apple TV, Chromecast or whatever. Just make great image quality and make the smartness pluggable. Anyway, I'm digressing.

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

#105

Post by debaserab2 »

jobu wrote: post #101
m3rc wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand touchscreen systems. Instead of a single physical switch to turn AC on or off it's two latency laden taps. Part of it's menu design but I can't help but feel like it's always gonna happen with touchscreen centric designs.

It's unbelievable how far behind the technology curve most car companies are. We recently test drove a used 2015 Suburban with a touchscreen console. The MSRP for it in 2015 was almost 90k, and the touchscreen was laggy, unresponsive, and terrible resolution. 20 years ago I worked on a touchscreen point of sale system that was better than that shit.

Consumer electronics are designed to fail in 3-5 years. Cars aren't. If my 2012 Honda Accord started failing this year, I'd be really upset. If my 2012 iPad mini started failing this year... well, I wouldn't be surprised given it's age.

I don't want my car's firmware failing or even slow when my ABS system needs to kick in because of an icy road. We must hold automobiles to a higher degree of quality and consistency than consumer electronics and I don't believe these things are on par at all, nor should they be held to the same standard.

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

#107

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

Naritai wrote: post #72
bbarn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> Sadly, I also predict that this is the only mechanism by which requirements will be tightened.

Not going to happen. If this were so, Interlock Ignition Devices (Breathalyzers) would come standard on all new cars and be a requirement on used ones. Also, we already have a law against speed limits, but even a cheap, shitty Toyota Yaris can go faster than the highest posted speed limit. There's a large swath of the population for whom car=freedom.

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

#108

Post by et-al »

edgyswingset wrote: post #56
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...

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.

If your driver violated two traffic laws, you should most definitely rate them poorly. They're a hazard for everyone on the road and should reconsider their line of work. No one is entitled to any job, especially a job that can very easily kill other people. There's a reason why many work vehicles have "how's my driving?" stickers on the back.

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

#109

Post by saretired »

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…

Interesting reaction to the quote from Robert Gordon of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. PCI is an umbrella lobby for insurers; their website says they represent writers of 42% of automobile policies in the U.S. Since insurers are in the business of understanding and quantifying the risks they insure against, I'm willing to assume that he and PCI are knowledgeable about this issue.

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

#110

Post by flukus »

hueving wrote: post #80
edgyswingset wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It depends on what the score represents. If a 4.4 means you take a wrong turn here and there then I don't mind. If it means they constantly speed but other users don't care then I do mind.
Post reply on HN