Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run • Hacker News Board

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#91

Post by Chevalier » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:26 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #78

Chevalier wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there's a place for suburbs, and I'm not opposed to the idea of less dense housing. Such housing can exist in the context of walkable neighborhoods with public transit, though. I think there's quite a bit of merit to firm city limits that prevent sprawl and car dependence. That said... if someone wants to live in exurbia, he should pay an appropriate amount to access amenities downtown. It's absurd that som…

"That said... if someone wants to live in exurbia, he should pay an appropriate amount to access amenities downtown." Wait: downtowns are dying all across the country, and you want to solve that problem by charging people more money to go there?

Downtowns are dying because parasitic exurbs have both removed tax revenue from the urban core while multiplying their infrastructure/services/health costs. It's unsurprising that residents flee cities that become dangerous, dirty highways.

Some of these cities are now beyond repair, not least for the overarching national trend of capital concentration in Silicon Valley/Silicon Alley, but these reforms would still help enormously. For example, Bloomberg's plan to toll bridges into New York City that was vetoed by car-dependent Albany. It's absolutely ridiculous that exurban commuters are allowed to devastate NYC every day, for free, because they're too entitled either to live in the city or even to commute via less destructive trains.

I would really love to hear your explanation why New York City should be required to spend billions on bridges and roads crushed by automobile traffic for commuters who don't even pay taxes into the repair fund. Much less why NYC residents should be forced to give up enormous swaths of precious road real estate at peril to their health and quality of life.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#92

Post by untog » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:26 AM UTC

VLM wrote: post #47

Chevalier wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that it's any more or less tragic, but I've always been astonished that Silicon Valley is so car-dependent. We've concentrated the most brilliant minds in the world in this small area... and then force everyone to pilot two-ton bullets to pick up groceries? Not all workers can demand decent living conditions, but you'd think the competitive draw for workers in Silicon Valley would entice company towns to, I don't…

This article is being flooded with weird anti-car hate. Yet, my car is perfectly safe and can only kill someone in a hit and run at 100 MPH if, and only if, I get drunk first. Given that I don't drink very much and then only at home (a sixer lasts me about a season, sometimes half a year) that means my car is incredibly safe and will almost certainly never kill anyone. Odd how there's no anti-alcohol hate here on HN,…

If you subtract out deaths due to drunkenness, cars kill less people than bathtubs.

If you remove a major cause of road deaths, road death becomes less common? You amaze me.

my car is perfectly safe and can only kill someone in a hit and run at 100 MPH if, and only if, I get drunk first.

Absolutely false. Everyone is capable of making mistakes, you and I included. You can be a perfect driver 99% of the time, but that one time when you look down because your phone went off, or because there was a noise on your right, or the guy coming the other way has his full beams in your face, or... you're deluded if you think you cannot possibly crash your car unless you are drunk.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#93

Post by zo1 » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:27 AM UTC

bottled_poe wrote: post #46

cthalupa wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cars are pretty safe, but I'm always a little shocked that we don't have governors built into cars with sane limits. How is it even possible to do 100mph and why should that speed be allowed? Cars should top off at 75. Why is it even possible? Because a car that can't do 100mph is going to have terrible performance 0-75 There's long stretches of highways in rural areas with speed limits higher than 75 >Not to mentio…

>There are sometimes legitimate reasons to be going quickly. I have, at times, needed to have bursts of speed into the 90s to safely get around a drunk driver going 70. Not convinced by this one. Surely reducing the kinetic energy in this scenario is the safest course of action?

At least for the drunk-driver, yes. I think I read a while back that they were thinking/musing/planning on installing breathalyzers in cars that could prevent the vehicle from even starting.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#94

Post by acdha » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:27 AM UTC

timthorn wrote: post #54

jstalin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to minimize drunk driving deaths, but it's hardly "rampant." About 10,000 people are killed each year in drunk driving accidents in the US. 30,000 a year die from falls. http://responsibility.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-fatali... http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf

10000?! The UK, with a population of approximately 1/4 that of the USA and more liberal alcohol laws, had ~260 deaths from drink driving in 2013. Rampant might not be the right word, but something isn't right. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... )

The US has far more sprawl where people live in suburbs which are a significant distance from the closest restaurant, bar, etc. and public transportation ranges from unreliable to non-existent even during the workday. In most of the country, that's also be paired with high speed limits and road designs which encourage driving at or above the speed limit which increases the likelihood of a crash being fatal.

The default mindset is so heavily dominated by the assumption that you'll drive that the building codes in most of the country require bars to have significant parking available for customers, even if the bar is in a heavily urban neighborhood and the owner would prefer to use the space for seating.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#95

Post by downandout » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:28 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #29

oflordal wrote: post #8

Säd. Coindidentally the same happened to one of the Oculus founders. http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew...

Not that it's any more or less tragic, but I've always been astonished that Silicon Valley is so car-dependent. We've concentrated the most brilliant minds in the world in this small area... and then force everyone to pilot two-ton bullets to pick up groceries? Not all workers can demand decent living conditions, but you'd think the competitive draw for workers in Silicon Valley would entice company towns to, I don't…

You get a job at Google or Facebook in part so that you can buy a nicer "two ton bullet" than you otherwise could. No one wants to walk out of necessity, and that will not change anytime soon.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#96

Post by eropple » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:30 AM UTC

DiabloD3 wrote: post #52

Chevalier wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using SV as shorthand for the tech industry generally -- and Redmond is very much to Seattle what Silicon Valley is to San Francisco. Car-dependent suburbia that threatens the health, safety, and quality-of-life of everyone forced to be there. San Francisco is as walkable as the West Coast gets, which alone testifies to the disgrace of American urban planning. Ey would have been killed long ago if he dared to rid…

I actually agree with this response. Because of Microsoft, Seattle has become Silicon Valley North, just the same as NYC has become the Silicon Alley and Chicago is... whatever they're calling Chicago now. All of them are similar, heavy car usage, not enough walking, and no safety for humans. Google is trying to solve it by making smarter cars. How about we solve it by making our communities smarter instead?

That Boston managed to avoid this is a very big reason why I don't have much interest in living anywhere else. In Somerville and Cambridge, I feel exceptionally safe, even around cars.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#97

Post by lutorm » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:31 AM UTC

oflordal wrote: post #8

Säd. Coindidentally the same happened to one of the Oculus founders. http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew...

Not so coincidentally. There are more than 30,000 people killed in traffic every year in the United States, and it's the second leading cause of accidental death, according to: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_inju...

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#98

Post by prawn » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:32 AM UTC

VLM wrote: post #47

Chevalier wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that it's any more or less tragic, but I've always been astonished that Silicon Valley is so car-dependent. We've concentrated the most brilliant minds in the world in this small area... and then force everyone to pilot two-ton bullets to pick up groceries? Not all workers can demand decent living conditions, but you'd think the competitive draw for workers in Silicon Valley would entice company towns to, I don't…

This article is being flooded with weird anti-car hate. Yet, my car is perfectly safe and can only kill someone in a hit and run at 100 MPH if, and only if, I get drunk first. Given that I don't drink very much and then only at home (a sixer lasts me about a season, sometimes half a year) that means my car is incredibly safe and will almost certainly never kill anyone. Odd how there's no anti-alcohol hate here on HN,…

I'm not really at risk of being killed by someone else's bathtub in my daily movements around a city...

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#99

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:34 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #91

Turing_Machine wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That said... if someone wants to live in exurbia, he should pay an appropriate amount to access amenities downtown." Wait: downtowns are dying all across the country, and you want to solve that problem by charging people more money to go there?

Downtowns are dying because parasitic exurbs have both removed tax revenue from the urban core while multiplying their infrastructure/services/health costs. It's unsurprising that residents flee cities that become dangerous, dirty highways. Some of these cities are now beyond repair, not least for the overarching national trend of capital concentration in Silicon Valley/Silicon Alley, but these reforms would still he…

"I would really love to hear your explanation why New York City should be required to spend billions on bridges and roads crushed by automobile traffic for commuters who don't even pay taxes into the repair fund"

They don't. They can stop doing it any time they want.

I don't think the result is going to be what you expect, though, especially now that no one has to live (or even visit) the city to do most types of business.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#100

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:36 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #86

Turing_Machine wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking." Let me guess: you're in your 20s-30s and in perfect health, that you live in an urban environment, and that you don't have a family to shop for.

Just to clarify, are you implying here that elderly, infirm, or underage people benefit from car dependence? Because...

I'm not "implying" it. I'm stating it. And it's not a "dependence", it's a blessing. It's given people the freedom to live where they want, far away from the filthy, crime-ridden cities that you appear to idolize.

Living in the city can be fun when you're a 20-something with no dependents. Most people change their minds once they have families. That's why suburbs exist.

And I notice that you didn't answer my questions.