Apple Maps claims it's 29,905 miles away • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Maps claims it's 29,905 miles away

#151

Post by DanPiponi » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 9:20 PM UTC

lugao wrote: post #135

I made a comment earlier that was rightly flagged for its tone, and I would like to restate the technical point more constructively. The post author, Dan Piponi, clearly knows about fractals, but his post raises the question of whether asking Fermi questions in interviews is actually effective. I am skeptical that such questions would have prevented this type of bug. I suspect the issue stems from small measurement i…

Here's a Fermi-ish question: given the fractal nature of typical landscape, should a truck driver budget for 10 times as much time as would be predicted by using the known typical speed of the truck and the distance as the crow flies?

(Aside: the nearest grocery store to my house is 1 mile away but the shortest route by car, as measured by the car odometer, is 10 miles.)

Re: Apple Maps claims it's 29,905 miles away

#152

Post by jwr » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 9:46 AM UTC

tacker2000 wrote: post #148

jwr wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muggles, in Harry Potter books, are non-magic people, who do not have magic, do not understand it, have a lot of misconceptions about it, and fear it. :-)

So you are the enlightened one because you drive an EV or what? I dont think that this divisive and patronizing attitude is helpful in this discussion. Range anxiety is a fact, only recently electric vehicles have started to have more acceptable and practicable ranges and also, the charger network is evolving more and more. In winter the ranges are also reduced by about 10-20%. So I dont think people cant see the "ma…

> so maybe that 1.9L Diesel engine looks more attractive now again

Sure, if you don't care about leaving a planet for your kids to live on.

But this discussion got derailed, I should not have used the muggle joke. I didn't mean to be condescending, but rather highlight how little people that don't drive EVs know about driving EVs and how they repeat the PR talking points that are being fed to us by the biggest money-making industry ever created in the history of mankind (the fossil fuel industry). Hence the mass market repeating things about "getting stuck in the middle of the highway with 2 screaming kids in the back seat" which somehow doesn't happen to people driving EVs.

Re: Apple Maps claims it's 29,905 miles away

#153

Post by tacker2000 » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #152

tacker2000 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are the enlightened one because you drive an EV or what? I dont think that this divisive and patronizing attitude is helpful in this discussion. Range anxiety is a fact, only recently electric vehicles have started to have more acceptable and practicable ranges and also, the charger network is evolving more and more. In winter the ranges are also reduced by about 10-20%. So I dont think people cant see the "ma…

> so maybe that 1.9L Diesel engine looks more attractive now again Sure, if you don't care about leaving a planet for your kids to live on. But this discussion got derailed, I should not have used the muggle joke. I didn't mean to be condescending, but rather highlight how little people that don't drive EVs know about driving EVs and how they repeat the PR talking points that are being fed to us by the biggest money-…

Once EVs are good enough i am sure they will reach mass adoption. Lets let the market decide.

Im certainly no fossil fuel “muggle” that is beholden to this industry and wants to destroy the planet for “our” children, whatever this personal attack and scaremongering even means.

But this is just the level at which you EV evangelists discuss. Sitting on their high horse and using FUD and ad hominems, not being able to have a factual discussion.

If you think that EVs will solve all our climate issues then im sorry to disappoint you but this is not going to happen.