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

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

#161

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 5:50 AM UTC

RIMR wrote: post #32

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…

Redmond, Washington isn't in Silicon Valley...

[deleted]

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

#162

Post by WalterSear » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:04 AM UTC

ptaipale wrote: post #34

revelation wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes, millions of people die every year from causes we could pretty much summarize as old age . None of this has any meaning if you don't differentiate by age. Thankfully, the CDC has done that, and here it is in an easy graphic: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_deat... Unintentional injury dominates deaths in ages 1-44, and indeed the biggest killer of people ages 5-24 is traffic: http://w…

Still, I think it is a valid point that drink driving is seen as a moral problem and therefore its practical impact as a cause of accidents and deaths is perceived as larger than it actually is. Yes, it's horrible when a drink driver kills a child, etc, but the risk of that happening per DUI incident is not actually very high. I'm not from the US, but over here (Finland), drink drivers are generally most dangerous to…

>Still, I think it is a valid point that drink driving is seen as a moral problem and therefore its practical impact as a cause of accidents and deaths is perceived as larger than it actually is...

> ...over here (Finland), drink drivers are generally most dangerous to themselves. Of course there are some innocent people who are killed and injured by drink drivers but most deaths resulting from drink driving are either people who kill themselves or consent to be in a vehicle where the driver is DUI.

You can't argue that problem is being overly focused on condemnation of the person who drinks and drives and then ignore our responsibility to keep them from hurting themselves either.

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

#163

Post by jgh » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:09 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…

Wasn't the Oculus founder in Orange County when he was hit?

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

#164

Post by MaulingMonkey » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:10 AM UTC

cthalupa wrote: post #124

bottled_poe wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

>Not convinced by this one. Surely reducing the kinetic energy in this scenario is the safest course of action? How is remaining near an impaired driver vs. leaving them behind the safer option? It isn't always practical or possible to find another route, and staying behind a drunk driver and thus near them, or running the risk of running into the results of some sort of mistake on their part is certainly more danger…

> and staying behind a drunk driver and thus near them

I don't think anyone is recommending that. I think they're recommending staying behind a drunk driver, and slowing down enough that you're no longer near them and have plenty of time to react to the results of any sort of mistake on their part. I think we can all agree that tailgating a drunk driver is an absolutely terrible idea.

(In general, I try and leave enough space to react to a sober driver's mistakes as well.)

> putting them safely behind you.

"Behind you" means you're in front of them. This is literally putting yourself in the path of danger. If they're relying on cues from traffic, speeding past them may let them know "they need to speed up" - and now they have some nice tail lights that are much easier to follow than those road stripes...

> I might now be having to deal with debris on the road that I won't be able to see easily, or potentially at all until it's too late.

You might have to deal with that whether or not a drunk driver wrecked in front of you. And even if you've left one behind you, what are the chances there's not one in front of you too?

You'll have more time to react going slower. If you keep your windows clean, your prescription up to date, your headlights in working order, and put down your phone - and I'd wager most debris you can't see in time to avoid is going to be much smaller, and as a result much less dangerous, than an entire car threatening to collide with you going the speed limit.

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

#165

Post by kyllo » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:17 AM UTC

techsupporter wrote: post #71

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 live in Seattle and work in Redmond and do both solely via public transit and walking. Redmond has a large number of bike lane miles (as does Seattle, and many of Seattle's are protected, separated bike lanes) along with fast, frequent, and long span-of-service transit to places like Seattle and Kirkland and Bellevue. Microsoft has even helped with that by funding things like Overlake Transit Center, a street and p…

Cycling on roads is extremely dangerous. Every single person I know who commutes by bicycle has been hit by a car at least once. One of my colleagues was killed cycling to work when he was hit by a semi truck. Another woman was recently killed by a box truck cycling to work a block from my office.

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

#166

Post by lfam » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:20 AM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #59

bottled_poe wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

As a motorcyclist, I have used bursts of speed to get out of sticky situations. The car that crashed into the guard rail behind me would have taken me out if I had slowed down. It's easy to second-guess.

As another motorcyclist, I want to give my support to this view.

I have no desire to ride fast (I rather enjoy doing 40 mph on a park drive), but I need my bike to be able to go 100 mph so that when the person next to me going 55 mph starts to merge into my lane, I have the choice of slowing down or very rapidly accelerating out of danger. It's the same with cars. Having the "headroom" means you can speed up quickly in emergencies.

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

#167

Post by cromwellian » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:24 AM UTC

Reminds me of Googler Steve Lacey, killed by a road rage driver (http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/138605969.html)

When trying to find this story, I googled "employee killed by driver" and it's just a non-stop parade of stories of drunks and ragers killing people.

If you cause an accident either drunk or by rage, you should go to jail, period. The Netherlands has no tolerance for this kind of bullshit. Injure someone while stoned, 3 years jail time. Kill? 6 years or more.

People obsess about self driving cars killing people, and yes, there will be accidents. yes, there's going to be a case of a little girl chasing after a ball into the street who gets run over. Yes, there's going to be cases of a self driving car running over a pedestrian, or turning head on into traffic. I'm almost sure of it.

But these incidents probably will be insignificant compared to 30,000+ people killed per year and even more injured by human drivers. If 100 people lose their lives to software bugs per year in cars (which will improve over time), but 10,000 people lose their lives to human bugs, it will be a vast improvement.

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

#168

Post by JohnTHaller » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:33 AM UTC

guiambros wrote: post #110

DiabloD3 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

"Heavy car usage" , in NYC? After decades living in real car-only cities (Atlanta, Miami, Sao Paulo), I'm glad to live car-free in NYC. And considering family and small child. While gentrification continues to push people away from Manhattan, you still have decent options of public transportation to everywhere around here. We can criticize NY for many things, but being a 'car city' is not one of them. Anyway, I reall…

It would be nice if NYC laws were as friendly to pedestrians as public transport is. Most pedestrian deaths in NYC occur in cross walks where we have the right of way. The charges for a car running a person over in a cross walk can be as little as a $300 fine and are often not much more than that.

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

#169

Post by wanderingstan » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:36 AM UTC

dilap wrote: post #132

coffeemug wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not all workers can demand decent living conditions You're assuming that car-oriented urban planning is synonymous with poor living conditions, which isn't true. A lot of people (most?) in the U.S. actually prefer it -- for many people the perceived convenience of cars beats public transportation and biking.

I love driving, but man, it sucks to build a city around it. I'm living in SF right now, carless, and skate a lot. It's fun, but holy shit does it suck constantly having to dodge oblivious drivers, asshole taxis, and homicidal MUNI drivers. I have a fantasy where the whole city is grass and bikepaths. All normal deliveries are by bike, & if you really need to move something big, you get a special permit to rent a tru…

Whenever I hear the whirring of hybrid or electric car I realize that times are changing. It may be decades or more away, but I like to imagine what cities of the future will be like.

So quiet! So fresh! The rumble of a car engine and its smelly exhaust will seem quaint. Maybe like the feelings now of seeing a horse-drawn carriage, and seeing the horse shit in the street.

So much space! My street is walled in by parked cars. The driving lanes are wide to accommodate human error. Perhaps the outer parts of the road will be re-purposed as park space. Only two narrow lanes in the middle for the computer guided vehicles to travel on. Or maybe only one lane, since the cars can coordinate their directions on this rarely-trafficed street.

Of course things won't be all rosy, but it IS certain that the feeling of cities will be very different.

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

#170

Post by ild » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 6:45 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #158

ild wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't get to cherry-pick a "safe area of Brooklyn" and compare it with the whole of Elyria. Do you understand at all how big Brooklyn is? A safe area of Brooklyn is at least 250,000 people; actually perhaps 400,000 or so. > There are "safe areas" in Elyria that have a crime rate of 6 (national average: 286, according to this site's measurment methodology) Where? Cannot see anything like that on the map you link…

"A safe area of Brooklyn is at least 250,000 people; actually perhaps 400,000 or so." Fine. Show me a "safe area" of Brooklyn that has a crime rate of 6 "Where? Cannot see anything like that on the map you linked." I should have said other suburbs in the same area. For example, Westlake. "Please, educate me how to (cherry)pick a representative suburb." Well, for a start you don't pick out the one with the highest cri…

> Fine. Show me a "safe area" of Brooklyn that has a crime rate of 6 6? No, I cannot. May be somewhere on Mars.

But according to city-data, overall crime rate in NYC was 256.1, so in the safer parts of Brooklyn it should be not more than this number; and it is lower than average for US.

And 6 is actually an artifact , erroneous number because...

> http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/c...

...according to FBI report, Westlake does not report offenses anymore to FBI (ad city-data uses the FBI report).

> Well, for a start you don't pick out the one with the highest crime rate.

> That map demonstrates that Elyria is an extreme outlier, even for the area, much less for the country as a whole.

No it is not. Extreme outlier is East Cleveland, a suburb of Cleveland.

> You got busted, dude.

No I am not, because 325 is slightly above average crime level in the US.

No matter how you bend data, cherry pick data, preferentially choose tiny white affluent suburbs, NYC, a quintessentially big American city is not crime-ridden, especially if you do not venture into the hoods.