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Five-year-old boy stopped on highway driving from Utah to California
- spacefearing 6y agoUntil I had kids of my own I did not quite comprehend just how capable little kids can be. A 5 year old holding an AK47 is entirely capable of being a legitimate competitor to an adult holding an AK47. An average 10 year old armed with an AK47 might be more dangerous than an average 40 year old. Child soldiers are likely very effective, as depressing as this thought is. Small children are profoundly ignorant but they're not dramatically less intelligent than adults. In limited domains, like driving or shooting, a high performing child can easily beat a low performing adult.
- CoryG89 6y agoAlso, a 10 year old child will likely not fear bodily harm or death the same way a 40-year old adult would, of course that can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on the situation.
- spitfire 6y agoThis is also why gymnasts and ballerinas need to be taught young. They lack fear and "bounce" when they fall. Once they turn 12 or so they lack that "bounce", it becomes much more difficult or impossible to teach at a certain level.
- kube-system 6y agoIt's similar for professional race car drivers. Many top drivers start at 6-12 years old.
- mikekchar 6y agoKind of strange comment, but one of the problems I've seen in schools is the assumption by teachers that children are not as intelligent as adults. Generally this isn't true. Usually they lack a framework for reasoning and lack experience with language for communicating. There are some differences with brain development of young children for sure, but in my experience people underestimate children by a fairly large margin. You see the same phenomenon with people trying to talk to adults who are just learning the language. There is an assumption that the person is stupid rather than that they have difficulty communicating.
- zozbot234 6y agoPeople underestimate kids in some ways, and overestimate them in others. The underlying framework for highly abstract thinking takes time to develop, as does the ability for understanding empathy and moral behavior. A five-year-old kid literally has no notion that driving a car he's not the owner of is theft, and thus grossly unethical conduct. The car is just there for the taking; to him it's no different than playing GTA.
- TomMarius 6y ago5 year old kids are capable of very complex ethical thinking and empathy, most definitely including understanding of ownership. Maybe it's not as common in the US, but you can see it clearly in any country where kids regularly go to child care from age 3.
- SamReidHughes 6y agoBut kids do get more intelligent as they get older. They get better at doing stuff in ways not explainable by practice.
- wegs 6y agoThey do, but the intelligence of kids is highly underrated. This started with Piaget, and although Piaget has been widely debunked, teachers still believe it.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoChild labour is an untapped resource.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- technothrasher 6y agoTo be fair, an AK47 is a hell of a lot easier to use than a car. My son was able to manage a rifle pretty well at six years old, but I very seriously doubt he'd have been able to drive a car successfully.
- downerending 6y agoAck, still picturing that kid at the gun show that mortally failed to handle an automatic.
- paulcole 6y agoUber already issued a statement that he’s a contractor not an employee.
- azinman2 6y agoYou’re being downvoted by others but I thought that was pretty funny :)
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6y agoIt's funny, relevant, and a legitimate critique of Uber. If anything it's off topic.
- chrischen 6y agoSo is this article though.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rootusrootus 6y agoI am skeptical that the kid is only 5 years old. Certainly I've never seen a kindergartner anywhere near that large.
- dgritsko 6y agoThe officer thought the same thing apparently. "At first, he thought the boy appeared to be 8 or 9 years old."
- billyt555 6y agoSeems legit... https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/5/5/21248094/5-year-old-driver-freeway-lamborghini-boy-child-i15-ogden-trooper-3-utah-highway-patrol https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/5/5/21248094/5-year-old-dr...
- ngngngng 6y agoAre you not from an overweight country?
- panzagl 6y agoI knew a 5-year old that was not much below 5' tall, and built like a linebacker (hefty, but solid). Ended up being just slightly above average height when full grown. Kids are weird.
- kick 6y agoIt's a small car by US standards, and the kid is wearing a sweatshirt that's incredibly baggy, along with shorts that are oversized-enough to be swim trunks. The seat is also reclined. There's a lot of optical-illusion going into the presentation there. It's actually pretty clever.
- SilasX 6y agoHeh, I remember being ~6 and thinking they had an age limit for driving "so you'd be big enough to operate it", but then I figured that couldn't be right because I'd seen little old ladies that were about the size of some 10 year olds.
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- awillen 6y agoHonestly, I respect any five-year-old with this much determination and drive (no pun intended). He's going places (okay that pun was intended)...
- fb03 6y agothank you for the good giggle! The first one activated my 'oh he's joking'-mode, but still, the second one caught me good!
- birdyrooster 6y agoHacker News detects mawkishness and meta-commentary about downvotes and obliterates them both with downvotes
- thesuperbigfrog 6y ago"Family members told troopers the boy had gotten upset with his mother at some point earlier when she wouldn't let him buy a Lamborghini" Source: https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pulled-over-after-trying-to-drive-to-california-to-buy-a-sports-car https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pull...
- mxcrossb 6y agoIt says that in the linked article as well...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tamaharbor 6y agoFrom Utah to California? He went three miles. Just more fake news.
- mindfulplay 6y agoIf Lamborghini wanted to boost their sales, there couldn't be a better product placement than this. " Our cars are so amazing, even a five year old would drive by himself on a highway to buy it."
- crispyambulance 6y agoActually, if you've ever taken a close look at a Lamborghini, they look like they've been designed by an elementary school boy on a sugar-high. It's only fitting that a kid would want one-- badly. They're toys after-all, expensive, but truly they're toys.
- saagarjha 6y agoSome people never grow up. Who are you to deny them of their their childish delights?
- blunte 6y agoAre you saying there is no place for art and passion in automotive design? Do you judge art or music that doesn't interest you personally (or which you cannot afford) so harshly? Lamborghini cars may be impractical based on many people's measures, and their designs may not be to everyone's liking, but your critique is internet-conflict-style hyperbole.
- handedness 6y agoThere's definitely a place for it...in Maranello.
- lmm 6y ago(Not the person you replied to) I judge other media when they're promoting excess, particularly when it's harming others on the planet. I find Lamborghinis viscerally disgusting in the same way as a 5000-calorie burger, or a thousand-dollar bottle of champagne being sprayed over a wall. (This is not about expensive cars in general. Lamborghinis are not bought to be fast, or comfortable, or manoeuvrable. They're bought to be big and loud and consume a lot of gas.)
- shawndellysse 6y agobypass paywall: http://archive.is/ws3x1 http://archive.is/ws3x1
- 11thEarlOfMar 6y agoMakes me wonder what the cutoff age would be between being impressed with the achievement (at age 5) vs. being 'in trouble' with the police.
- saagarjha 6y agoProbably 10-12 or so.
- kick 6y agoHow do you define 'in trouble'? An older-looking 14's the mark where I think you'd see actual repercussions, but I can't imagine people would be particularly-impressed if the boy was double his age (plenty of kids can drive at ten; plenty more kids can drive at ten as poorly as the adolescent in the article is described as doing). I think someone at the age of 13 could probably get this amount of press if they got caught in Utah or wherever coming from Georgia.
- vermilingua 6y agoThere is no adolescent in the article. Adolescence is ~12-18.
- kosievdmerwe 6y agoJust a small correction, 5 years old isn't adolescent. Adolescent is more or less a synonym for teenager. I was left a bit confused. Though this lead me to look up development stages which was interesting [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_human_body#/media/File%3AChild_development_stages.svg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_human_bod...
- kick 6y agoThanks!
- WalterBright 6y agoA 10 year old is perfectly capable of driving a car. The trouble is, they lack sufficient judgement to drive responsibly.
- gautamcgoel 6y agoThat kind of resolve is what distinguishes successful founders :P
- eromo1 6y agoI despise paywalls.
- choward 6y agoMe too. Especially since I didn't get one but I sent the link to a couple people and I have no idea if they're going to get paywalled or not.
- Thuswindburn 6y agoFrom a local Utah news source: https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pulled-over-after-trying-to-drive-to-california-to-buy-a-sports-car https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pull...
- chrisco255 6y agoWhile I think this is an interesting story, why are these sort of articles popping up on Hacker News? This is not the place for it.
- hartator 6y agoSelf driving angle. :)
- Stratoscope 6y agoI admire the kid's hacker spirit!
- rantwasp 6y agodisrupting the day of all the drivers on that freeway
- s5300 6y agoPardon my CNN... Cracks monster Sips - yuuup https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/10/us/florida-ups-truck-police-chase-shooting/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/10/us/florida-ups-truck-police-c... Lot of things disrupt people's day on the road...
- matz1 6y agoWhile he didn't achieve the goal to buy the lambo, the kid still get to ride in a lambo the following day. Amazing and its not too crazy to think that some rich guy somewhere decided to gift this kid a lambo after reading the story.
- save_ferris 6y agoNo thanks, would you still feel that way if the kid got into a wreck and killed himself or someone else on the highway? Do admire the hacker spirit of a small child that gets a hold of a firearm and accidentally kills someone with it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that this story didn’t end up with someone dead. But 5 is way too young to be doing stuff like this.
- shermanmccoy 6y agoFake news. No way that kid is 5.
- awwstn 6y ago"Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage."
- sabujp 6y agosince we're now getting these kinds of posts on HN, I might as well post that I'm glad he didn't get tazed, shot, mauled by a k9 dog, or killed.
- jkuria 6y agoMaybe HN could gift him this Lego Bugatti (1:5 replica)? https://www.wsj.com/articles/build-your-own-supercar-on-your-coffee-table-11588392034 https://www.wsj.com/articles/build-your-own-supercar-on-your...
- p1mrx 6y agoGiven that the police tend to catch a relatively low fraction of traffic offenses, how many 5-year-olds are actually driving around on a given day?
- mcbuilder 6y agoI think you may be underestimating just how bad a five year old may be at driving
- kube-system 6y agoI believe the majority of incidents where young kids "drive" end very quickly as minor parking lot or driveway accidents. The above comment might not actually be too far off the mark.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago...semi-aside, a young kid driving in a driveway would be perfectly legal, right? Private property and all that?
- userbinator 6y agoIANAL but I believe so. When I was very young, long before a license, but probably closer to 10 than 5, my parents taught me to drive the tractor around the field. I think others here will have had similar experiences as well.
- dhosek 6y agoI remember meeting farm kids who were offspring of one of my mom's college classmates who routinely drove around the farm back in the 70s.
- Pfhreak 6y agoThis is still routine today. Most of the farm kids I know were driving early, some before 10.
- blackrock 6y agoWhy is this a story on HN? This is irrelevant tabloid level news.
- sabujp 6y agomaybe the tabloid types have discovered HN?
- blackrock 6y agoGood point. That never did occur to me..
- downerending 6y agoMeh, seems pretty relatable. I put my parents' car in neutral and rolled it out into a major street when I was five. Haven't we all?
- blackrock 6y agoWell, if you had an AI aware car, then this would’ve prevented that from happening. Thus saving your 5-year-old life. Now, this would be newsworthy. And Tesla’s stock price would probably increase from the positive news, as well as the increase from additional car sales for its AI safety features.
- fortran77 6y agoWhy aren't his parents in jail? Why wasn't he removed and placed in a foster home by CPS? I'm glad he didn't hurt anyone on the road.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- LanceH 6y agoBecause no crime has been committed. If we locked up everyone who had left their keys out or some equally dangerous thing, we would have to lock up every parent out there.
- gjs278 6y agobecause the parents left the kid with a babysitter
- karatestomp 6y agoMeanwhile 100% of parents are going "there but for the grace of God..." Kids get up to crazy shit all the time. There's no way to be up their asses enough to stop something like this if they get it in their heads and don't let on ahead of time. There's no way to hide or lock up everything that could be dangerous all of the time. Maybe today one of the many, many things in your house they've always left alone, that could be dangerous, they'll decide to screw with. You just hope they get out of your house before they harm themselves or others too badly. The difference between these parents and any other set of average to good parents, judging solely from this having happened, is that they were unlucky. Are they bad? Maybe. This doesn't give us much info one way or the other. Are they really really bad? Well since the call to the cops didn't end with one or both parents in jail on drug charges and the car was theirs, not someone else's, and the kid appears to have been fed, I'm gonna go with probably not. And yes those are all real things that it wouldn't even have been that weird to have ended up in a story like this.
- ppierald 6y agoI was fascinated when I crossed this story. The mechanics of driving a car aren't that hard once you've done it a couple of times, but to get the car started, into reverse, back up, into drive, navigate surface streets, accelerate onto the freeway (ok, he was going slow), change lanes into the "fast lane" etc... Pretty impressed. I was theorizing that maybe he had played car racing video games (hence the Lambo) and had enough of an understanding of distance perception and braking time not to kill himself. While this is a cute feel good story, that kid is really lucky not to be injured or worse.
- gerdesj 6y agoYou guys don't generally use a stick shift. A clutch would probably have caused a few teeth marks in the steering wheel rather than a car hurtling down a motorway. I too am impressed that a child so young managed to get out so far but yes, he had a very long run of luck and so did a lot of other people.
- CrazyCatDog 6y agoGo to an RC field. Nobody above the age of 30 comes close to the childrens in terms of skill. Video games and gravity engines are sufficiently real, I would trust a 12 year old on the track more than myself. Here’s betting that they have video game consoles at the five year old’s house!
- WalterBright 6y agoHuh, the videogame generation has had a terrible time getting my '72 Dodge started and moving forward. Heck, many can't remember that you have to release the key when the engine catches (modern cars do that for you, and everything else). Of course, there's that delicate dance pumping the throttle just enough to keep the cold beast from stalling.
- jacquesm 6y agoI had a classic, DS 21 with a semiautomatic gear box and a bunch of non-standard controls. I'd get a lot of requests from people that wanted to take it for a spin and I always handed them the keys with confidence: "If you can get it started you're allowed to drive it". Nobody ever managed. The reason was that the gear shift lever was used as a very clever lock-out to the starter motor, you started the engine with the gearshift lever in neutral, then moved it to a special position that engaged the starter motor. The key only enabled the contact, not the starter. This was to avoid having the car take off immediately after starting the engine. It also served as a very effective deterrent for wanna-be joy riders.
- nine_zeros 6y agoDid the kid actually pull over to the shoulder?
- schoen 6y agoYes (the left shoulder), as seen in the police dashboard camera footage linked in the article.
- ipqk 6y agoWas he The Wizard?
- Bang2Bay 6y agohow was the child able to stop the car!
- userbinator 6y agoThe same way he got it started...?
- ashton314 6y agoMakes sense that he could reach the ignition. I'm impressed he could get his foot on the break!
- partiallypro 6y agoWe're just lucky he never played Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
- tyingq 6y agoBest I can tell from the police tweet is that he went about 3 miles, guessing this route from the description of start/stop: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/17th+St+%26+Lincoln+Ave,+Ogden,+UT+84404/41.2195185,-112.0052406/@41.2213381,-112.0065879,14z/data=!4m19!4m18!1m15!1m1!1s0x87530ebffbf4c373:0xbebda80be5567470!2m2!1d-111.9757381!2d41.2368037!3m4!1m2!1d-112.0130364!2d41.228625!3s0x87530e42aee4253b:0x40567d18678521d5!3m4!1m2!1d-112.0095773!2d41.2218108!3s0x87530e5ae510383d:0x73573d457cf7562b!1m0!3e0 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/17th+St+%26+Lincoln+Ave,+Ogd...
- vonseel 6y agoDang, that is really impressive for a 5 year old. This kid is going to do big things when he is older. Hopefully outside of a life of crime.
- satya71 6y agoWhat is more impressive is that the kid actually pulled over! From the NYT article: “He was all set to make the trip,” Trooper Morgan said at the news conference. “It amazed me that when he heard my siren that he did pull over and stop.”
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.md/ws3x1 https://archive.md/ws3x1
- enz 6y agoSo, there is no Lamborghini dealers in Utah?
- jbigelow76 6y agoUh yeah, the scent of some kind of bullshit is wafting pretty strongly off this story in at least some regard. 5 years old and cognizant of wanting to buy a lambo, where to go to get one, knowing why and the protocol for getting pulled over (didn't roll down the window until the cop sauntered up?), carrying around any amount of money in his pocket, and to top it off... that pic with the kid's face blurred out, that's pretty damn high in the seat for a 5 year old[1]. 1. Point of reference, admittedly anecdotal, parent of a 5 year old boy.
- justsomedood 6y agoAgreed. There is no way this kid is actually 5 years old. He's massive for a pre-school aged kid and our five year olds were I no way attentive or coordinated enough to have pulled something like this off. I don't get why they would like about this age. Maybe hoping for more sympathy?
- telesilla 6y agoAbsolutely agreed, that child is at least 8 or 9. Even the article offered no proof of his age, it speculated on what the kid said. Perhaps he lied to get a lesser sentence. Edit: this article seems to offer a clearer photo and proof, he may actually very well be 5. https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/5/5/21248094/5-year-old-driver-freeway-lamborghini-boy-child-i15-ogden-trooper-3-utah-highway-patrol https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/5/5/21248094/5-year-old-dr...
- wltprgm 6y agoWhat were you guys thinking when you intended to upvote this post on Hacker News?
- eitland 6y agoSee dang's answer here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23087284 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23087284 It actually clarifies a whole lot.
- jhymn 6y agoSince when did face-blockers look like a vortex into another dimension? Creepy.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- solarengineer 6y agoI wonder if these various concerns would be relevant once self driving cars become common place. A child could pretend to drive (or even be trained to drive!) by a self driving vehicle.