7 ms·

I think they're an awful addition to driver controls. You simply cannot be distracted while driving for more than a few seconds before you're endangering yourse

by oblib 6y ago

I think they're an awful addition to driver controls. You simply cannot be distracted while driving for more than a few seconds before you're endangering yourself and others and there is no good place to put them that doesn't take your eyes off the road. When I use a mapping app for driving I use one I can place on the dashboard and quickly glance at it but I don't fiddle with it. Watching videos of those pile ups in Texas this month was just stunning. Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all. I grew up around and working with body men who repaired crashed car and the people who crashed them, custom and race car builders, and race car drivers, and some of those drivers broke world speed records, and some died racing. I also designed and built "zero effort" driving systems for C4-C5 quadriplegics so they could drive while sitting in their wheelchairs. Most of them couldn't pick up a sandwich but they could safely drive the vehicles we built for them. Of all the crazy things people have asked me to do to their car, none of it would be more dangerous than a touchscreen for driver controls, and especially one with entertainment features. That's the ultimate stupid feature. And I have been asked to do a shit ton of crazy things to cars people drive. Evel Kenival wanted me to build a show car that "exploded the body off", and I did. And as far as know, no one was ever injured by it. If he'd asked me to build him a car that he could change the radio station with a touchscreen TV in the center console while driving down the highway I'd have told him "No. I won't do that". What scares me is people buy and use this stuff now while barreling down the hwy at 70+mph.

dragosmocrii 6y ago
Are you referring to the pileup caused by the black ice on the overpass? At those Texan speeds, managing to stop a sixteen wheeler on ice would be a miracle. Edit: removed part that was saying ABS is useless on ice.
- kaonwarb 6y ago
  Can you explain how you would be better off without ABS than with it on ice? Ice is precisely the type of situation ABS is built for.
  - dragosmocrii 6y ago
    You are right, a few searches reveal that ABS is supposed to help on ice. I confused another piece of information I read that was saying that ABS is worse on snow, due to not creating that snow wall as the tire digs through the snow, that a locked wheel would allow.
    - sebastien_b 6y ago
      The primary function of ABS is to allow you to keep steering control, rather than "improved braking" (though I guess it could be said that you get 'improved braking' by being able to control it better ie. by being able to also steer away from an object). It applies equally to snow, wet or dry conditions.
    - Spooky23 6y ago
      I grew up in an area that 5-8 feet of snow annually and drove old cars in it. Don’t listen to internet nerds arguing about what a super skilled driver can do. A pile of snow pushed in front of a wheel isn’t stopping a car. After front wheel drive, ABS is one of the major ways to improve winter driving. Not only in snow, but in black ice and similar conditions. The big issue is driving too fast and losing control and going into the ditch or a spin. ABS makes it easier for you to know you have a problem and to avoid it. It may or may not bring you to a full stop in a shorter timeframe, but it will shed speed so you regain control. After ABS, all season tires and AWD are the most important enhancements.
      - sebastien_b 6y ago
        > After ABS, all season tires and AWD are the most important enhancements Agreed. But I would say the proper tires for the conditions is ideal, meaning snow tires in winter. - ABS for steering control. - Snow tires in winter ("snow boots for your car"). - AWD (or something adaptive) for traction control. - Last but not least - driving smart (not speeding, adjusting for conditions, etc.)
      - dragosmocrii 6y ago
        Thanks, great points. It's true, ABS can provide helpful feedback. On several occasions I had to abort cornering and keep going straight, because I once the ABS was engaged I knew there's no way I was making the corner (this was low speed on a patch of ice covered by fresh snow). Also, I find the electronic stability control system extremely useful for detecting black ice. A slight acceleration attempt provides instant feedback if the road is slippery, but not immediately obvious.
- ColFrancis 6y ago
  > At those Texan speeds, managing to stop a sixteen wheeler on ice would be a miracle. So what you're saying is they should have been going slower due to inclement weather?
tyingq 6y ago
"There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all." Not offering this up as an excuse but rather sort of a pattern of behavior. When I leave lots of room between me and the car in front of me, it invites crazy behavior for people cutting into that big open space. Especially with people that don't know how to merge onto a freeway. It's sometimes hard to tell if following technically too close is actually safer for that reason. Note that I've never rear-ended anybody, but I've certainly had some exciting panic stops.
- OnionBlender 6y ago
  Where I live people merge onto the freeway as quickly as possible. If I try to merge the "correct" way, people think I'm cheating and will speed up to force me to go have to merge behind them even though they were previously going pretty slow in the right lane.
- nkrisc 6y ago
  When people cut into that big open space then I ease off the gas a little and let more room open up between us. Someone else cuts in, and I just keep doing the same. Just because they're going to drive dangerously doesn't mean I have to.
  - ramraj07 6y ago
    Sure and I guess we get home the next day I suppose. There's being safe and then there's being paranoid. The OP quoted a pile up in Texas during one of the worst winter storms in history as example of not following distance, while the right thing to do on that day would have been to _not drive at all_. Even on normal Christmas mornings which are typically one of the iciest days of the year in Dallas I used to take a bus ride to see how many cars I can count in ditches. Just don't drive in Texas if the roads are icy.
    - systemvoltage 6y ago
      You’ll get home just 30 seconds late. Next time wait for 30 seconds and see how much road you can cover. Unless you’re stuck in traffic, easing off of gas to allow for 2-3 cars of space ahead of you isn’t even going to be noticeable in your commute time.
BoorishBears 6y ago
> There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all. The other reply aludes to this, but it's very simple The easiest way to cause an accident is to behave in an unexpected way Leave a gap when no one else is? People will cut into the gap and put you and others at risk. Brake early to increase the space you have? People not paying attention will rear end you expecting you to have braked later. Drive slower than most traffic to give yourself more reaction time? People will pass you unsafely, and you again run the risk of being rear ended since going slower than people expect is a similar outcome to them coming across an unexpected obstacle. That's why we see fully autonomous vehicles getting in so many not-at-fault accidents. The most experienced drivers realize there are a lot of unspoken conventions that, for better or worse, people rely on to get from place to place. Sometimes those backfire like in that pile up, but this isn't really something you fix by being the only person doing otherwise. You'll quickly find that you're putting yourself at the mercy of other drivers (and yes you won't be at fault, but not being at fault never saved someone in an ICU)
- beisner 6y ago
  I have one rule when driving: “stay the fuck away from me”. All other rules follow, including leaving tons of space, signaling, passing appropriately. Also includes moving right when someone is too close to me. I consider myself an extremely safe driver, and I’ve definitely been in way more close calls when someone else was driving than when I was. I don’t think that logic you’ve proposed really holds in the parts of the US that I’ve lived in (East coast, Midwest).
  - BoorishBears 6y ago
    I driven 80,000 miles between CT, NY and NC with 0 accidents* in the last 3 years (almost 70,000 in two years, COVID obviously put a damper on recreational driving) Right now I live in NYC and I can tell you leaving tons of space (outside of zipper merges) is just going to leave you slamming your brakes for overaggressive drivers all day, and if you're unlucky someone will hit you or swipe you. That's not saying you need to tailgate people until you can smell their breath, but the ideal following distance at highway speeds is 6 car lengths at 60 mph for example. 6 car lengths between the car in front of you here would leave people treating you like you have a disabled car, rushing to fill that gap immediately in a mad rush. It sucks, but at the same time that's how people drive sometimes. To me the safest way to drive is to not to have hard and fast rules you follow regardless of situation, but to adapt to situations quickly. For example, if trucks start passing me on the left, I'd rather be in a "left-er" lane than the one I'm in, even if it means giving up some of my ability to make space. The action of the truck switching lanes twice in close proximity is creating more risk for me than driving at the same distance the rest of traffic is - Also in most pile ups like the one mentioned following distance isn't even the main issue, it's things like target fixation, where you come around the bend see a giant crash and "lock up" Space will buy you more time to get over the fixation, but I'm willing to bet most people wouldn't be able to handle that in 6 car lengths at 60 mph. Early in my instruction on performance driving, the thing that created the hairiest situations, even on an closed course with not a single car for another few turns, was always target fixation. It's not easy to get over, and I feel like a great antidote is to not think in terms of "I have to make space, this space is a safe zone" but "what if this is not a safe zone, what are my options" and continuously think of that * one accident happened when I was not in the car, parked car got smashed by a driver confusing their pedals
908087 6y ago
> I think they're an awful addition to driver controls. To make matters worse, they're quickly becoming a full replacement for driver controls rather than an addition in many cars.
bartread 6y ago
> Of all the crazy things people have asked me to do to their car, none of it would be more dangerous than a touchscreen for driver controls, and especially one with entertainment features. I drive an older car with an old fashioned CD player rather than an infotainment system so what do I do? That's right. I put my phone in a cradle next to the steering wheel and use Spotify. Apart from the serious issues caused by the lack of tactile feedback and the fact you have to look at the interface to use it, it's like the Spotify product development teams have gone out of their way to make the app clumsy and dangerous to use whilst driving. It is crappy and unresponsive, with way too much clutter. I swear, Spotify have a giant engineering team and I have literally no idea what they spend their time doing: it's certainly nothing that I find useful or that improves my experience. So in order to avoid dying or killing anybody else I plug the phone in to the aux socket on the car stereo (no Bluetooth in my car), select a playlist before I set off, and then let it do its thing. I'd switch back to CDs but they're a pain in the ass to carry in bulk. Or I listen to an audiobook. I hate touch interfaces in cars.
- Spooky23 6y ago
  Even better is Pandora. I switched to Apple Music mostly because my car forced me to use some shitshow built in Pandora mode that works poorly and locks out the Pandora interface on the phone! I hate driving and fill the navigator/DJ role in the car. Assuming I’m driving in a 7 passenger car is dumb.
  - jacobr1 6y ago
    That is another good point - having a passenger. Our Toyota has safety features prevent bringing up a keyboard (mainly for the gps to search for new locations while driving). The car needs to be stopped. For a solo driver this makes sense ... but I know my local area ... the only time I ever need this is when I'm on a roadtrip and usually the passenger is the one making the change. I want _more_ powerful interfaces and touch is fine for a passenger coordinating with the driver, even though a physical interface for the driver with better integration into apps would work better for that use case. One-size doesn't fit all.
- 6y ago
heartbreak 6y ago
> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. This comment is against the HN guidelines.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  No, it isn't. It is a general criticism of hypothetical behavior. It isn't focused on any particular person or group, much less any particular commentator in this thread. It might be better to say "a poor driver" rather than "an idiot", but that's a style issue rather than one of decorum.
  - heartbreak 6y ago
    It was the nicest thing I could say to such a disgustingly inhumane comment. Oblib clearly lacks understanding of the Fort Worth incident, but chose to blame the victims anyway. More people died in that collision than live in Bill’s little hamlet, so maybe it’s just a lack of perspective. They were not poor drivers. Conditions rapidly and invisibly changed in above-freezing temperatures causing a sudden loss of traction. Several professional truck drivers (who likely had prior experience in winter weather) were involved. Anyone would have been helpless in that situation, which is why more than 100 vehicles were. HAVE SOME FUCKING EMPATHY.
    - jessaustin 6y ago
      Obviously we don't want the Westboro Baptists picketing any funerals with "Idiot!" signs. We're not in that context now; we're online discussing highway safety. The blizzard was not a surprise to anyone who had seen a weather report in the preceding week. No one is a perfect driver, so it's certainly possible for anyone to take part in a collision. However, it is smart to consider the actual causes of a particular collision, in order to avoid those situations while driving in future. Several professional truck drivers (who likely had prior experience in winter weather) were involved. Every time I see something truly stupid on the interstate, a semi truck is involved. Around the same time as Texans were having problems, I passed by a semi truck in a ditch. The two drivers who (or, presumably, one of whom) had missed the entrance to the filling station that dumps sewage into my creek, were wearing long-sleeved T-shirts while they shuffled about watching the warmly-dressed wrecker driver hook up cables and the temperature was in the low twenties. Clearly these guys weren't ready for driving in February. Empathy is a fine, human thing. In other nations, empathy has led to helpful emergency payments for workers and small businesses who have suffered during the pandemic. In USA we don't have enough empathy for all that. (Maybe $1400, but certainly not $2000.) Still, weather has even less empathy than Congress. E"R"COT are some other Texans who should have known that already.
addicted 6y ago
I’ve never understood how we know from all the research there is that your phone in your hand is a massive distraction while driving. How is a much bigger screen, that is farther away and brighter and requires you to reach out for it not an even bigger distraction.
kuya11 6y ago
> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. I find this comment baseless and insensitive to those that were killed. The Texas accident was attributed to a failure of road ice management. Bystander video clearly shows vehicles attempting to stop sliding for hundreds of yards on ice.
- genericone 6y ago
  Agreed, I don't think OP ever tried to figure out what happened in that scenario, just waved it off as dumb drivers, "I would have had different results", rather than the sudden undetectable absolute loss of traction event, which probably wouldn't even have a high chance of being detectable by any fancy Vision/Lidar self-driving algorithms (black ice, no change in contrast).
- eptcyka 6y ago
  One could make the argument that the drivers were not aware of the dangers of driving on ice, but then it's a fault of the regulatory body that issues licenses to these people. However, I do think it's the drivers responsibility to assess the road conditions and pick an appropriate speed. Whilst it is a failure of government authorities to not de-ice the roads and spread salt, any driver can at any point in time be caught off guard by terrible weather, and they should be ready to deal with those situations.
- oblib 6y ago
  Those videos also show people successfully stopping without smashing into the car in front of them, and then getting rear ended by the driver behind them. There's your baseline.
jacobr1 6y ago
I once had to report an uber driver for watching a movie on his laptop. Almost scarier than the distraction watching the movie, was that every turn (or swerve) caused the laptop to slide on the dash and he'd reach way over the passenger side to move it back. Scary ride.
agumonkey 6y ago
> I don't fiddle with it. I keep my smartphone with shazam on when I listen to the radio. While moving I'll hear a song and just press the big round button in the middle. The simplest gesture possible on a phone. I noticed that when I do so, even if I make a conscious effort to: - keep eyes on the road 100% - not even tilt my head to look at the phone - don't insist if I miss even then I can see my brain lose focus of the area around me and somehow only have a mental image of my limb / arm / hand It seems very unnatural (unless trainable .. can't say) to do those two things at once without turning into a high risk.
sn41 6y ago
> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. Are you serious? Winter driving is no joke. I sympathise with people in Texas who did not have a daily encouter with snow and ice. When I was in the midwest, I was pretty good at driving on ice, guessing where black ice was etc. I will never forget Jan 25, 2010 in Iowa when I successfully made home - it was literally like driving blindfolded on a glass sheet [1]. Driving north on I-35 at 15 mph. It was one of the proudest achievements of my life. Hint: if you see an overpass, brake gently before you reach there. You are betting that there won't be black ice below it, and that's not a very safe bet. The steering wheel might buck once on the black ice, but you can recover if you are slow, and you go into the skid rather than against it. [1] https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/photos-blizzard-across-iowa/collection_a7443a3c-0a49-11df-9013-001cc4c002e0.html https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/ph...
- fzzzy 6y ago
  They are not in control of their car if they cannot stop without crashing. Sometimes this requires not driving at all.
  - sn41 6y ago
    You are absolutely right. But if you are on the road, I was saying that it is possible to regain control of the car even if you momentarily skid/slide. I think winter driving definitely takes getting used to, there is no point in blaming drivers who may be encountering this for the first time in their lives.
rarefied_tomato 6y ago
It sounds like you aren't familiar with ice driving. The worst pileup in Texas occurred on one side of an arched overpass. Drivers coming from one direction couldn't see the pileup forming at the bottom until they were already coming down. At such a velocity and slope, there was no recourse. This is in spite of the long distance that remained to the start of the pileup. For context, ice accumulates on bridges before the rest of the highway.

by oblib 6y ago

dragosmocrii 6y ago

Are you referring to the pileup caused by the black ice on the overpass? At those Texan speeds, managing to stop a sixteen wheeler on ice would be a miracle. Edit: removed part that was saying ABS is useless on ice.

kaonwarb 6y ago
Can you explain how you would be better off without ABS than with it on ice? Ice is precisely the type of situation ABS is built for.
- dragosmocrii 6y ago
  You are right, a few searches reveal that ABS is supposed to help on ice. I confused another piece of information I read that was saying that ABS is worse on snow, due to not creating that snow wall as the tire digs through the snow, that a locked wheel would allow.
  - sebastien_b 6y ago
    The primary function of ABS is to allow you to keep steering control, rather than "improved braking" (though I guess it could be said that you get 'improved braking' by being able to control it better ie. by being able to also steer away from an object). It applies equally to snow, wet or dry conditions.
  - Spooky23 6y ago
    I grew up in an area that 5-8 feet of snow annually and drove old cars in it. Don’t listen to internet nerds arguing about what a super skilled driver can do. A pile of snow pushed in front of a wheel isn’t stopping a car. After front wheel drive, ABS is one of the major ways to improve winter driving. Not only in snow, but in black ice and similar conditions. The big issue is driving too fast and losing control and going into the ditch or a spin. ABS makes it easier for you to know you have a problem and to avoid it. It may or may not bring you to a full stop in a shorter timeframe, but it will shed speed so you regain control. After ABS, all season tires and AWD are the most important enhancements.
    - sebastien_b 6y ago
      > After ABS, all season tires and AWD are the most important enhancements Agreed. But I would say the proper tires for the conditions is ideal, meaning snow tires in winter. - ABS for steering control. - Snow tires in winter ("snow boots for your car"). - AWD (or something adaptive) for traction control. - Last but not least - driving smart (not speeding, adjusting for conditions, etc.)
    - dragosmocrii 6y ago
      Thanks, great points. It's true, ABS can provide helpful feedback. On several occasions I had to abort cornering and keep going straight, because I once the ABS was engaged I knew there's no way I was making the corner (this was low speed on a patch of ice covered by fresh snow). Also, I find the electronic stability control system extremely useful for detecting black ice. A slight acceleration attempt provides instant feedback if the road is slippery, but not immediately obvious.
ColFrancis 6y ago
> At those Texan speeds, managing to stop a sixteen wheeler on ice would be a miracle. So what you're saying is they should have been going slower due to inclement weather?

tyingq 6y ago

"There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all." Not offering this up as an excuse but rather sort of a pattern of behavior. When I leave lots of room between me and the car in front of me, it invites crazy behavior for people cutting into that big open space. Especially with people that don't know how to merge onto a freeway. It's sometimes hard to tell if following technically too close is actually safer for that reason. Note that I've never rear-ended anybody, but I've certainly had some exciting panic stops.

OnionBlender 6y ago
Where I live people merge onto the freeway as quickly as possible. If I try to merge the "correct" way, people think I'm cheating and will speed up to force me to go have to merge behind them even though they were previously going pretty slow in the right lane.
nkrisc 6y ago
When people cut into that big open space then I ease off the gas a little and let more room open up between us. Someone else cuts in, and I just keep doing the same. Just because they're going to drive dangerously doesn't mean I have to.
- ramraj07 6y ago
  Sure and I guess we get home the next day I suppose. There's being safe and then there's being paranoid. The OP quoted a pile up in Texas during one of the worst winter storms in history as example of not following distance, while the right thing to do on that day would have been to _not drive at all_. Even on normal Christmas mornings which are typically one of the iciest days of the year in Dallas I used to take a bus ride to see how many cars I can count in ditches. Just don't drive in Texas if the roads are icy.
  - systemvoltage 6y ago
    You’ll get home just 30 seconds late. Next time wait for 30 seconds and see how much road you can cover. Unless you’re stuck in traffic, easing off of gas to allow for 2-3 cars of space ahead of you isn’t even going to be noticeable in your commute time.

BoorishBears 6y ago

> There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all. The other reply aludes to this, but it's very simple The easiest way to cause an accident is to behave in an unexpected way Leave a gap when no one else is? People will cut into the gap and put you and others at risk. Brake early to increase the space you have? People not paying attention will rear end you expecting you to have braked later. Drive slower than most traffic to give yourself more reaction time? People will pass you unsafely, and you again run the risk of being rear ended since going slower than people expect is a similar outcome to them coming across an unexpected obstacle. That's why we see fully autonomous vehicles getting in so many not-at-fault accidents. The most experienced drivers realize there are a lot of unspoken conventions that, for better or worse, people rely on to get from place to place. Sometimes those backfire like in that pile up, but this isn't really something you fix by being the only person doing otherwise. You'll quickly find that you're putting yourself at the mercy of other drivers (and yes you won't be at fault, but not being at fault never saved someone in an ICU)

beisner 6y ago
I have one rule when driving: “stay the fuck away from me”. All other rules follow, including leaving tons of space, signaling, passing appropriately. Also includes moving right when someone is too close to me. I consider myself an extremely safe driver, and I’ve definitely been in way more close calls when someone else was driving than when I was. I don’t think that logic you’ve proposed really holds in the parts of the US that I’ve lived in (East coast, Midwest).
- BoorishBears 6y ago
  I driven 80,000 miles between CT, NY and NC with 0 accidents* in the last 3 years (almost 70,000 in two years, COVID obviously put a damper on recreational driving) Right now I live in NYC and I can tell you leaving tons of space (outside of zipper merges) is just going to leave you slamming your brakes for overaggressive drivers all day, and if you're unlucky someone will hit you or swipe you. That's not saying you need to tailgate people until you can smell their breath, but the ideal following distance at highway speeds is 6 car lengths at 60 mph for example. 6 car lengths between the car in front of you here would leave people treating you like you have a disabled car, rushing to fill that gap immediately in a mad rush. It sucks, but at the same time that's how people drive sometimes. To me the safest way to drive is to not to have hard and fast rules you follow regardless of situation, but to adapt to situations quickly. For example, if trucks start passing me on the left, I'd rather be in a "left-er" lane than the one I'm in, even if it means giving up some of my ability to make space. The action of the truck switching lanes twice in close proximity is creating more risk for me than driving at the same distance the rest of traffic is - Also in most pile ups like the one mentioned following distance isn't even the main issue, it's things like target fixation, where you come around the bend see a giant crash and "lock up" Space will buy you more time to get over the fixation, but I'm willing to bet most people wouldn't be able to handle that in 6 car lengths at 60 mph. Early in my instruction on performance driving, the thing that created the hairiest situations, even on an closed course with not a single car for another few turns, was always target fixation. It's not easy to get over, and I feel like a great antidote is to not think in terms of "I have to make space, this space is a safe zone" but "what if this is not a safe zone, what are my options" and continuously think of that * one accident happened when I was not in the car, parked car got smashed by a driver confusing their pedals

908087 6y ago

> I think they're an awful addition to driver controls. To make matters worse, they're quickly becoming a full replacement for driver controls rather than an addition in many cars.

bartread 6y ago

> Of all the crazy things people have asked me to do to their car, none of it would be more dangerous than a touchscreen for driver controls, and especially one with entertainment features. I drive an older car with an old fashioned CD player rather than an infotainment system so what do I do? That's right. I put my phone in a cradle next to the steering wheel and use Spotify. Apart from the serious issues caused by the lack of tactile feedback and the fact you have to look at the interface to use it, it's like the Spotify product development teams have gone out of their way to make the app clumsy and dangerous to use whilst driving. It is crappy and unresponsive, with way too much clutter. I swear, Spotify have a giant engineering team and I have literally no idea what they spend their time doing: it's certainly nothing that I find useful or that improves my experience. So in order to avoid dying or killing anybody else I plug the phone in to the aux socket on the car stereo (no Bluetooth in my car), select a playlist before I set off, and then let it do its thing. I'd switch back to CDs but they're a pain in the ass to carry in bulk. Or I listen to an audiobook. I hate touch interfaces in cars.

Spooky23 6y ago
Even better is Pandora. I switched to Apple Music mostly because my car forced me to use some shitshow built in Pandora mode that works poorly and locks out the Pandora interface on the phone! I hate driving and fill the navigator/DJ role in the car. Assuming I’m driving in a 7 passenger car is dumb.
- jacobr1 6y ago
  That is another good point - having a passenger. Our Toyota has safety features prevent bringing up a keyboard (mainly for the gps to search for new locations while driving). The car needs to be stopped. For a solo driver this makes sense ... but I know my local area ... the only time I ever need this is when I'm on a roadtrip and usually the passenger is the one making the change. I want _more_ powerful interfaces and touch is fine for a passenger coordinating with the driver, even though a physical interface for the driver with better integration into apps would work better for that use case. One-size doesn't fit all.
6y ago

heartbreak 6y ago

> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. This comment is against the HN guidelines.

jessaustin 6y ago
No, it isn't. It is a general criticism of hypothetical behavior. It isn't focused on any particular person or group, much less any particular commentator in this thread. It might be better to say "a poor driver" rather than "an idiot", but that's a style issue rather than one of decorum.
- heartbreak 6y ago
  It was the nicest thing I could say to such a disgustingly inhumane comment. Oblib clearly lacks understanding of the Fort Worth incident, but chose to blame the victims anyway. More people died in that collision than live in Bill’s little hamlet, so maybe it’s just a lack of perspective. They were not poor drivers. Conditions rapidly and invisibly changed in above-freezing temperatures causing a sudden loss of traction. Several professional truck drivers (who likely had prior experience in winter weather) were involved. Anyone would have been helpless in that situation, which is why more than 100 vehicles were. HAVE SOME FUCKING EMPATHY.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    Obviously we don't want the Westboro Baptists picketing any funerals with "Idiot!" signs. We're not in that context now; we're online discussing highway safety. The blizzard was not a surprise to anyone who had seen a weather report in the preceding week. No one is a perfect driver, so it's certainly possible for anyone to take part in a collision. However, it is smart to consider the actual causes of a particular collision, in order to avoid those situations while driving in future. Several professional truck drivers (who likely had prior experience in winter weather) were involved. Every time I see something truly stupid on the interstate, a semi truck is involved. Around the same time as Texans were having problems, I passed by a semi truck in a ditch. The two drivers who (or, presumably, one of whom) had missed the entrance to the filling station that dumps sewage into my creek, were wearing long-sleeved T-shirts while they shuffled about watching the warmly-dressed wrecker driver hook up cables and the temperature was in the low twenties. Clearly these guys weren't ready for driving in February. Empathy is a fine, human thing. In other nations, empathy has led to helpful emergency payments for workers and small businesses who have suffered during the pandemic. In USA we don't have enough empathy for all that. (Maybe $1400, but certainly not $2000.) Still, weather has even less empathy than Congress. E"R"COT are some other Texans who should have known that already.

addicted 6y ago

I’ve never understood how we know from all the research there is that your phone in your hand is a massive distraction while driving. How is a much bigger screen, that is farther away and brighter and requires you to reach out for it not an even bigger distraction.

kuya11 6y ago

> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. I find this comment baseless and insensitive to those that were killed. The Texas accident was attributed to a failure of road ice management. Bystander video clearly shows vehicles attempting to stop sliding for hundreds of yards on ice.

genericone 6y ago
Agreed, I don't think OP ever tried to figure out what happened in that scenario, just waved it off as dumb drivers, "I would have had different results", rather than the sudden undetectable absolute loss of traction event, which probably wouldn't even have a high chance of being detectable by any fancy Vision/Lidar self-driving algorithms (black ice, no change in contrast).
eptcyka 6y ago
One could make the argument that the drivers were not aware of the dangers of driving on ice, but then it's a fault of the regulatory body that issues licenses to these people. However, I do think it's the drivers responsibility to assess the road conditions and pick an appropriate speed. Whilst it is a failure of government authorities to not de-ice the roads and spread salt, any driver can at any point in time be caught off guard by terrible weather, and they should be ready to deal with those situations.
oblib 6y ago
Those videos also show people successfully stopping without smashing into the car in front of them, and then getting rear ended by the driver behind them. There's your baseline.

jacobr1 6y ago

I once had to report an uber driver for watching a movie on his laptop. Almost scarier than the distraction watching the movie, was that every turn (or swerve) caused the laptop to slide on the dash and he'd reach way over the passenger side to move it back. Scary ride.

agumonkey 6y ago

> I don't fiddle with it. I keep my smartphone with shazam on when I listen to the radio. While moving I'll hear a song and just press the big round button in the middle. The simplest gesture possible on a phone. I noticed that when I do so, even if I make a conscious effort to: - keep eyes on the road 100% - not even tilt my head to look at the phone - don't insist if I miss even then I can see my brain lose focus of the area around me and somehow only have a mental image of my limb / arm / hand It seems very unnatural (unless trainable .. can't say) to do those two things at once without turning into a high risk.

sn41 6y ago

> Everyone who rear ended the car in front of them was an idiot. Are you serious? Winter driving is no joke. I sympathise with people in Texas who did not have a daily encouter with snow and ice. When I was in the midwest, I was pretty good at driving on ice, guessing where black ice was etc. I will never forget Jan 25, 2010 in Iowa when I successfully made home - it was literally like driving blindfolded on a glass sheet [1]. Driving north on I-35 at 15 mph. It was one of the proudest achievements of my life. Hint: if you see an overpass, brake gently before you reach there. You are betting that there won't be black ice below it, and that's not a very safe bet. The steering wheel might buck once on the black ice, but you can recover if you are slow, and you go into the skid rather than against it. [1] https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/photos-blizzard-across-iowa/collection_a7443a3c-0a49-11df-9013-001cc4c002e0.html https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/ph...

fzzzy 6y ago
They are not in control of their car if they cannot stop without crashing. Sometimes this requires not driving at all.
- sn41 6y ago
  You are absolutely right. But if you are on the road, I was saying that it is possible to regain control of the car even if you momentarily skid/slide. I think winter driving definitely takes getting used to, there is no point in blaming drivers who may be encountering this for the first time in their lives.

rarefied_tomato 6y ago

It sounds like you aren't familiar with ice driving. The worst pileup in Texas occurred on one side of an arched overpass. Drivers coming from one direction couldn't see the pileup forming at the bottom until they were already coming down. At such a velocity and slope, there was no recourse. This is in spite of the long distance that remained to the start of the pileup. For context, ice accumulates on bridges before the rest of the highway.