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Mobile phone use is just a symptom. Everyone fiddling with their fancy in-car radio with distracting bright flashing display in the 90s was just a symptom. Peop

Mobile phone use is just a symptom. Everyone fiddling with their fancy in-car radio with distracting bright flashing display in the 90s was just a symptom. People fixing their hair in the mirror in the 70s while driving was just a symptom. It doesn’t matter what distractions you remove - ban eating and drinking (even water) while driving, impose ruinous fines for those caught… none of it will work. You need to address the root cause, not the symptom. The root cause is unspeakable. You will face extreme repulsion if you choose to openly discuss the root cause in this society because it would mean tough questions for our cultural identity.

unsupp0rted 3y ago
What’s the root cause? Unspeakable, unimaginable, impossible to write in a sentence on HN? To me the root cause is that 2-ton metal bricks shouldn’t be propelled at 50 kph, much less 140 kph, by tired hairless apes with tired ape reflexes, ape kids in the backseat, listening to other apes on podcasts, or talking even hands free with ape friends or ape spouses. We were never designed for this. It’s guaranteed to be a leading cause of death and life-changing injury, so long as we keep it up. Is that unthinkable or unspeakable? I say it on HN all the time.
- Comfy-Tinwork 3y ago
  We weren't designed for anything. We take metal from ore and make metals which we shape and make thin to cut other apes in some cases to make them better even. They're good apes brant
  - unsupp0rted 3y ago
    If you were to have 80% of adults performing surgery every morning and every evening, tired and distracted, you wouldn’t be surprised when surgical accidents become the #3 cause of death.
- tim333 3y ago
  You can say that fine. It's a reason I'm keen on self driving tech. Which usually on HN leads to a conversation along the lines of it'll never work, Musk is a fraud... but Waymo actually works... and round in circles. On a more immediate time frame, road engineering can work really well which is why deaths are like 5x lower in places like Holland. Put bends and obstacles in the road and drivers will either have to pay attention or hit them.
- mistercheph 3y ago
  I agree with this 100% WRT you and excluding everyone else.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  What’s the root cause? Cynical answer: Humans. Slightly less cynical: Cars. We've built an environment (in the US, at least) where driving a car is basically a requirement to participate in society. So, people drive, whether they want to or not. And they drive whether they're physically or mentally capable of doing so successfully. And we're so entrenched in this design that discussion of a change is met with derision and scorn.
- sam345 3y ago
  We are not apes. Apes can't design, manufacture, distribute, and buy automobiles. Apes can't drive. At all. Thank God we are not apes nor live, nor travel like them. We are able and should create technology that betters our lives. We can and have made reasonable cost/benefit decisions on risks required for these technologies.
tim333 3y ago
I was driving in the 90s and mucking around with the radio was quite different to using a smartphone these days. You'd maybe flip stations every 20 mins when one got annoying and it didn't even need taking your eyes off the road generally.
everdrive 3y ago
The root cause is human nature, which has been warped by various environmental factors: cell phones, traffic density, lack of experience being the pedestrian, etc. The human nature isn’t going away, and although the environmental factors are technically under our control, they’re just getting worse. The fact that technology only made a pre-existing issue worse does not mean that technology is not the problem.

unsupp0rted 3y ago

What’s the root cause? Unspeakable, unimaginable, impossible to write in a sentence on HN? To me the root cause is that 2-ton metal bricks shouldn’t be propelled at 50 kph, much less 140 kph, by tired hairless apes with tired ape reflexes, ape kids in the backseat, listening to other apes on podcasts, or talking even hands free with ape friends or ape spouses. We were never designed for this. It’s guaranteed to be a leading cause of death and life-changing injury, so long as we keep it up. Is that unthinkable or unspeakable? I say it on HN all the time.

Comfy-Tinwork 3y ago
We weren't designed for anything. We take metal from ore and make metals which we shape and make thin to cut other apes in some cases to make them better even. They're good apes brant
- unsupp0rted 3y ago
  If you were to have 80% of adults performing surgery every morning and every evening, tired and distracted, you wouldn’t be surprised when surgical accidents become the #3 cause of death.
tim333 3y ago
You can say that fine. It's a reason I'm keen on self driving tech. Which usually on HN leads to a conversation along the lines of it'll never work, Musk is a fraud... but Waymo actually works... and round in circles. On a more immediate time frame, road engineering can work really well which is why deaths are like 5x lower in places like Holland. Put bends and obstacles in the road and drivers will either have to pay attention or hit them.
mistercheph 3y ago
I agree with this 100% WRT you and excluding everyone else.
alistairSH 3y ago
What’s the root cause? Cynical answer: Humans. Slightly less cynical: Cars. We've built an environment (in the US, at least) where driving a car is basically a requirement to participate in society. So, people drive, whether they want to or not. And they drive whether they're physically or mentally capable of doing so successfully. And we're so entrenched in this design that discussion of a change is met with derision and scorn.
sam345 3y ago
We are not apes. Apes can't design, manufacture, distribute, and buy automobiles. Apes can't drive. At all. Thank God we are not apes nor live, nor travel like them. We are able and should create technology that betters our lives. We can and have made reasonable cost/benefit decisions on risks required for these technologies.

tim333 3y ago

I was driving in the 90s and mucking around with the radio was quite different to using a smartphone these days. You'd maybe flip stations every 20 mins when one got annoying and it didn't even need taking your eyes off the road generally.

everdrive 3y ago

The root cause is human nature, which has been warped by various environmental factors: cell phones, traffic density, lack of experience being the pedestrian, etc. The human nature isn’t going away, and although the environmental factors are technically under our control, they’re just getting worse. The fact that technology only made a pre-existing issue worse does not mean that technology is not the problem.