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Japan has a very public problem of self powered vehicles running into people/stuff. With an aging population, drivers who mistakingly hit the accel when they m

Japan has a very public problem of self powered vehicles running into people/stuff. With an aging population, drivers who mistakingly hit the accel when they meant to brake, thus running full missile mode into shops and sidewalks make the news almost every day("Prius missile") The last things people want is additional vehicles plowing forward at the push of a button, this time indoors and/or on the sidewalk from the start.

throwaway2037 2y ago
> drivers who mistakingly hit the accel when they meant to brake, thus running full missile mode into shops and sidewalks make the news almost every day "Almost every day"? Hmmm... I do not think so. Wouldn't the same happen in other countries with lots of Prius and old people, like the US?
- teractiveodular 2y ago
  Yup, and it does, to the order of 16,000 times per year in the US alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration While I'm at it, here's the most famous Prius case in Japan, where a 87-year-old geriatric senior bureaucrat ran over and killed a mother and her child, but was treated with kid gloves until the husband whipped up enough public outrage to force the police to do something about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higashi-Ikebukuro_runaway_car_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higashi-Ikebukuro_runaway_car_...
  - 8note 2y ago
    That really isn't very many when you consider what the opportunities for failure are with hundreds of millions of people driving many hours a day
    - SapporoChris 2y ago
      Perhaps you were being hyperbolic, but there's not that many motor vehicles in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_motor_vehicles_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territor... Japan: 82,644,029 total. Motor vehicles include cars, vans, buses, freight, and other trucks, but exclude two-wheelers.
    - presentation 2y ago
      It’s really very many when you consider that a vanishingly tiny fraction of those deaths happen yearly in Japan thanks to it having alternatives to driving. Apparently 42k in 2022 in the USA [1] vs 2.6k in Japan [2] while the US population is less than 3 times larger. Proportionally scaling that out I can’t think of many policies where Americans would dismiss 30k+ excess civilian deaths as “not much” and the cost of doing business, only a measly ten Sept 11 attacks. It’s pretty amazing how cheaply the USA values human life if a car is involved. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_Japan_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_i...
      - throwaway2037 2y ago
        This is a great post, but I want to dispel this never-ending myth on HN that Japan does not have a lot of cars and drivers. To be clear: All highly advanced non-micro-state nations are driving nations! Read that twice, please. (Yes, we all know that Japan is insanely urbanised with at least three megacities.) Just 15km outside major cities in Japan will be lots and lots of driving. More than 30km, basically every house has a car. That said, I don't know why the number of deadly accidents is so much lower in Japan, compared to the US. Is it speed? Is it driver training? There are so many K-cars driving next to huge dump trucks that could squish them like a fly!
        teqsun 2y ago
        I can't say it's definitely the cause, but some of the things that might play a role are that the driving test is much more strict/difficult, the minimum age to get a permit is 18, the highways are generally less dense, the speed limits are lower, and traffic enforcement is stricter.

throwaway2037 2y ago

> drivers who mistakingly hit the accel when they meant to brake, thus running full missile mode into shops and sidewalks make the news almost every day "Almost every day"? Hmmm... I do not think so. Wouldn't the same happen in other countries with lots of Prius and old people, like the US?

teractiveodular 2y ago
Yup, and it does, to the order of 16,000 times per year in the US alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration While I'm at it, here's the most famous Prius case in Japan, where a 87-year-old geriatric senior bureaucrat ran over and killed a mother and her child, but was treated with kid gloves until the husband whipped up enough public outrage to force the police to do something about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higashi-Ikebukuro_runaway_car_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higashi-Ikebukuro_runaway_car_...
- 8note 2y ago
  That really isn't very many when you consider what the opportunities for failure are with hundreds of millions of people driving many hours a day
  - SapporoChris 2y ago
    Perhaps you were being hyperbolic, but there's not that many motor vehicles in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_motor_vehicles_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territor... Japan: 82,644,029 total. Motor vehicles include cars, vans, buses, freight, and other trucks, but exclude two-wheelers.
  - presentation 2y ago
    It’s really very many when you consider that a vanishingly tiny fraction of those deaths happen yearly in Japan thanks to it having alternatives to driving. Apparently 42k in 2022 in the USA [1] vs 2.6k in Japan [2] while the US population is less than 3 times larger. Proportionally scaling that out I can’t think of many policies where Americans would dismiss 30k+ excess civilian deaths as “not much” and the cost of doing business, only a measly ten Sept 11 attacks. It’s pretty amazing how cheaply the USA values human life if a car is involved. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_Japan_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_i...
    - throwaway2037 2y ago
      This is a great post, but I want to dispel this never-ending myth on HN that Japan does not have a lot of cars and drivers. To be clear: All highly advanced non-micro-state nations are driving nations! Read that twice, please. (Yes, we all know that Japan is insanely urbanised with at least three megacities.) Just 15km outside major cities in Japan will be lots and lots of driving. More than 30km, basically every house has a car. That said, I don't know why the number of deadly accidents is so much lower in Japan, compared to the US. Is it speed? Is it driver training? There are so many K-cars driving next to huge dump trucks that could squish them like a fly!
      - teqsun 2y ago
        I can't say it's definitely the cause, but some of the things that might play a role are that the driving test is much more strict/difficult, the minimum age to get a permit is 18, the highways are generally less dense, the speed limits are lower, and traffic enforcement is stricter.