28 ms·

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

320 points by rockdiesel 12y ago

thrownaway2424 12y ago
A shame. People are killed in preventable road collisions with shameful frequency, in the usa compared to civilized nations. Go read the comments on HN threads about speed and red light cameras and then think about the tens of thousands of people dead in America in preventable collisions.
- ronald_dregan 12y ago
  remember that a huge, overwhelming majority of Americans are hopelessly stupid, and it starts to make a little more sense.
  - influx 12y ago
    I assure you that there are stupid people outside of America. In fact, the majority of stupid human beings are not American.
    - egor598 12y ago
      Of course the majority of stupid people will be outside of America (statistically speaking), the world is huge, you stupid :-), in comparison with your 'Murica! But I am inclined to believe that the ratio of stupid people in 'murica might as well be higher than in the rest of the world.
      - sfeng 12y ago
        > you stupid :-) Obviously he was making the exact same point you are, but because he makes it with some subtlety, he's the dumb one? In any case, there's no real evidence that Americans are significantly less smart than members of any other country: http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_r... All countries are made up of people, and all people are basically the same.
        egor598 12y ago
        No he wasn't (who can justify this "the majority of stupid human beings are not American", that's just plain fucking stupid and wrong. And there were no subtlety, unless calling most of the people outside of 'murica stupid is considered oh, so fucking subtle. And I never intended to say that Americans were less smart than members of any other country...
      - adventured 12y ago
        I wonder if HN would benefit from adding an autoflag to "'murica." I've very rarely seen it used for anything other than particularly ignorant insults or otherwise negative value comments.
      - Crito 12y ago
        > "[snip] than in the rest of the world." Considering the role of environment on intelligence, I would consider that to be extremely unlikely. If you restricted your statement to "other developed nations", that might be a bit more plausible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_and_intelligence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_and_intelligence
    - astrodust 12y ago
      American drivers are bad, some especially bad, but none of them are as outrageously bad as you get in countries like Saudi Arabia.
- dang 12y ago
  > the usa compared to civilized nations Perhaps there could have been a legitimate point about traffic deaths, but whatever substance this comment might have had is more than squandered by that acerbic swipe. I feel ashamed of Hacker News to see a thread about someone's death abused like that.
  - adventured 12y ago
    I agree with your sentiment. That said, this is an amazing community, no reason to feel ashamed of HN because of the ignorance of a few comments. That those comments almost always get downvoted to oblivion, reveals the true character of HN.
lectrick 12y ago
"Malschmaster" on FB did the deed. Typical self-absorbed roided-up GenY'er... or at least, someone caught up in that scene. These people make me wish I wasn't an electronic music fan. (Is it really doxxing if you find someone after 15 seconds of googling? He's the only 21 year old Robert Malsch in Lynnwood, Washington, all information that is present in the article.)
jbhatab 12y ago
This is just a tragic. Best wishes to his family and friends.
oflordal 12y ago
Säd. Coindidentally the same happened to one of the Oculus founders. http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew-scott-reisse-killed-at-33-the-victim-of-a-hit-and-run/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew...
- spydum 12y ago
  that is a sad, super strange coincidence, in a relatively small (but.. growing?) field
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
    - wavefunction 12y ago
      The Oculus guy was killed by some gangsters on the run from police, so your theory is unlikely.
      - Geee 12y ago
        Yep, somehow I assumed that the perpetrators haven't been caught and commented without reading the article.
        reilly3000 12y ago
        Still, its not too tin foil to think that maybe somebody has an interest in VR not happening, or not in this way. It wouldn't shock me in the least of some wing-nut thinks that AR/VR is the antichrist.
- Chevalier 12y ago
  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 know, add segregated bike lanes so programmers' kids can get to school safely. Add public parks and dense housing so you can walk down to the corner coffee store or take your dog for a walk. Ban cars from certain streets to encourage local commerce and nightlife. SOMETHING. Google's at least trying to improve Mountain View with their new campus (and Apple is very much not trying to improve Cupertino). But what the hell. An international group of wealthy geniuses can't get it together enough to demand marginally walkable lifestyles? And people wonder why everyone commutes from San Francisco.
codemac 12y ago
Unfortunate how many humans we have driving cars at various levels of impairment. It's killing so many people. Drunk driving in suburban areas is rampant and feels almost inherent without real public transportation options at last call. I think most of Seattle's public transit options stop right around midnight.
- mrgriscom 12y ago
  I don't see where in the article it says anyone involved was drinking.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - paulrademacher 12y ago
    > On Monday, a judge set bail at $100,000 for Robert Malsch, accused of drinking and of driving more than 100 mph before rear-ending a car and killing the driver inside.
  - sp332 12y ago
    Odd, the photo caption doesn't match the article text. "Robert Malsch, accused of drinking and of driving more than 100 mph" vs "He faces vehicular homicide and felony hit and run charges."
    - johnward 12y ago
      It says he was accused in one part and then later they make it sound like it was some sort of road rage / anger thing.
- chez17 12y ago
  It's funny you mention suburban drivers. I have lived and have friends who lived in both suburban and rural areas and I found that without exception rural drivers are far, far, more likely to drive drunk.
pbgodwin 12y ago
I drove past this accident Saturday morning on my way home from a friends house. It was fresh... maybe ten minutes since the accident happened. It was absolutely awful. And now it looks like we've lost a brilliant co-worker. Absolutely awful. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.
namuol 12y ago
Fuck. I feel shocked ... sick. I don't know what to say. I went to RIT with Mike. He was a seriously passionate developer and very clearly destined for great things. Finding out about this here makes me wish I had stayed in touch. This is unreal, and makes zero sense. Too many emotions that I don't know what to do with, so I'll end my comment there. Just hope the rest of his family and friends are doing okay. RIP, Mike. :( Edit: I just want to say a little more about Mike. We were fairly close, but only my first year or two at RIT when we shared a dorm building and met through mutual friends. Mike and I didn't stay in touch when our housing situations changed, but whenever we ran into each other on campus, we'd catch up, usually talking about what sort of stuff we'd been working on. He was a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Socially, he seemed to be operating on another plane, and was at most in his element when talking about our craft, or really anything he was passionate about. He was keen to become a master at everything he tried his hand in, and he was deservedly proud of that. In hindsight, Mike really was more than a peer or an acquaintance -- I looked up to him.
- epaladin 12y ago
  Another RITer- one of my friends is quoted in the article- I don't think I ever knew Mike's name but we were definitely in the same place at the same time quite frequently. Definitely sad.
  - GauntletWizard 12y ago
    I'm in precisely the same boat; I knew the face, not the name, and friends were quoted in the article. I'm really saddened by the loss. He was far too young, and clearly on top of his game. It's a shocking reminder of our own mortality.
- yebyen 12y ago
  I remember Mike. I went to RIT too. We weren't friends but he was friends with a lot of my friends. This is a shock.
hockeybias 12y ago
R.I.P. wonderful person.
itl12 12y ago
Very sad story. RIP. How is it that the driver lived (allegedly doing 100) and even managed to run away from the scene? What vehicle was he in? :/
- zo1 12y ago
  I came here wanting to know the same thing. I'm not exactly clued-up on accidents and cars, etc. But it seems highly odd that one can just die from being rear-ended by a car (even if it's going 100)? The only thing I can think of is that the breaks were on, so his body/head whip lashed forward badly or something. Anyone have any other theories about this sad event?
  - cowsandmilk 12y ago
    You can see it easily from the story. Ey's car spun around the road into a concrete wall. Malsch, the drunk driver, had his car stay on the road, just suffering front end damage from hitting Ey. In all the videos, Ey's car looks absolutely demolished while Malsch's looks like just a rough accident.
    - zo1 12y ago
      Thanks for the info, didn't notice it earlier!
- protomyth 12y ago
  Airbag on frontal and drunks tend to live because they are relaxed.
filmgirlcw 12y ago
How awful. My condolences to his family and friends. It's always awful when we lose such great minds in such senseless, preventable ways. I'm a firm believer that anyone who gets caught driving under the influence should lose their license permanently. You drink and drive? You don't get to drive. Period.
JCook4523 12y ago
Stories like these are so tragic. I'm very optimistic about self driving car technology, primarily due to it's ability to reduce these types of unnecessary deaths.
watersb 12y ago
Awful tragedy. I fucking hate cars. I really tried to like them, because they are required for child care in the United States. But I failed. Haven't driven a car to work since 1997. But I used taxis in 1998. Moved out to a remote area where I could walk to work in 1999. And my miles-driven-per-year remained the same as when I lived in the Bay Area. Damn. America is big, and relatively sparsely populated.
bovermyer 12y ago
And this is why humans should not be allowed to drive cars. Reliable, safe, self-driving cars can't come soon enough. My deepest condolences to Mike's family and friends. =(
chadaustin 12y ago
I worked with Mike Ey at IMVU for several years. He was the first tech lead for our 3D engine team, and his contributions to the company are innumerable. Moreover, I only now see how much he meant to me. He taught me how to solder, basic electronics, and spun me up on Unity3D. He was always willing to help, and one of the happiest people I've ever met. The world dimmed a little this weekend. We'll miss you Mike.
- jamesbirchler 12y ago
  I also worked with Mike at IMVU. Mike was a wonderful person all around, and a great technologist to boot. I'm proud to have worked with him.
lawnchair_larry 12y ago
Did he design the hololens, or was he a designer on the hololens team? Not to take away from the tragedy, but spinning it as the former when it's the latter is clickbaity and disrespectful to the deceased.
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  I wanted to know this as well. Here's what I found: http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-ey-microsoft-hololens-designer-and-engineer-dies-in-hit-and-run-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-ey-microsoft-hololens-de...
Surio 12y ago
This is so sad. This is the third time I hear of extremely gifted people that I know of, killed by road accident/hit and run. Growing up, I used to hear cassettes of Jon Higgins (musician) and was impressed at his dedication to his craft. Upon asking my father, why we didn't have any new cassettes of his, I was told he was killed in a road accident.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_B._Higgins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_B._Higgins !Gutted! Then, I was exposed to UNIX, and fell in love with it. Loved the man pages, tried to figure out how the man pages are created, got into the History of it.... and discovered that the original developer of the roff tool, Joe Osanna, was also killed by road accident. !Gutted! Now, gutted again! :( I sincerely wish that his family and near and dear ones are provided with the strength to handle this utterly painful situation that they are forced to face, all of a sudden!
cromwellian 12y ago
Reminds me of Googler Steve Lacey, killed by a road rage driver (http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/138605969.html 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.
- jimmyslim22 12y ago
  This is where the troublesome nature of humans comes into play. I first want to say that as someone who works in robotics, I want the automation revolution to come as much as the next guy. As a matter of fact, you are probably going to be hard pressed to find a demographic on this site that thinks differently. However, our world is sometimes driven by the vocal minority and in this case it will be the luddites that VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE self-driving cars for short minded purposes. Growing up in Nebraska and witnessing the reaction to technological influence there was very eye opening in that you realize that the common man/women thinks very much with their emotions and not with logic. You can beat them over the head with facts like this and they will argue for their old ways. They want to be in control of the situation. They want to have the right to drive their car themselves and they certainly don't trust a machine to do it for them. (I guarantee that you will hear arguements like "it's taking away jobs" and "look at this instance where it malfunctioned") this leaves some very tricky features that engineers must work into it. Is there a manual override? Are there regulations on what kind of sensing equipment is on board or is it left to the private company? What is the acceptable error range for a car at the end of the day? I think we will move into a world dominated by self-driving cars and other tech conviences that make our life easier, but I think it will be slowed down considerably by those who are resistant to change. I think anything that cuts down on instances such as this is a good and much needed thing that cannot get here any faster.
mactitan 12y ago
Google drive would solve drunk driving problem but a drunk driver deactivation system could be developed immediately. (I'm sure there would be legal issues to implement it!. And tech issues: ie if passenger drunk dont deactivate)
josefresco 12y ago
Random thought... I wonder if the emergency stop systems being implemented in today's cars would help with situations like this. I'm not sure it could stop someone this reckless (100+MPH) but certainly it could have slowed the car before impact.
justageek123 12y ago
Let's not forget the responsibility of the bar that continued to serve the drunk coward. My friend found him on FB tagged in the bar just a couple of hours before the accident. His blood alcohol was 3 times the legal limit. I am told, one would be almost comatose and they let him leave.
- darklajid 12y ago
  The bar isn't responsible. They don't need to make sure that people don't get drunk. They don't need to supervise people and ask them where they live and how the intend to get home. There's zero responsibility from my pov. If he wrecked havoc in the bar, attacked people or whatnot, then they have a reason to throw him out. They can always refuse to serve him the xth drink, but that's not responsible, that's mostly "making sure that people don't vomit all over the place". The single responsibility for drunk drivers lies with the drunk driver. Not the bar, the system, society in general or whatever. Cars are not the problem either. It was one person's act. (Too harsh? I lost my license for the better part of a year about a decade ago - for crashing my car on the Autobahn returning drunk from a party. Cannot recommend that, it was a highly expensive - in monetary terms, at that time - but luckily otherwise harmless, mightily effective lesson. So when I say that this person was an idiot I state that from the position of having been that sort of idiot in the past)
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
varelse 12y ago
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's enemy action." - Auric Goldfinger

320 points by rockdiesel 12y ago

A shame. People are killed in preventable road collisions with shameful frequency, in the usa compared to civilized nations. Go read the comments on HN threads about speed and red light cameras and then think about the tens of thousands of people dead in America in preventable collisions.

ronald_dregan 12y ago
remember that a huge, overwhelming majority of Americans are hopelessly stupid, and it starts to make a little more sense.
- influx 12y ago
  I assure you that there are stupid people outside of America. In fact, the majority of stupid human beings are not American.
  - egor598 12y ago
    Of course the majority of stupid people will be outside of America (statistically speaking), the world is huge, you stupid :-), in comparison with your 'Murica! But I am inclined to believe that the ratio of stupid people in 'murica might as well be higher than in the rest of the world.
    - sfeng 12y ago
      > you stupid :-) Obviously he was making the exact same point you are, but because he makes it with some subtlety, he's the dumb one? In any case, there's no real evidence that Americans are significantly less smart than members of any other country: http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_r... All countries are made up of people, and all people are basically the same.
      - egor598 12y ago
        No he wasn't (who can justify this "the majority of stupid human beings are not American", that's just plain fucking stupid and wrong. And there were no subtlety, unless calling most of the people outside of 'murica stupid is considered oh, so fucking subtle. And I never intended to say that Americans were less smart than members of any other country...
    - adventured 12y ago
      I wonder if HN would benefit from adding an autoflag to "'murica." I've very rarely seen it used for anything other than particularly ignorant insults or otherwise negative value comments.
    - Crito 12y ago
      > "[snip] than in the rest of the world." Considering the role of environment on intelligence, I would consider that to be extremely unlikely. If you restricted your statement to "other developed nations", that might be a bit more plausible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_and_intelligence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_and_intelligence
  - astrodust 12y ago
    American drivers are bad, some especially bad, but none of them are as outrageously bad as you get in countries like Saudi Arabia.
dang 12y ago
> the usa compared to civilized nations Perhaps there could have been a legitimate point about traffic deaths, but whatever substance this comment might have had is more than squandered by that acerbic swipe. I feel ashamed of Hacker News to see a thread about someone's death abused like that.
- adventured 12y ago
  I agree with your sentiment. That said, this is an amazing community, no reason to feel ashamed of HN because of the ignorance of a few comments. That those comments almost always get downvoted to oblivion, reveals the true character of HN.

lectrick 12y ago

"Malschmaster" on FB did the deed. Typical self-absorbed roided-up GenY'er... or at least, someone caught up in that scene. These people make me wish I wasn't an electronic music fan. (Is it really doxxing if you find someone after 15 seconds of googling? He's the only 21 year old Robert Malsch in Lynnwood, Washington, all information that is present in the article.)

jbhatab 12y ago

This is just a tragic. Best wishes to his family and friends.

oflordal 12y ago

Säd. Coindidentally the same happened to one of the Oculus founders. http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew-scott-reisse-killed-at-33-the-victim-of-a-hit-and-run/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew...

spydum 12y ago
that is a sad, super strange coincidence, in a relatively small (but.. growing?) field
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - wavefunction 12y ago
    The Oculus guy was killed by some gangsters on the run from police, so your theory is unlikely.
    - Geee 12y ago
      Yep, somehow I assumed that the perpetrators haven't been caught and commented without reading the article.
      - reilly3000 12y ago
        Still, its not too tin foil to think that maybe somebody has an interest in VR not happening, or not in this way. It wouldn't shock me in the least of some wing-nut thinks that AR/VR is the antichrist.
Chevalier 12y ago
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 know, add segregated bike lanes so programmers' kids can get to school safely. Add public parks and dense housing so you can walk down to the corner coffee store or take your dog for a walk. Ban cars from certain streets to encourage local commerce and nightlife. SOMETHING. Google's at least trying to improve Mountain View with their new campus (and Apple is very much not trying to improve Cupertino). But what the hell. An international group of wealthy geniuses can't get it together enough to demand marginally walkable lifestyles? And people wonder why everyone commutes from San Francisco.

codemac 12y ago

Unfortunate how many humans we have driving cars at various levels of impairment. It's killing so many people. Drunk driving in suburban areas is rampant and feels almost inherent without real public transportation options at last call. I think most of Seattle's public transit options stop right around midnight.

mrgriscom 12y ago
I don't see where in the article it says anyone involved was drinking.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- paulrademacher 12y ago
  > On Monday, a judge set bail at $100,000 for Robert Malsch, accused of drinking and of driving more than 100 mph before rear-ending a car and killing the driver inside.
- sp332 12y ago
  Odd, the photo caption doesn't match the article text. "Robert Malsch, accused of drinking and of driving more than 100 mph" vs "He faces vehicular homicide and felony hit and run charges."
  - johnward 12y ago
    It says he was accused in one part and then later they make it sound like it was some sort of road rage / anger thing.
chez17 12y ago
It's funny you mention suburban drivers. I have lived and have friends who lived in both suburban and rural areas and I found that without exception rural drivers are far, far, more likely to drive drunk.

pbgodwin 12y ago

I drove past this accident Saturday morning on my way home from a friends house. It was fresh... maybe ten minutes since the accident happened. It was absolutely awful. And now it looks like we've lost a brilliant co-worker. Absolutely awful. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

namuol 12y ago

Fuck. I feel shocked ... sick. I don't know what to say. I went to RIT with Mike. He was a seriously passionate developer and very clearly destined for great things. Finding out about this here makes me wish I had stayed in touch. This is unreal, and makes zero sense. Too many emotions that I don't know what to do with, so I'll end my comment there. Just hope the rest of his family and friends are doing okay. RIP, Mike. :( Edit: I just want to say a little more about Mike. We were fairly close, but only my first year or two at RIT when we shared a dorm building and met through mutual friends. Mike and I didn't stay in touch when our housing situations changed, but whenever we ran into each other on campus, we'd catch up, usually talking about what sort of stuff we'd been working on. He was a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Socially, he seemed to be operating on another plane, and was at most in his element when talking about our craft, or really anything he was passionate about. He was keen to become a master at everything he tried his hand in, and he was deservedly proud of that. In hindsight, Mike really was more than a peer or an acquaintance -- I looked up to him.

epaladin 12y ago
Another RITer- one of my friends is quoted in the article- I don't think I ever knew Mike's name but we were definitely in the same place at the same time quite frequently. Definitely sad.
- GauntletWizard 12y ago
  I'm in precisely the same boat; I knew the face, not the name, and friends were quoted in the article. I'm really saddened by the loss. He was far too young, and clearly on top of his game. It's a shocking reminder of our own mortality.
yebyen 12y ago
I remember Mike. I went to RIT too. We weren't friends but he was friends with a lot of my friends. This is a shock.

hockeybias 12y ago

R.I.P. wonderful person.

itl12 12y ago

Very sad story. RIP. How is it that the driver lived (allegedly doing 100) and even managed to run away from the scene? What vehicle was he in? :/

zo1 12y ago
I came here wanting to know the same thing. I'm not exactly clued-up on accidents and cars, etc. But it seems highly odd that one can just die from being rear-ended by a car (even if it's going 100)? The only thing I can think of is that the breaks were on, so his body/head whip lashed forward badly or something. Anyone have any other theories about this sad event?
- cowsandmilk 12y ago
  You can see it easily from the story. Ey's car spun around the road into a concrete wall. Malsch, the drunk driver, had his car stay on the road, just suffering front end damage from hitting Ey. In all the videos, Ey's car looks absolutely demolished while Malsch's looks like just a rough accident.
  - zo1 12y ago
    Thanks for the info, didn't notice it earlier!
protomyth 12y ago
Airbag on frontal and drunks tend to live because they are relaxed.

filmgirlcw 12y ago

How awful. My condolences to his family and friends. It's always awful when we lose such great minds in such senseless, preventable ways. I'm a firm believer that anyone who gets caught driving under the influence should lose their license permanently. You drink and drive? You don't get to drive. Period.

JCook4523 12y ago

Stories like these are so tragic. I'm very optimistic about self driving car technology, primarily due to it's ability to reduce these types of unnecessary deaths.

watersb 12y ago

Awful tragedy. I fucking hate cars. I really tried to like them, because they are required for child care in the United States. But I failed. Haven't driven a car to work since 1997. But I used taxis in 1998. Moved out to a remote area where I could walk to work in 1999. And my miles-driven-per-year remained the same as when I lived in the Bay Area. Damn. America is big, and relatively sparsely populated.

bovermyer 12y ago

And this is why humans should not be allowed to drive cars. Reliable, safe, self-driving cars can't come soon enough. My deepest condolences to Mike's family and friends. =(

chadaustin 12y ago

I worked with Mike Ey at IMVU for several years. He was the first tech lead for our 3D engine team, and his contributions to the company are innumerable. Moreover, I only now see how much he meant to me. He taught me how to solder, basic electronics, and spun me up on Unity3D. He was always willing to help, and one of the happiest people I've ever met. The world dimmed a little this weekend. We'll miss you Mike.

jamesbirchler 12y ago
I also worked with Mike at IMVU. Mike was a wonderful person all around, and a great technologist to boot. I'm proud to have worked with him.

lawnchair_larry 12y ago

Did he design the hololens, or was he a designer on the hololens team? Not to take away from the tragedy, but spinning it as the former when it's the latter is clickbaity and disrespectful to the deceased.

sergiotapia 12y ago
I wanted to know this as well. Here's what I found: http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-ey-microsoft-hololens-designer-and-engineer-dies-in-hit-and-run-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-ey-microsoft-hololens-de...

Surio 12y ago

This is so sad. This is the third time I hear of extremely gifted people that I know of, killed by road accident/hit and run. Growing up, I used to hear cassettes of Jon Higgins (musician) and was impressed at his dedication to his craft. Upon asking my father, why we didn't have any new cassettes of his, I was told he was killed in a road accident.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_B._Higgins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_B._Higgins !Gutted! Then, I was exposed to UNIX, and fell in love with it. Loved the man pages, tried to figure out how the man pages are created, got into the History of it.... and discovered that the original developer of the roff tool, Joe Osanna, was also killed by road accident. !Gutted! Now, gutted again! :( I sincerely wish that his family and near and dear ones are provided with the strength to handle this utterly painful situation that they are forced to face, all of a sudden!

cromwellian 12y ago

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

jimmyslim22 12y ago
This is where the troublesome nature of humans comes into play. I first want to say that as someone who works in robotics, I want the automation revolution to come as much as the next guy. As a matter of fact, you are probably going to be hard pressed to find a demographic on this site that thinks differently. However, our world is sometimes driven by the vocal minority and in this case it will be the luddites that VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE self-driving cars for short minded purposes. Growing up in Nebraska and witnessing the reaction to technological influence there was very eye opening in that you realize that the common man/women thinks very much with their emotions and not with logic. You can beat them over the head with facts like this and they will argue for their old ways. They want to be in control of the situation. They want to have the right to drive their car themselves and they certainly don't trust a machine to do it for them. (I guarantee that you will hear arguements like "it's taking away jobs" and "look at this instance where it malfunctioned") this leaves some very tricky features that engineers must work into it. Is there a manual override? Are there regulations on what kind of sensing equipment is on board or is it left to the private company? What is the acceptable error range for a car at the end of the day? I think we will move into a world dominated by self-driving cars and other tech conviences that make our life easier, but I think it will be slowed down considerably by those who are resistant to change. I think anything that cuts down on instances such as this is a good and much needed thing that cannot get here any faster.

mactitan 12y ago

Google drive would solve drunk driving problem but a drunk driver deactivation system could be developed immediately. (I'm sure there would be legal issues to implement it!. And tech issues: ie if passenger drunk dont deactivate)

josefresco 12y ago

Random thought... I wonder if the emergency stop systems being implemented in today's cars would help with situations like this. I'm not sure it could stop someone this reckless (100+MPH) but certainly it could have slowed the car before impact.

justageek123 12y ago

Let's not forget the responsibility of the bar that continued to serve the drunk coward. My friend found him on FB tagged in the bar just a couple of hours before the accident. His blood alcohol was 3 times the legal limit. I am told, one would be almost comatose and they let him leave.

darklajid 12y ago
The bar isn't responsible. They don't need to make sure that people don't get drunk. They don't need to supervise people and ask them where they live and how the intend to get home. There's zero responsibility from my pov. If he wrecked havoc in the bar, attacked people or whatnot, then they have a reason to throw him out. They can always refuse to serve him the xth drink, but that's not responsible, that's mostly "making sure that people don't vomit all over the place". The single responsibility for drunk drivers lies with the drunk driver. Not the bar, the system, society in general or whatever. Cars are not the problem either. It was one person's act. (Too harsh? I lost my license for the better part of a year about a decade ago - for crashing my car on the Autobahn returning drunk from a party. Cannot recommend that, it was a highly expensive - in monetary terms, at that time - but luckily otherwise harmless, mightily effective lesson. So when I say that this person was an idiot I state that from the position of having been that sort of idiot in the past)
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varelse 12y ago

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's enemy action." - Auric Goldfinger