Hacker News Reader

Comment by bcrosby95 | Hacker News Reader

Car accidents kill someone every 100 million miles driven in the US.

Anyone claiming they're safer now is either selling something or doesn't know what they're talking about.

Anyone claiming they are safer now.. vs what? Getting into a Tesla, turning on fsd and taking a snooze? Wonder how many millions of miles that would last without a fatality or car wreck. A lot less than 1 million I wager.

Depends a lot on what kind of road you're on.

Interstate highway? I'd absolutely trust it to cross the country while I napped.

Downtown urban cores where I can expect bicyclists in the road and delivery trucks parked in a lane? Not a chance.

Anywhere that involves making an unprotected left turn? Gambling with your life, there.

Could you share how many accidents happen, rather than deaths? With a source as well, if you happen to be looking it up.

Would you use an autonomous car if the death rate increases but accident rate decreases?

I figure deaths per million miles is a good stat

Most people choose to use cars despite that increasing both death rate and accident rate.

>Most people choose to use cars despite that increasing both death rate and accident rate.

In most of the US (not where I live, thankfully) the "choice" is use a car or stay home.

Not much of a choice.

Sure, the fact that people choose the more appealing option doesn't mean there wasn't a choice. That's just what people do when they have multiple options: they choose the one that's best according to whatever their criteria are. And many people might make a similar choice to reclaim multiple hours per day of driving time to do other things (like sleep, work, relax, etc.) while their car drives itself.

Absolutely.

Go and move to West Memphis, TN (or, as I said, with most places in the US) and try to live without a car.

Not really a choice. Which is why I live in a place with halfway-decent (well, the best in the US anyway) public transport.

Again, it is a choice, and the fact that you choose the better option doesn't mean it's not a choice.

>Again, it is a choice, and the fact that you choose the better option doesn't mean it's not a choice.

What's the choice? I don't have any idea what you mean

The choice is to stay at home, where you are very unlikely to get in a car accident, or to drive a car, which greatly increased the risk of accident and death.

>The choice is to stay at home, where you are very unlikely to get in a car accident, or to drive a car, which greatly increased the risk of accident and death.

Absolutely. At least until you're fired from your job because you don't show up. Then you'll (depending on where you live) a few months to maintain that "choice" before the landlord throws you out on your ass because you "chose" not to go to work.

Please.

Yet for many people, where they live isnt a choice, or their method of transport. Most of the US undeniably has poor public transport, and the only realistic means of travel for a day to day work schedule is via automobile.

Not sure if you were asking seriously, but: personally, yes.

This isn't that hard. Let's say loss of quality-adjusted life years due to accidents or something.

Being safer now is not a necessary claim to support the above (whether or not it's true). We don't ban student drivers from the roads.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com