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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

I will frequently have my wife look up something on my phone or handle the GPS on it while I'm driving or take a call. These are perfectly reasonable and go against your two suggestions.

Further investment in public transport is one part of a solution (and has other benefits) but another part should be reducing the "always available" expectation.

Phone calls are almost always a huge intrusion. I'd rather they act, rather than a ringing phone, as more of an "x needs to speak with you, initiate call when convenient" alert. Then if they become unavailable, they can set a time or wait until your "ready" signal is active and contact you.

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If parent commenter already wants to require tethering your phone and your car in order to disable the phone, I have little doubt they're okay with what they would likely describe as a small inconvenience to save lives.

Well if that is his stance, why stop there?

Let's just ban cars altogether and everyone can walk everywhere they need to go. Not only would it be much safer for everyone in the short-term but the exercise would improve long term health as well.

> Let's just ban cars altogether

No, let's just ban human-driven cars altogether. This is actually a good solution. Can't wait until the day it becomes reality.

In the meantime, maybe the society should start approaching driving cars the way they approach flying airplanes? That is, actually train the people operating the vehicle. Current driving license exams are a joke, and people still complain they're too difficult.

No it's not.

Every day large chunks of the world's population are able to drive safely to their destinations. We have illustrated an ability to do this year after year and yet there's this idea that the best solution to stopping accidents is to ban humans from the equation.

I agree with your thoughts on properly training people on how to drive a car - Western countries that have better driving training and safer cars score far better in deaths per 100k motor vehicles than poorer countries and this is something that can still be improved on. That I was able to get a manual license (in Australia) without needing to demonstrate a hill start to my tester is a complete joke.

I'm not saying that self-driving cars are a bad thing - I would happily set my car to autopilot while I cruise down the highway and eat lunch or take a phone call. I'd love the additional safety of having a system that can brake perfectly for me if I'm about to crash. Being able to take a tight park because I can just get out and then watch my car go into the space? Awesome.

However, to completely ban humans is going too far. Sure, be much harsher on those at fault in accidents where they've disabled a safety feature that could have provably stopped the accident. But don't take the "a few people are bad so let's stop everyone" approach to something that we've already demonstrated a high level of competency at.

> Every day large chunks of the world's population are able to drive safely to their destinations. We have illustrated an ability to do this year after year

Yes and no. The accident rate would I think be viewed as completely unacceptable in almost any other activity.

That I was able to get a manual license (in Australia) without needing to demonstrate a hill start to my tester is a complete joke.

Perhaps it would make you feel better to know that here in America, there is no distinction of licenses for a manual transmission. You can pass in an automatic and then drive whatever you want. So not only do you not have to demonstrate a hill start, you don't even have to know how to know how to use the clutch at all!

This is true in Australia too though you can take the test(s) with either transmission. e.g., you can pass your test in an automatic and then drive a manual.

Depends on your state. This isn't the case in Victoria. I think they split the licenses into auto and manual about 15 years ago.

This being said, I trained and passed in a manual car, and have driven an auto since. I at least know what the clutch is supposed to do, but I'm not exactly practised :)

I imagine that many accidents aren't due to poor training but poor discipline and lack of appreciation for the seriousness of the task at hand.

The fines for using your phone while driving are high and there are frequently advertising campaigns about it, but I still routinely see people (especially 16-45yo women) texting or calling in traffic.

> In the meantime, maybe the society should start approaching driving cars the way they approach flying airplanes?

And the training (and reassessment) in flying aeroplanes is ongoing, unlike most countries approach to driver education.

I passed my driving test(s) 20 years ago and since then there's been a huge number of changes in technology, laws, road layout, etc and yet my license is valid for another 30+ years.

I've heard that driver's ed in Germany is quite comprehensive and rigorous. Heck, even the yearly car checks are thorough (hey, you don't have a standard German first-aide kit in your car? Fail!).

In the United States, and especially certain states. Poor driver's ed isn't a global problem.

I live in Poland and I see it there too.

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