Hacker News: giantg2

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:10:53 +0000

Fault matters in general, but it's not captured in the stats so you can't make an accurate comparison.

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:08:40 +0000

I imagine these same people are the type of people who would throw something out the window of an AV too.

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:56:27 +0000

It doesn't have to be a surveillance state for enforcement. Just preventing repeat offenders would practically remove that lowest denominator. For example, I knew a guy in high school who totaled 4 cars and had other minor accidents in 2 years. There's no reason for that person to be allowed to operate a vehicle. On the prevention side, we could require more training.

If you tried to enforce self driving cars, you'd still need some level of surveillance too.

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:46:02 +0000

I was talking more about mandating or encouraging the tech in personal vehicles. I think there's plenty of buy-in for driverless taxis already. It's a perception thing - trust a stranger or trust an automated system. I think it's a much tougher sell to put it in person vehicles, especially due to cost.

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:42:58 +0000

If fatality rates were higher, then maybe. But at 1.3 per 100 million miles, it seems like that would have low effect.

New comment by giantg2 in "Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives"

giantg2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:23:53 +0000

Better driver education and higher test standards would save lives too. So would banning alcohol. None of these solutions, including automated cars, will be mandated any time soon. It's not enough to have data, you also have to have societal buy-in.

Interesting that Waymo chooses to compare accident rates with the average driver vs the rideshare drivers their cars replace. The numbers wouldn't look as impressive because rideshare drivers are involved in fewer serious accidents than the average person.

Waymo says it has 170 million miles and I found 2 fatal accidents it was involved in (fault doesn't matter as fault is not included in the other stat either). Looks like the average is about 1.3 fatalities per 100 million miles, and about 1 per 100 million miles for CDLs. This doesn't seem that impressive.

If we want adoption, we would need it be placed in individual vehicles and it should look at removing driver liability. People will use it when they are drunk if it means not going to jail and it's readily available.

New comment by giantg2 in "216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 21:19:15 +0000

I'm so disappointed at the lack of dumb TVs and privacy focused streaming boxes.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:18:09 +0000

I didn't. You shouldn't be claiming a specific person down voted you because the system doesn't capture attribution.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:17:00 +0000

And this predates by 20 years! Wonder how pastuer faired...

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:05:36 +0000

It wouldn't have taken decades. Information might have taken a year or two. Decisions on what to do with that may take longer. I find it unlikely that germ theory wasn't known by those involved with the 14th amendment, even though it wasnt based on it.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:01:53 +0000

Things taking a year or two was normal, but 8 years is plenty of time. There were long distance publications in many areas of the world even earlier in time. You can look at how every back in the 1700s Benjamin Franklin had a newspaper across the US and routinely corresponded with Europe.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:03:13 +0000

It should just be criminal reckless endangerment since they knowingly provided unsafe water.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:02:10 +0000

Germ theory really started around 1860 and the 14th amendment was 1868. Seems they both coexisted.

New comment by giantg2 in "No constitutional right to clean water, federal court finds"

giantg2 — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:59:17 +0000

It should just be reckless endangerment criminal charges - they knew it was unsafe and provided it anyways.

New comment by giantg2 in "Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread"

giantg2 — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 12:11:04 +0000

It's only 17% higher than in 2010. Seems like a majority believed the government was corrupt prior to Trump.

New comment by giantg2 in "Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread"

giantg2 — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:23:00 +0000

Lots of people here are focused on one guy. But the the article says "widespread". In my experience, much of the corruption is at a local or state level. At the federal level it seems the corruption is mostly related to agencies (GAO reports) and lobbying.

New comment by giantg2 in "A Small Telescope That Surprised Me"

giantg2 — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:49:27 +0000

That's included. For example, I'm building a kiln to fuse the glass. That's where the biggest cost is.

New comment by giantg2 in "Sanders introduces bill to ban artificial superintelligence and pause AI"

giantg2 — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:14:33 +0000

"post-scarcity society"

Labor is one thing, but there will always be some scarcity such as natural resources. I still doubt all labor could be done by AI alone at any point in the next couple generations.

New comment by giantg2 in "A Small Telescope That Surprised Me"

giantg2 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:29:45 +0000

I don't know. I doubt I can get an 16"-18" mirror for under $300.

New comment by giantg2 in "A Small Telescope That Surprised Me"

giantg2 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:38:47 +0000

I plan on grinding my own. That seems like it can be cheap too.