
Five-year-old boy stopped on highway driving from Utah to California - samspenc
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/us/utah-boy-driver.html
======
chrisco255
While I think this is an interesting story, why are these sort of articles
popping up on Hacker News? This is not the place for it.

~~~
est31
This site values driven young people taking risks and chasing goals that seem
very far away but maybe achieving them one day. This kid has the same spirit
as many startup founders have, and similarly has skills that others in his age
group lack. Oh and he's after a lambo. It's a good symbol for the wealth that
the young startup founders seek as well.

~~~
mabbo
This metaphor is actually really spot on.

He has on the tiniest of ideas of what he's doing; he might be breaking the
law; he's audacious and realized he could just _do it_ ; he wants to be in
California because that's where dreams come true; he's probably from an upper
middle class white family with parents who didn't pay him enough attention.

And he's doing it all because he wants a status symbol of wealth and
prosperity, and someone told him he couldn't.

~~~
ZenPsycho
this kid really embodies the american spirit: rich white boy doing whatever
the fuck he wants without the slightest concern for who he might hurt or kill
in the process, all in the delusional pursuit of a meaningless status symbol
he has been conned into thinking he can get because of the cultish adherence
to the belief it’s the land of equal opportunity despite any and all evidence
to the contrary, all while trumpeting about how great he is to anyone who will
listen

~~~
dang
Your comments have been breaking the site guidelines badly, not just in this
thread but unfortunately in other threads too. Would you please review
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and take the spirit of this site to heart?

We're here for curious conversation, not smiting enemies. If you want the
latter, please do it elsewhere.

~~~
ZenPsycho
if there were a way to delete all my posts and my account I would do that. the
hacker news community has become thoroughly disappointing to me and I
retroactively want all my contributions withdrawn. i want nothing to do with
it.

------
p1mrx
Given that the police tend to catch a relatively low fraction of traffic
offenses, how many 5-year-olds are actually driving around on a given day?

~~~
mcbuilder
I think you may be underestimating just how bad a five year old may be at
driving

~~~
OrgNet
you are underestimating kids... given a proper sized car where they can reach
the controls, they do pretty good. My kid has been driving a 12V electric car
from age two.

~~~
abiogenesis
Not many 5 year olds are tall enough to see the road _and_ push the gas pedal
at the same time though. The article states that this specific boy looked like
he was 8 or 9.

~~~
OrgNet
no, but maybe his parents setup the car to accommodate...

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jbigelow76
Uh yeah, the scent of some kind of bullshit is wafting pretty strongly off
this story in at least some regard. 5 years old and cognizant of wanting to
buy a lambo, where to go to get one, knowing why and the protocol for getting
pulled over (didn't roll down the window until the cop sauntered up?),
carrying around _any_ amount of money in his pocket, and to top it off... that
pic with the kid's face blurred out, that's pretty damn high in the seat for a
5 year old[1].

1\. Point of reference, admittedly anecdotal, parent of a 5 year old boy.

~~~
justsomedood
Agreed. There is no way this kid is actually 5 years old. He's massive for a
pre-school aged kid and our five year olds were I no way attentive or
coordinated enough to have pulled something like this off. I don't get why
they would like about this age. Maybe hoping for more sympathy?

~~~
dmoy
Could be that he's legally 5, but not actually 5. There were some kids in my
little league (not my team) who were "10-11" but clearly more like 15-16. 10
year olds can't throw 75+mph fastballs...

~~~
dTal
Or he lied and the parents are covering for him. It's not like he's got ID.

------
awillen
Honestly, I respect any five-year-old with this much determination and drive
(no pun intended). He's going places (okay that pun was intended)...

------
ppierald
I was fascinated when I crossed this story. The mechanics of driving a car
aren't that hard once you've done it a couple of times, but to get the car
started, into reverse, back up, into drive, navigate surface streets,
accelerate onto the freeway (ok, he was going slow), change lanes into the
"fast lane" etc... Pretty impressed. I was theorizing that maybe he had played
car racing video games (hence the Lambo) and had enough of an understanding of
distance perception and braking time not to kill himself. While this is a cute
feel good story, that kid is _really_ lucky not to be injured or worse.

~~~
gerdesj
You guys don't generally use a stick shift. A clutch would probably have
caused a few teeth marks in the steering wheel rather than a car hurtling down
a motorway.

I too am impressed that a child so young managed to get out so far but yes, he
had a very long run of luck and so did a lot of other people.

~~~
CrazyCatDog
Go to an RC field. Nobody above the age of 30 comes close to the childrens in
terms of skill. Video games and gravity engines are sufficiently real, I would
trust a 12 year old on the track more than myself. Here’s betting that they
have video game consoles at the five year old’s house!

~~~
WalterBright
Huh, the videogame generation has had a terrible time getting my '72 Dodge
started and moving forward. Heck, many can't remember that you have to release
the key when the engine catches (modern cars do that for you, and everything
else).

Of course, there's that delicate dance pumping the throttle just enough to
keep the cold beast from stalling.

~~~
jacquesm
I had a classic, DS 21 with a semiautomatic gear box and a bunch of non-
standard controls. I'd get a lot of requests from people that wanted to take
it for a spin and I always handed them the keys with confidence: "If you can
get it started you're allowed to drive it". Nobody ever managed. The reason
was that the gear shift lever was used as a very clever lock-out to the
starter motor, you started the engine with the gearshift lever in neutral,
then moved it to a special position that engaged the starter motor. The key
only enabled the contact, not the starter. This was to avoid having the car
take off immediately after starting the engine. It also served as a very
effective deterrent for wanna-be joy riders.

~~~
mr_toad
> This was to avoid having the car take off immediately after starting the
> engine.

I think modern cars have taken all the ‘fun’ out of learning to drive. Bunny
hopping a stick shift along a parking lot used to be a rite of passage, and
provided a chuckle for onlookers.

------
awwstn
"Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-
computer) system to your advantage."

------
11thEarlOfMar
Makes me wonder what the cutoff age would be between being impressed with the
achievement (at age 5) vs. being 'in trouble' with the police.

~~~
kick
How do you define 'in trouble'? An older-looking 14's the mark where I think
you'd see actual repercussions, but I can't imagine people would be
particularly-impressed if the boy was double his age (plenty of kids can drive
at ten; plenty more kids can drive at ten as poorly as the adolescent in the
article is described as doing). I think someone at the age of 13 could
probably get this amount of press if they got caught in Utah or wherever
coming from Georgia.

~~~
kosievdmerwe
Just a small correction, 5 years old isn't adolescent. Adolescent is more or
less a synonym for teenager.

I was left a bit confused.

Though this lead me to look up development stages which was interesting [1]

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_human_bod...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_human_body#/media/File%3AChild_development_stages.svg)

~~~
kick
Thanks!

------
mindfulplay
If Lamborghini wanted to boost their sales, there couldn't be a better product
placement than this.

" Our cars are so amazing, even a five year old would drive by himself on a
highway to buy it."

~~~
dhosek
Of course, Lamborghini is also the sort of brand that wouldn't stoop to such
advertising.

------
tyingq
Best I can tell from the police tweet is that he went about 3 miles, guessing
this route from the description of start/stop:
[https://www.google.com/maps/dir/17th+St+%26+Lincoln+Ave,+Ogd...](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/17th+St+%26+Lincoln+Ave,+Ogden,+UT+84404/41.2195185,-112.0052406/@41.2213381,-112.0065879,14z/data=!4m19!4m18!1m15!1m1!1s0x87530ebffbf4c373:0xbebda80be5567470!2m2!1d-111.9757381!2d41.2368037!3m4!1m2!1d-112.0130364!2d41.228625!3s0x87530e42aee4253b:0x40567d18678521d5!3m4!1m2!1d-112.0095773!2d41.2218108!3s0x87530e5ae510383d:0x73573d457cf7562b!1m0!3e0)

~~~
vonseel
Dang, that is really impressive for a 5 year old. This kid is going to do big
things when he is older. Hopefully outside of a life of crime.

------
rootusrootus
I am skeptical that the kid is only 5 years old. Certainly I've never seen a
kindergartner anywhere near that large.

~~~
SilasX
Heh, I remember being ~6 and thinking they had an age limit for driving "so
you'd be big enough to operate it", but then I figured that couldn't be right
because I'd seen little old ladies that were about the size of some 10 year
olds.

~~~
mark-r
When my Grandmother pulled up in her car, it looked like there was nobody
driving. She wasn't tall enough for her head to be visible in the windshield.
I don't know how she saw anything.

------
jkuria
Maybe HN could gift him this Lego Bugatti (1:5 replica)?

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/build-your-own-supercar-on-
your...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/build-your-own-supercar-on-your-coffee-
table-11588392034)

------
satya71
What is more impressive is that the kid actually pulled over!

From the NYT article: “He was all set to make the trip,” Trooper Morgan said
at the news conference. “It amazed me that when he heard my siren that he did
pull over and stop.”

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shawndellysse
bypass paywall: [http://archive.is/ws3x1](http://archive.is/ws3x1)

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partiallypro
We're just lucky he never played Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

------
jhymn
Since when did face-blockers look like a vortex into another dimension?
Creepy.

------
solarengineer
I wonder if these various concerns would be relevant once self driving cars
become common place.

A child could pretend to drive (or even be trained to drive!) by a self
driving vehicle.

------
nine_zeros
Did the kid actually pull over to the shoulder?

~~~
schoen
Yes (the left shoulder), as seen in the police dashboard camera footage linked
in the article.

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neonate
[https://archive.md/ws3x1](https://archive.md/ws3x1)

------
ipqk
Was he The Wizard?

------
enz
So, there is no Lamborghini dealers in Utah?

------
wltprgm
What were you guys thinking when you intended to upvote this post on Hacker
News?

~~~
eitland
See dang's answer here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23087284](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23087284)

It actually clarifies a whole lot.

------
Bang2Bay
how was the child able to stop the car!

~~~
userbinator
The same way he got it started...?

~~~
ashton314
Makes sense that he could reach the ignition. I'm impressed he could get his
foot on the break!

------
thesuperbigfrog
"Family members told troopers the boy had gotten upset with his mother at some
point earlier when she wouldn't let him buy a Lamborghini"

Source: [https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-
pull...](https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pulled-over-
after-trying-to-drive-to-california-to-buy-a-sports-car)

~~~
mxcrossb
It says that in the linked article as well...

------
eromo1
I despise paywalls.

~~~
Thuswindburn
From a local Utah news source:
[https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-
pull...](https://www.ksl.com/article/46749182/uhp-5-year-old-boy-pulled-over-
after-trying-to-drive-to-california-to-buy-a-sports-car)

------
blackrock
Why is this a story on HN?

This is irrelevant tabloid level news.

~~~
downerending
Meh, seems pretty relatable. I put my parents' car in neutral and rolled it
out into a major street when I was five. Haven't we all?

~~~
blackrock
Well, if you had an AI aware car, then this would’ve prevented that from
happening. Thus saving your 5-year-old life.

Now, this would be newsworthy. And Tesla’s stock price would probably increase
from the positive news, as well as the increase from additional car sales for
its AI safety features.

------
gautamcgoel
That kind of resolve is what distinguishes successful founders :P

------
sabujp
since we're now getting these kinds of posts on HN, I might as well post that
I'm glad he didn't get tazed, shot, mauled by a k9 dog, or killed.

------
spacefearing
Until I had kids of my own I did not quite comprehend just how capable little
kids can be.

A 5 year old holding an AK47 is entirely capable of being a legitimate
competitor to an adult holding an AK47. An average 10 year old armed with an
AK47 might be more dangerous than an average 40 year old. Child soldiers are
likely very effective, as depressing as this thought is.

Small children are profoundly ignorant but they're not dramatically less
intelligent than adults. In limited domains, like driving or shooting, a high
performing child can easily beat a low performing adult.

~~~
mikekchar
Kind of strange comment, but one of the problems I've seen in schools is the
assumption by teachers that children are not as intelligent as adults.
Generally this isn't true. Usually they lack a framework for reasoning and
lack experience with language for communicating. There are some differences
with brain development of young children for sure, but in my experience people
underestimate children by a fairly large margin. You see the same phenomenon
with people trying to talk to adults who are just learning the language. There
is an assumption that the person is stupid rather than that they have
difficulty communicating.

~~~
zozbot234
People underestimate kids in some ways, and overestimate them in others. The
underlying framework for highly abstract thinking takes time to develop, as
does the ability for understanding empathy and moral behavior. A five-year-old
kid literally has no notion that driving a car he's not the owner of is theft,
and thus grossly unethical conduct. The car is just there for the taking; to
him it's no different than playing GTA.

~~~
TomMarius
5 year old kids are capable of _very_ complex ethical thinking and empathy,
most definitely including understanding of ownership. Maybe it's not as common
in the US, but you can see it clearly in any country where kids regularly go
to child care from age 3.

------
fortran77
Why aren't his parents in jail? Why wasn't he removed and placed in a foster
home by CPS? I'm glad he didn't hurt anyone on the road.

~~~
karatestomp
Meanwhile 100% of parents are going "there but for the grace of God..."

Kids get up to crazy shit all the time. There's no way to be up their asses
enough to stop something like this if they get it in their heads and don't let
on ahead of time. There's no way to hide or lock up everything that could be
dangerous all of the time. Maybe today one of the many, many things in your
house they've always left alone, that could be dangerous, they'll decide to
screw with. You just hope they get out of your house before they harm
themselves or others _too_ badly.

The difference between these parents and any other set of average to good
parents, judging solely from this having happened, is that they were unlucky.
Are they bad? Maybe. This doesn't give us much info one way or the other. Are
they _really really_ bad? Well since the call to the cops didn't end with one
or both parents in jail on drug charges and the car was theirs, not someone
else's, and the kid appears to have been fed, I'm gonna go with probably not.
And yes those are all real things that it wouldn't even have been that weird
to have ended up in a story like this.

