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

Fuck. I feel shocked ... sick. I don&#x27;t know what to say.<p>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.<p>Too many emotions that I don&#x27;t know what to do with, so I&#x27;ll end my comment there. Just hope the rest of his family and friends are doing okay. RIP, Mike. :(<p>Edit:<p>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.<p>Mike and I didn&#x27;t stay in touch when our housing situations changed, but whenever we ran into each other on campus, we&#x27;d catch up, usually talking about what sort of stuff we&#x27;d been working on.<p>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.<p>In hindsight, Mike really was more than a peer or an acquaintance -- I looked up to him.

Säd. Coindidentally the same happened to one of the Oculus founders. <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew-scott-reisse-killed-at-33-the-victim-of-a-hit-and-run/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;06&#x2F;01&#x2F;oculus-vr-co-founder-andrew...</a>

Unfortunate how many humans we have driving cars at various levels of impairment. It&#x27;s killing so many people.<p>Drunk driving in suburban areas is rampant and feels almost inherent without real public transportation options at last call. I think most of Seattle&#x27;s public transit options stop right around midnight.

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&#x27;ve ever met.<p>The world dimmed a little this weekend. We&#x27;ll miss you Mike.

Reminds me of Googler Steve Lacey, killed by a road rage driver (<a href="http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/138605969.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kirklandreporter.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;138605969.html</a>)<p>When trying to find this story, I googled &quot;employee killed by driver&quot; and it&#x27;s just a non-stop parade of stories of drunks and ragers killing people.<p>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.<p>People obsess about self driving cars killing people, and yes, there will be accidents. yes, there&#x27;s going to be a case of a little girl chasing after a ball into the street who gets run over. Yes, there&#x27;s going to be cases of a self driving car running over a pedestrian, or turning head on into traffic. I&#x27;m almost sure of it.<p>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 <i>human bugs</i>, it will be a vast improvement.

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.<p>And now it looks like we&#x27;ve lost a brilliant co-worker. Absolutely awful. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

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

Awful tragedy.<p>I fucking hate cars. I really tried to like them, because they are required for child care in the United States. But I failed.<p>Haven&#x27;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.<p>Damn. America is big, and relatively sparsely populated.

This is so sad. This is the third time I hear of extremely gifted people that I know of, killed by road accident&#x2F;hit and run.<p>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&#x27;t have any new cassettes of his, I was told he was killed in a road accident.. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_B._Higgins" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jon_B._Higgins</a> !Gutted!<p>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!<p>Now, gutted again! :(<p>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!

How awful. My condolences to his family and friends. It&#x27;s always awful when we lose such great minds in such senseless, preventable ways.<p>I&#x27;m a firm believer that anyone who gets caught driving under the influence should lose their license permanently. You drink and drive? You don&#x27;t get to drive. Period.

Stories like these are so tragic. I&#x27;m very optimistic about self driving car technology, primarily due to it&#x27;s ability to reduce these types of unnecessary deaths.

Very sad story. RIP.<p>How is it that the driver lived (allegedly doing 100) and even managed to run away from the scene? What vehicle was he in? :&#x2F;

Let&#x27;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.

Random thought... I wonder if the emergency stop systems being implemented in today&#x27;s cars would help with situations like this. I&#x27;m not sure it could stop someone <i>this</i> reckless (100+MPH) but certainly it could have slowed the car before impact.

Google drive would solve drunk driving problem but a drunk driver deactivation system could be developed immediately. (I&#x27;m sure there would be legal issues to implement it!. And tech issues: ie if passenger drunk dont deactivate)

And this is why humans should not be allowed to drive cars.<p>Reliable, safe, self-driving cars can&#x27;t come soon enough.<p>My deepest condolences to Mike&#x27;s family and friends. =(

&quot;Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it&#x27;s enemy action.&quot; - Auric Goldfinger

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&#x27;s the latter is clickbaity and disrespectful to the deceased.