[Info-vax] Way OT, but relevant to the effects of 'modern' design and 'quality' practices?

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Tuesday, 2 June 2015 23:18:47 UTC+1, Stephen Hoffman  wrote:
> On 2015-06-01 20:02:40 +0000, David Froble said:
> 
> > My perspective is that much of what made DECUS so helpful happened in 
> > the 1975-1985 time frame.  That was a time when there were few to none 
> > computers in mom's basement.  People developed software at work, and 
> > were professionals, well, most of them.  They understood responsibility 
> > and such.  Most would abhor any bugs in their work, and would fix such 
> > when the bugs surfaced.
> 
> 
> Professional programmers for major commercial providers can reportedly 
> still encounter the occasional coding issue:
> http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/toyota-unintended-acceleration-and-big-bowl-"spaghetti"-code 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

In my book the Toyota uncommanded acceleration case (readers WILL
have heard of this though maybe not by that name, and may have heard
it (mis)described as the result of bad floor mats and similar) is
what happens when extremely poor management tolerate (possibly even
encourage?) extremely poor design (hw and sw) and development
practices. 

The Safety Research people have some interesting articles (more
than one) on this case but imo the definitive original reporting
of the case comes from Electronic Engineering Times (EE Times),
reporting on the Toyota Motor vs Bookout court case which concluded
in October 2013 (this report from 25 Oct 2013):

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319903

Six months after the court case finishes, the penalties are
set. The US DoJ claimed they weren't even aware of the court case:
28 Mar 2014

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?doc_id=1321694

"This week, the Department of Justice (DOJ), through U.S. Attorney
Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan),
imposed a $1.2 billion penalty against the Toyota Motors
Corporation for negligence and deception in a series of "unintended
acceleration" accidents that resulted in as many as 93 fatalities in
Toyota vehicles manufactured between 2003 and 2009.

Inexplicably, the DOJ cited failures with floor mats and "sticky"
accelerator pedals as the cause of more than 2,000 cases of
unintended acceleration reported to the National Highway
Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) since 1999. Several
former NHTSA administrators, a large number of automotive safety
experts and electronic engineers have long expressed doubts about
the mats-and-pedals thesis and have said the focus should be on
Toyota's electronic throttle control system. (continues)"

And there's more e.g. 

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321734

If you want to read just one document then try this presentation from
Sep 2014 by one of the expert witnesses in the court case (Prof Phil
Koopman, CMU, who is cited in the aforementioned Safety Research stuff):

http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/pubs/koopman14_toyota_ua_slides.pdf

Koopman's bog, referenced in the presentation, is also worth a look.

Enjoy.