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

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <c046ea47-36f0-4a73-91c4-94a07ea2d7d8 at googlegroups.com>,
	johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk writes:
> 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. 

Isn't that what has always been the norm for products coming out of
that particular environment?

> 
> 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.

And now that you have digested this, just wait and see what is in the offing
for Volvo, a car that has always been held up as the epitome of automotive
safety now that it is no longer a Swedish company but instead Chinese.

For a preview, see the latest issue of the Risks Digest.

People always complain about stereotyping while ignoring the fact that
stereotypes always have a legitimate basis.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>