[SystemSafety] Apple being sued for illegal use of Facetime

[Les Chambers]

RE: 
Les:
> ..... The spirit of the law says that a manufacturer should not sell 
> you a consumer product that can kill you if you indulge in reasonably
predictable human behaviour.
PBL:
' In countries which are members of the European Union, that is not just
"the spirit of the law", that is the law.'

Given the presence of these laws, it should be possible to make a case that
the Tesla motor-vehicle is illegal given that:
1. Based on years of research in this arena, the current Tesla user
interface encourages inattention if not total handover of responsibility for
control of the motor-vehicle to software that ...
2. By Tesla's own admission is beta, ie has not completed a formal testing
process and, from past experience has proved to be unreliable ... and
3. On failure will cause death and destruction of property.

I can't see the difference between a Tesla automobile and a toaster sold to
you by a vendor who says, "We're 99 percent sure that the toast will pop up
when specified, but just in case it doesn't we recommend that you stand and
watch the toaster with stopwatch in hand. Tick here if you agree." 

Why then are Teslas driving on EU roads?

Les

-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety
[mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of
Peter Bernard Ladkin
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 6:06 PM
To: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Apple being sued for illegal use of Facetime



On 2017-01-06 00:42 , Les Chambers wrote:
> The lawyer deals in the letter of the law. The engineer deals with the 
> spirit of the law and that is: the dictates of practical reality. 
> ..... The spirit of the law says that a manufacturer should not sell 
> you a consumer product that can kill you if you indulge in reasonably
predictable human behaviour.

In countries which are members of the European Union, that is not just "the
spirit of the law", that is the law. See Article 20 of EC 765/2008 at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:218:0030:004
7:en:PDF

> I cite MIT researcher Bryan Reimer:
> "Having a human there to resume control is very difficult," says Bryan 
> Reimer, an MIT researcher who studies driving behavior.
> ......
> (Refer this excellent Wired magazine article:
> https://www.wired.com/2017/01/human-problem-blocking-path-self-driving
> -cars/
> )

This is all well-known material from the 1970's, forty years ago. I guess
I'm glad Wired has rediscovered it. See Tom Sheridan's work at the IT
Man-Machine Lab.

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Bielefeld, Germany MoreInCommon Je suis Charlie
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs-bi.de