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by ravenstine 3052 days ago
Shouldn't that liability come with owning the device? I don't understand how we've come to think, as a legal system, that the maker of a tool is responsible for the behavior of modifications made to their tool. Maybe that's not even true, but it seems to be believed so. If it is, I find it preposterous. Perhaps there's some money to follow.

Washing machines can malfunction and cause fires, hypothetically. Just because one device is designed in a way that is particularly dangerous doesn't mean the same reasoning can't be applied to another device that is dangerous to a lesser degree.
1 comments
userbinator 3052 days ago
Washing machines can malfunction and cause fires, hypothetically.

Not just hypothetically: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12610218

Mind you, those were unmodified so the maker does take the blame; but if the cause is known, modifications can make them safer too.

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randomdata 3051 days ago
> modifications can make them safer too.

Very much this! I have a large agricultural tractor that has a transmission controlled by software. While it works great most of the time, there is a bug where it will occasionally not disengage the clutch for about a minute when this condition occurs. One time, due to the tractor showing no signs of going anywhere, I accidentally left the tractor in gear and left the cab. Everything seemed fine until about a minute later when it finally kicked into gear and started moving with me standing beside it.

Fortunately, I happened to be in a low gear and was just creeping along when it started moving. I was able to get back in it and get it stopped. If it had been going faster, who knows how bad the outcome could have been. This is something I would be fixing if I had access to the code.

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emcrazyone 3042 days ago
hmm, sounds suspicious, in that the seat sensor was disabled? Even our vehicles won't move, when in gear if no one is in the seat. Seat senors cut the drive train. Even my 15 year old el-cheap-o Sears garden tractor does the same thing: cuts the engine off if I stand up out of the seat while in gear.
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