[libre-man]

Wat a completely terrible thing to say. This isn't about saving a life, this is about not killing somebody. Just because a company like Uber thinks it can make a lot of money doen't mean it can simply take risks like these.

[cm2187]

Every time you are selling food you take the risk of killing people if something goes wrong. And what about carrying people in planes. These risks are taken continuously, for profit. How is that different?

[rabidrat]

Both of those industries have tremendous regulations in place to prevent accidents and injuries. If someone gets salmonella poisoning and it is traced back to a company, there is a massive recall at the company's expense. Air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation available (statistically) because of the NCTB and the rules/regulations put in place after each and every accident.

That's how it is profoundly different.

[cm2187]

Air travel is only safe because companies have taken these risks with people's life. A society that takes no risk is a society that will achieve nothing new.

[thatcat]

Air travel and eating food at a resteraunt is an opt-in action. To avoid this risk, you would have to opt-out of using the public road system that you are required to use.

[libre-man]

We wouldn't except it if people got killed by selling them poisoned food, at least not where I'm from. Plane crashes are investigated and licenses are suspended and blacklists are kept, furthermore software is tested and verified before it is used in production. We shouldn't except excessive risks, see regulations with truck and bus drivers, just because a profit can be made.

[cm2187]

But what makes you think Uber didn't test their software? When Boeing introduces carbon fuselage it is taking risks with people's life. They do reasonable testing but a technology isn't proven until it has been widely used for a long time. No risk = no innovation.

[emodendroket]

Since there is absolutely no binding federal regulation I don't have a lot of confidence that the level of testing is comparable to what's done for airplanes.

[azernik]

It's all well and good to not like the choice, but the choices still have to be made - how much are we willing to give up economically in order to reduce immediate risk to lives? Included in this must be the consideration that economic value can be used to save lives, through higher living standards and better health care.

Every regulatory system in the world has to consider these things, explicitly or (more commonly) implicitly. See e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1633324/ for the application of the idea to healthcare, or http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/business/economy/17regulat... for the public policy implications for environmental regulation.

Or more relevant yet, this "guidance on valuing reduction of fatalities and injuries by regulations or investments" by the Department of Transportation: https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/VSL_...

[mlindner]

Did you ever take an engineering ethics course? One of the things talked about is the monetary value placed on a human life. You can't make that value infinitely high or literally nothing can happen. You also don't want it super low.