The problem with mandatory compensation programs (aside from granting legal immunity to private sector entities, which I disagree with), is that they tend to br

The problem with mandatory compensation programs (aside from granting legal immunity to private sector entities, which I disagree with), is that they tend to break the discovery process via way of circumvention. The discovery phase of a case is how truly damning evidence often comes to light. A fantastic example of this would be the Toyota unintended acceleration debacle.[0] If it weren't for the discovery process in those cases, nobody would really know what a total mess Toyota's code was. As far as self-driving cars are concerned, I've no doubt top tier companies like Google and Tesla are going to do the best job they can, but eventually everyone is going to be in the space, and when a company with an institutional disdain for proper safety-critical software engineering practices ends up killing people, I want their feet held to the fire. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10437117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10437117