> If a software bug can cause a death, like in a car, then the failure modes and legal consequences are the same as traditional engineering. They are not even

> If a software bug can cause a death, like in a car, then the failure modes and legal consequences are the same as traditional engineering. They are not even remotely. A business may have to pay out a settlement, and failure may attract the interest of regulators (say, the NTSB if it is a car or airplane or the FDA if it's a medical device), but nobody is going to lose their license to practice "software engineering" nor face professional sanction even if there is professional malpractice. The fact that nobody has gone to jail or had their ability to work in software revoked as a consequence of the 737 Max incident is proof that they are not even remotely similar. Had an aerospace engineer certified a physical part the same way that the software engineers certified that software they most certainly would have been on the hook individually for massive damages and would never work in industry again - both because they'd have been named and shamed in the investigation and because likely their license to practice engineering would have been revoked.