[SystemSafety] Koopman replies to concerns over Toyota UA case

[Matthew Squair]

Yes,

I read David’s piece, and came away thinking oh dear what a special
snowflake. Well perhaps if the efforts of software practitioners were more
often hung out in the courts of justice for scrutiny we might actually find
that said practitioners took their responsibilities more seriously. It’s
not as if anyone actually died, is it.

Phil Koopman’s rebuttal is worth a read and he actually waded through
Toyota’s spaghetti (e.g a primary source) whereas Dave’s ‘rebuttal’ is
based on court material and presentations (secondary, and incomplete,
sources). Also Dave cleverly sidesteps that the burden of proof in civil
cases is ‘on the balance of probabilities’ but in his rebuttal effectively
demands a ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ level of proof. Oh and the ad hominem
elements are really first year college debating level.

In the original case, Toyota had every opportunity to critique the evidence
of Koopman/Barr in detail and did not then folded after the jury found for
the plaintiff so they could make an offer before the jury came back on the
secondary question of punitive damages. Fundamentally Toyota’s design was
not defensible in court.

On 29 December 2017 at 10:16:46 am, Roderick Chapman (
roderick.chapman at googlemail.com) wrote:

> Some of you may have seen David Cummings piece voicing his
>
> concerns over the Toyota "unintended acceleration" case here:
>
>
> https://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/say-what-/4459136/Why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-Toyota-verdict
>
>
> Koopman has now responded with extra top-spin:
>
>
> https://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/say-what-/4459140/A-rebuttal-to----Why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-Toyota-verdict
> ---
>
>
>  - Rod
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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