[SystemSafety] Move fast and break things

[Olwen Morgan]

No disrespect, Martyn, but this seems to me like an 
"elephant-in-the-room" situation. It takes very little thought (aka 
gedanken-experimentation) to see that such vehicles will be fraught with 
dangers. You have only to ask what dangers are /reasonably foreseeable/ 
to get a laundry-list of them. As the old saw goes, "You won't catch me 
up in one of those things."

Obviously regulators have to address such matters in their charming, 
institutionalised, bureaucratic way and they do need a formalised 
investigative/consultative process to do their jobs. But this always 
raises the question of whether their procedural pirouettes are more part 
of the problem than part of the solution. In this case, I suspect it is 
the former. What are they trying to do here? Ensure aviation safety or 
promote the development of aviation businesses (incidentally the same 
conflict of purpose that has often afflicted the US FAA)? Outset mindset 
is the mother of tombstone mentality

I suppose we'll all have to hope that sanity checks kick in early in the 
process - but bureaucracies don't exactly have an exemplary track record 
in that respect.

And of course, the much broader issue is why we are devoting so much 
effort (and carbon) to moving people around when modern economies could 
achieve comparable results simply by moving information instead. Only 
the fittest genes survive. The same goes for memes  and both can die out 
by extinction of species.

Olwen


On 17/10/2018 16:39, Martyn Thomas wrote:
> At least the regulator is trying to state and to consult on the
> certification requirements and allowable failure probabilities. Contrast
> that with the absence of any such requirements at the moment, in the
> case of cars that have an autonomous capability.
>
> When will we see an equivalent consultation for "driverless" cars?
>
> Martyn
>
>
> On 17/10/2018 16:32, Olwen Morgan wrote:
>> Wasn't it Henry Ford who once said that people can't even drive
>> properly in two dimensions?
>>
>> ROTFLMFAO! - not at you, Derek, but at the arrant stupidity of
>> regulators.
>>
>>
>> On 17/10/2018 16:17, Derek M Jones wrote:
>>> All,
>>>
>>> Readers might wan to fit down while reading:
>>> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/16/easa_vtol_air_taxi_regulation/
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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