> After reviewing Toyota’s software engineering process and the source code for the 2005 Toyota Camry, both concluded that the system was defective and dangerous, riddled with bugs and gaps in its failsafes that led to the root cause of the crash.
> Bookout and Schwarz v. Toyota emanated from a September 2007 UA event that caused a fatal crash. Jean Bookout and her friend and passenger Barbara Schwarz were exiting Interstate Highway 69 in Oklahoma, when she lost throttle control of her 2005 Camry. When the service brakes would not stop her speeding sedan, she threw the parking brake, leaving a 150-foot skid mark from right rear tire, and a 25-foot skid mark from the left. The Camry, however, continued speeding down the ramp and across the road at the bottom, crashing into an embankment. Schwarz died of her injuries; Bookout spent five months recovering from head and back injuries.
It's not just spacecraft that kill people due to crappy code. Even something as mundane as a _Camry_ can be fatal if the software team isn't diligent about their work.
I was thinking of car control systems, among other things, when I mentioned "exceptions". If this sort of catastrophe happens, there are bigger issues than technically underqualified people making it past technical interviews.
And I wouldn't call safety critical software that can kill people "mundane". It's a minority of code out there and it tends to be really thoroughly vetted, in my experience. I can't comment on Toyota's quality assurance, though.
> Bookout and Schwarz v. Toyota emanated from a September 2007 UA event that caused a fatal crash. Jean Bookout and her friend and passenger Barbara Schwarz were exiting Interstate Highway 69 in Oklahoma, when she lost throttle control of her 2005 Camry. When the service brakes would not stop her speeding sedan, she threw the parking brake, leaving a 150-foot skid mark from right rear tire, and a 25-foot skid mark from the left. The Camry, however, continued speeding down the ramp and across the road at the bottom, crashing into an embankment. Schwarz died of her injuries; Bookout spent five months recovering from head and back injuries.
It's not just spacecraft that kill people due to crappy code. Even something as mundane as a _Camry_ can be fatal if the software team isn't diligent about their work.
http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/toyota-unintende...