• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    2 days ago

    How many open source projects include safety guarantees of use? I can legally sue car manufacturers for faults in design of the car that I or others purchase. Who do I sue with open source projects if the crash is due to a flaw in design?

        • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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          12 hours ago

          They built the thing and sold it as safe, the liability is implicit. If you produce something you need to produce it to established standards.

          • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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            10 hours ago

            you need to produce it to established standards.

            And what if the established standards get people killed? Open source doesn’t provide a person or organization who is liable for design faults.

                • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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                  6 hours ago

                  Right, but they built and sold it. No-one is forcing anyone to use the design.

                  There’s nothing stopping me from going online right now and grabbing a design for a car, building it, doing an IVA test and putting it on the road - the original designer is dead, who would get sued in that scenario?

                  Alternatively, can I copy the design of an existing model, build it to the exact spec, sell it to someone else and absolve myself of all liability if a design flaw is found in the vehicle?

                  I’m ignoring the fact an open source design is likely to get more analysis than just about any other car on the market.

                  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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                    5 hours ago

                    who would get sued in that scenario?

                    There is no equivalent to an IVA where I live. It also is likely going to become a major government problem needing to process a sizeable portion of the country’s vehicles through an IVA like process which requires an in-depth inspection and, a lot of times, comparison against the design standards for which the car was imported from.

                    And, as I noted earlier, the issue isn’t analysis but liability. A lot of the burden involving design and verification falls on various manufacturers who designed the cars they manufactured. Hell, few countries allow people to build their own cars from aftermarket parts only. The supply chain is there, but no one is building older cars that they just have to assemble with aftermarket parts.