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How terrible software design decisions led to Uber’s deadly 2018 crash (arstechnica.com)
11 points by tistoon on Nov 7, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


Was it go fast and break things?


Close, the sw design decisions involved, "Placate the boss:"

> A 2018 report from Business Insider's Julie Bort suggested a possible reason for these puzzling design decisions: the team was preparing to give a demo ride to Uber's recently hired CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Engineers were asked to reduce the number of "bad experiences" experienced by riders.

Engineers violated ethical concerns, IMO, seemingly compromising safety systems at the perceived need to appease leadership.

Unethical behavior of sacrificing safety to appease a superior is why industries are regulated by government / citizen-representative agencies.

It is time to regulate Uber, apparently, now.


That's not engineers, that's managers putting pressure on engineers to provide this kind of environment. We don't the shots on anything, it's your manager and the manager above that who do.


  The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his
  Government or of a superior does not relieve him from
  responsibility under international law, provided a moral
  choice was in fact possible to him.


I disagree.

Managers don't build the technology. Engineers do.

And EVERYONE in the org is responsible - so everyone may be in a state of mental disbelief or denial.

After recognizing the negative ethical implications of either the work itself / the manner you're being asked to work in, or the technology you're being asked to build, and then - still being professional - after communicating your objections and seeing a failure by management to sufficiently acknowledge the complaints, the next step I'd recommend is to quit. You can get another job - even if it's a "work visa" scenario, get a recruiter and another job.

The company can be free to go on and do it's unethical thing on its own.


Clearly the jaywalker was not agile enough.




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