How Ethical Codes Betray You and Society Alike

They sound promising, but fall short: ethical codes leave software engineers to face great risks on their own. And that has deadly consequences.

Prompted and edited by the author.

During the lasts years, I have been stumbling upon news about software defects that have endangered or even killed people. The problem is that, in many cases, it seems that software engineers were aware of the problems created, and yet they were unable to do anything. But Why?

This situation is what I analyze in this article, because we must change it.

Defects and Misconduct

Some of these defects, and/or misconduct, have arrived through news like:

• Sudden Toyota Acceleration (Bookout vs Toyota): A software bug on a Toyota car caused a sudden acceleration might have killed up to 141 people.
• Volkswagen software cheats on emission tests (aka. Dieselgate): A deliberate feature made cars pollute more and worsen lung conditions.
• Boeing 737 Max crashes twice: A failure of a sensor makes the software MCAS causes the plane to plunge and crash. It killed 346 people.
• The ‘Horizon’ Scandal: A deliberate hiding of a software defect and blame to its…