Some governments require that one cannot install one's own software on automotives for safety reasons?
That is quite interesting, but since one can modify one's car to begin with to make it unsafe, it is also rather futile.
Rather, a sensible system would be that after such modifications, a car would have to pass inspection again to be deemed road-worthy. — one may change the software, but one must pay to have it certified again ere it be allowed on public roads, and if that not be an option, one can always simply drive it on private property only.
> That is quite interesting, but since one can modify one's car to begin with to make it unsafe, it is also rather futile.
In France, if you want to modify your car (in a significant way, not specified by the car manufacturer) you need to send your car to a specific administration were engineer will inspect your vehicle before you can get it a plate number. This is called [Passage aux Mines](«https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_aux_Mines»). You typically have to do it when you decide to repurpose a cargo van as a camping van.
That would shock me if you had to do the same after updating the embedded software of your car.
In Germany, it's called a TüV-Inspektion by the Technische Überwachungsverein. Even unmodified cars have to get certified in regular intervals to ensure they're still street-worthy. Of course you may still tinker with your car, and do all you want with it on private land, and you can get quite a few modifications certified, but flashing some firmware image from Github on safety-critical systems definitely wouldn't get through.
Then the car/vehicle is no longer road-worthy/road-safe and has to be repaired before going on public roads again. If the airbag isn't e.g. discovered in a repair shop, during an inspection or any other place where the car can be fixed without rejoining the public roads it has to be safely towed/transported to a place where it CAN be fixed.
And incidentally it's not a problem of "muh car == muh freedom".
If you want to drive a vehicle not safe by the standards everyone has to adhere to you're free to do that on private property.
If you want to drive a vehicle on public roads where probably nobody knows about anything stupid you've done to the vehicle, i.e. a 1-2+ tonne lump of metal, glass and plastic probably with some sharp points/edges moving at a significant speed quite close to other people without any protection whatsoever. It's just horrifying accidents waiting to happen.
Let's take the example of someone fucking around with the airbags in the car. If they're not known good, they might as well go off at any moment during the drive, possibly incapacitating the driver while the car is moving at normal road speeds, making the car veer around wildly and generally being an extreme hazard. There is a reason cars have to certified and adhere to standards of road-safety/road-worthiness.
P.S. When a topic like this comes up I always have to think back to my father when e.g. a commercial/TV-programm about super-/hyper-cars came on. He almost always said "Dafür bräuchte man eigentlich einen Waffenschein." ("One SHOULD need a weapons license for that thing.") in the sense that in our country (Germany) prospective gun owners need a license which IIRC requires amongst other things a psychological examination/certificate to ensure that no irresponsible, no mentally-ill, no mentally-challenged etc. people get the license to own guns. MEANING driving around on public roads with something that's essentially a road-going mix of a missile and a door wedge should probably something like an idiot-test. I mean it's already standard practice to deny RENTALS of cars above a certain power threshold to people under something like 23 or 25.
Sure, on the front PASSENGER seat and not permanently. Screwing around with software control etc. of airbags and other security features is (I hope) very much illegal and a reason for taking away the operating license of that particular car.
But it's documented because you might need to, for example carrying babies on the passengers' seat or if the airbag is malfunctioning and you need to go to the repairing shop it might makes sense to disable it.
> for taking away the operating license of that particular car.
why not the death penalty then? :)
The airbag arguably only saves the driver's life, disabling it has the same effect of smoking cigarettes, except cigarettes are vastly more dangerous.
They don't take away your license for smocking (I guess)
I agree with your view, but as I mentioned in another thread, bringing the change is very difficult, especially when you're not in a position with sufficient power.
That is quite interesting, but since one can modify one's car to begin with to make it unsafe, it is also rather futile.
Rather, a sensible system would be that after such modifications, a car would have to pass inspection again to be deemed road-worthy. — one may change the software, but one must pay to have it certified again ere it be allowed on public roads, and if that not be an option, one can always simply drive it on private property only.