
The Deadly Price of the Automation Paradox – 737 crashes anomaly or new normal? - pseudolus
https://thewalrus.ca/the-deadly-price-of-the-automation-paradox/
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mimixco
As a software developer (not a pilot), I think this misses the mark. Airbus
has succeed in commercial fly-by-wire because their system provides protection
over the full flight envelope of the airplane (the specs it can withstand
without crashing) and also lets the pilots back off on that automation when
they need to.

The Boeing MCAS solution isn't full flight envelope protection. As a family
member of an Ethiopian crash victim put it, "Why does the software intervene
to push the nose down if it thinks it's stalling but not to push the nose up
if it's going to hit the ground?"

This is a case of failure to properly certify mission-critical software and it
reminds me of Toyota's unintended acceleration problems with the Prius, where
the company was found in court to have _willfully ignored_ standard protocols
in testing mission-critical apps.

