Tesla, Rivian in court over trade secrets

[CommodoreAmiga]

I'm probably going to offend some people here, but oh well. Tech isn't engineering in the sense that software "engineers" aren't engineers. They aren't getting licensed, and don't have a moral and legal responsibility to the general public. If I stamp something, and it performs poorly, there is a very real possibility that both myself and my family will suffer the consequences. If someone dies because I or those working for me screw up, I very well may be charged over it.

That wasn’t always the case, however. Licensing came about because a lot of Engineers did things that got people seriously hurt or killed.

Software engineering is still in relative infancy compared to mechanical or other engineering disciplines…. And I think most software engineers would accept if not welcome the opportunity to license and “earn a stamp” (in this regard I consider “software engineers” to be senior level people and not the average code-monkey). Perhaps it’s time we separate programmers/software-developers from software-engineers/architects? So much of this world relies on software, now, that people’s lives do hang in the balance.

Sponsored

 

[SeaGeo]

That wasn’t always the case, however. Licensing came about because a lot of Engineers did things that got people seriously hurt or killed.

Software engineering is still in relative infancy compared to mechanical or other engineering disciplines…. And I think most software engineers would accept if not welcome the opportunity to license and “earn a stamp” (in this regard I consider “software engineers” to be senior level people and not the average code-monkey). Perhaps it’s time we separate programmers/software-developers from software-engineers/architects? So much of this world relies on software, now, that people’s lives do hang in the balance.

Yeah. I wear an order of the engineer ring specifically as a reminder of a failure that occurred in Canada long ago.

I'm actually not sure that we want people involved in the software world to have the same liabilities a professional engineer does. I'm not sure that would be fair to the human responsible for the work, and I'm a little concerned about the impact it would have in innovation.

To be honest, I'm not sure current laws are fair to PEs as is in some cases. For example, the design engineers for the bridge that failed in Minnesota were subject to the State changing a law after the bridge failed (it stood for decades), and the MN supreme court then upheld the law despite literally everyone looking at the after-the-fact law changing at being blatantly unconstitutional.