2. Life – Cycle Design Flow
Design
Ethical Violations in Design
Analyze Common Factors
Feedback Testing
3. Love Canal
Ford Pinto
Therac – 25
Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
4. Located near Niagara Falls.
Experiencing population boom.
Hooker Chemical’s dump site for toxic waste.
Government built school and residence.
11. American Subcompact Market
Ford President Lee Iacocca
25 month conception to production schedule
(average car takes 43 months)
Fuel tank design + other design variables
12. Design: $2000, 2000 pound limit, Fuel Tank problem
Testing: Rear collision resulted in fuel leakage and fire
Feedback: Engineers came up with redesign proposals
Design: Cost/Benefit Analysis was done
13. Benefits
Savings: 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries, 2100 burned
vehicles
Unit Cost: $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, $700 per
vehicle
Total Benefit: 180 x ($200,000) + 180 x ($67,000) + 2100 x
($700) = $49.5 Million
Costs
Sales: 11 million cars, 1.5 million light trucks
Unit Cost: $11 per car, $11 per truck
Total Cost: 11,000,000 x ($11) + 1,500,000 x ($ I 1) = $137
Million
From Ford Motor Company internal memorandum: "Fatalities Associated with Crash--Induced Fuel Leakage and Fires." Source:
Douglas Birsch and John H. Fielder, THE FORD PINTO CASE: A STUDY IN APPLIED ETHICS. BUSINESS, AND TECHNOLOGY. p.
28.1994.
14. Consciously Sacrificing Public Safety
Monetary Value of Life
Using Value of Life in Cost/Benefit Analysis
21. Hazard testing – Assumptions
Programming errors eliminated
Program does not degrade due to reproduction process
Execution error only by faulty hardware
Computer selects wrong energy level
10^-12
22. Overconfidence in software
Safety vs Reliability, User friendly
Unrealistic risk assessments
23. Simple and reliable coding practices
Self checking codes
Operator training
FDA intervention
24. Love Canal
Ford Pinto
Therac – 25
Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
25. Located in Pripyat
Experimental test went out of control
Immediate death of 2 workers, 28 firemen
Worst nuclear accident
26. Safety Violations
• Safety Regulations are not followed
• Almost all the 211 control rods are removed
• Unstable fission rate
27. Safety Violations
• The workers quarter located just 3 km away from the
plant
• Productivity versus safety
28. Safety Violations
• Lacked of communication between engineers
• Pressured to succeed
29. Environmental Violation
• No containment structure
• Fast, cheaper, better
•Emergency was not called upon immediately
•Spread of radiation to other parts of the world