Comment by bumby
2 days ago
There is plenty of precedent that companies are expected to regulate themselves. If you are in the US and perform an engineering role without a license or without working under someone with a license, it’s because of an “industrial exemption.” The premise is that companies have enough standards and processes in place to mitigate that risk.
However, there is also plenty of evidence that this setup may no longer work. It seems like the norm has shifted, where companies no longer think it’s their duty to manage risk, only to chase $$$. When coupled with anti-government rhetoric, it effectively socializes the risk to the public but not the profits.
The entire system you just described is government regulation.
> without a license
A government issued license.
> it’s because of an “industrial exemption.”
A government allowed exemption.
Etc.
Agree with your second paragraph.
Your point isn’t wrong if you take an extreme libertarian view of things, but it’s not quite how it’s usually interpreted colloquially.
“When the people who make the rules say there are no rules, that means they’re making rules” is an oddly circular take for most people.
Am exemption from PE stamping (misguided as it maybe) does not mean unregulated. There are still regulations on designs and builds.
True to an extent, but those regulations tend to downstream of bad things happening.
The exemption means “self-regulation” which is what the OP was speaking to. There are industrial standards, for example, but that’s not a governing body. You can create a design that goes against a standard and there’s nothing to stop you from releasing it to the public. The same can’t be said for those who require licenses and stamped designs. There’s also no explicit individual ethics codes in exempted industries. In contrast, a stamped design is saying the design adheres to good standards.
Apropos to HN, somebody could write safety critical software with emergency braking delays because of nuisance alarms and put it on the street without any licensed engineer taking responsibility for it. The governance only comes after an accident and an NTHSB investigation.