Car Software Liability

**preet** · 07-07-2011, 07:03 PM

Hiya,

I was thinking about releasing software for use in a vehicle... and when deciding what sort of license to apply to it, I came to the conclusion that there doesn't seem to be a way to universally distribute software and also absolve yourself of all liability related to someone's use of that software. This is especially relevant for software used in vehicles.

Most EULAs and open source software licenses have clauses related to 'excluding implied warranty' and 'limiting liability', to minimize the severity of legal action that an end-user of the software can take against the software distributors/authors. But in many jurisdictions, you're not allowed to waive either of those things, especially when something like injury occurs. Car software, especially the type that interfaces with the car in some way (obd2), or instructs the user to do stuff (gps) while the car is driving has the potential to result in property damage, injury, etc.

side-note: Simple access to your car through OBD2, especially on more modern vehicles, can get the car to do some weird stuff. I remember once when I was using a non ELM cable (I think it was a VAGK with CAN) I somehow sent a message to my car and it freaked out. Luckily the car was parked, but whatever I did caused all the dash lights to start blinking in sync! Another example is engine damage that some people cause by trying to tune their vehicles. Also, there's this article: http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf, where it seems the researchers were able to use what I'm guessing is GMLAN to cause the car to brake *REMOTELY*. How insanely dangerous is that?

Regardless of whether you're a company selling front end software, or a single dev sharing their code in the hope others find it useful, no code is perfect and it's impossible to test against all use cases for computer software (its even worse for car software since there are tons of different vehicles the software can be used in as well!). Have any of the software devs this applies to here considered what would happen if someone using their software screwed their car up, or got in an accident and wanted to sue them? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I feel there's no real protection for software devs in this case.

There are many people on this forum who have done some development on different aspects of software used in vehicles, so I wanted to ask your opinion... is my line of thinking right? Or is my opinion totally flawed?

**malcom2073** · 07-07-2011, 07:22 PM

You're in Canada, so I'm not sure how your laws apply, but in the USA you can sue people for pretty much any reason. How good of a lawyer you have, and how good you present your case has a lot to do with weather or not you are found to be liable for things.

Most of the software I write, includes a snippet from GPL:

" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details."

To be honest, if someone uses my software and hurts themselves, then they're idiots. If they try to sue me, I didn't give them the software, or make any promises that it would perform in any particular way. If I were selling software, that's an entirely different issue, but the only software I sell isn't for end-users, so I've yet to run into any issues.

**2009Prius** · 07-08-2011, 03:55 PM

I share OP's concern. On the other hand I figure I am too poor to be worth suing. After all I still added the following paragraph in the license terms when I open sourced my PriiDash(TM) project:

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DEATH; INJURY; COLLISION AND/OR DAMAGE TO VEHICLES;
LIABILITY FOR ACCIDENTS AND/OR TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS; PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE OR
INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

I also put up a graphical warning image on the project home page, in the hope that the users of my software will be extra careful when driving. (I don't think my software would make the car go crazy like the OP described. I am mainly concerned with people getting distracted by the fancy display of all the colorful gauges in the user interface.)

Of course like the previous poster said in the US you can still be sued for any arbitrary excuses that people come up with.

**preet** · 07-08-2011, 05:13 PM

Your software UI does have an insane amount of information on it... If I had that in my car I'd feel like I'm driving a space ship

I also like the safety page you put up on your website. It shows that you're promoting safe usage of your software. Would it be alright with you if I used a clause similar to what you posted up in my EULA/License?

**2009Prius** · 07-09-2011, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by preet

Your software UI does have an insane amount of information on it... If I had that in my car I'd feel like I'm driving a space ship

I also like the safety page you put up on your website. It shows that you're promoting safe usage of your software. Would it be alright with you if I used a clause similar to what you posted up in my EULA/License?

Sure no problem. Of course that clause also comes WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY ... ,etc.