[bitmasher9]

> it's the equivalent of flying a plane you built yourself

A great analogy because people die that way. I personally would never push code to another person’s insulin pump (or advertise code as being used for an insulin pump) because I couldn’t live with the guilt if my bug got someone else killed.

[jacquesm]

I know people die that way (GA). But someone is working for the companies that make insulin pumps and they are not as a rule equally motivated so I would expect them to do worse, not better.

And to the best of my knowledge none of the closed-loop people have died as a result of their work and they are very good at peer reviewing each others work to make sure it stays that way. And I'd trust my life to open source in such a setting long before I'd do it to closed source. At least I'd have a chance to see what the quality of the code is, which in the embedded space ranges from 'wow' all the way to 'no way they did that'.

[chii]

> I would expect them to do worse, not better.

which is why lots of systems and processes (sometimes called red tape) exist to try and prevent the undesired outcome, and dont rely on the competency of a single person as the weak link!

[f1shy]

Anytime anybody does something himself, there is a risk. People die because of welding parts cleaned with break-cleaner, people die driving, diving, sky-diving, doing bungee jumping...

Advertising that code, IMHO would be as showing of you doing extreme sports, for example. I do not think is any bad. A good disclaimer should be enough to take away any guilt.

[RobotToaster]

I'm not aware of any deaths attributed to open source artificial pancreas systems. Meanwhile there have been multiple attributed to closed source glucose monitors.

[croemer]

Not attributed to. The FDA wording says "associated with" which is much weaker causally.

[fsflover]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398414

[horsawlarway]

And yet someone IS pushing code to these devices. Every single one.

So the question really becomes - Are these people working on their own pumps with open source more or less invested than the random programmers hired by a company that pretty clearly can't get details right around licensing, and is operating with a profit motive?

More reckless as well? Perhaps. But at least motivated by the correct incentives.

[dullcrisp]

So flying in a plane you built yourself is in fact safer than flying commercial because the motivations line up. Got it.