The U.S. uses the value of statistical life VSL. Here are the numbers from the Department of Transportation over the last 10 years or so.
So, it is interesting and egregious that the driver needs only pay $23K and Tesla pays nothing at all!
What would be the value of life then? I’ll save you the answer: no matter how big the number you say, someone else will say bigger. Until it becomes priceless, which is the answer.
However death and accidental death isn’t always avoidable. And when we pin the fault on someone we cannot expect to say “priceless” is what they owe the victim’s family. So we assign an amount of money or time that hurts, and call it good.
Doesn’t mean life is worth that. And saying so doesn’t help anyone.
PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 6 months ago
catastrophicblues@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
So according to this, the DoT values a life at $12.5M in 2022? I’m curious about their methodology.
onion@feddit.de 6 months ago
You look at different jobs, how high the risk of dying is and how much they pay, and work out from that how much more pay people demand for say a 1% risk increase. Then you scale that up to 100% risk
catastrophicblues@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Huh that’s kinda neat. Thanks!
TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 6 months ago
True. But what if Tesla has to pay a billion for producing software that runs people over? They probably would not have beta software on the road.
a4ng3l@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sure but even looking a only the financial produce of one person for a family dwarfs the comical 23k here. And that’s not even looking at the emotional side of things. 23k is straight insulting imho.
mindlessscrollingparrot@kbin.social 6 months ago
Two people were killed, so you're really talking 11.5k.
ghastly_03_startup@infosec.pub 6 months ago
Seeing as they were using the now being recalled Tesla auto pilot during the auto accident, it may not entirely be the drivers fault. This may be part of the rational behind the judgement.
AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Tesla should be out millions for this. The autopilot feature is a gimmick and not at all transparent. They’re beta testing on the public and people are dying because of it. This is a corporate decision that needs to have corporate consequences over and above legal ones. People shouldn’t just be getting minor fines, they should be going to prison and losing absolutely everything.
MNByChoice@midwest.social 6 months ago
Consistent and clear pattern of lying to everyone, minimizing, and shifting blame with clear motivation of personal profits.
Fully agree on prison time.
Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 6 months ago
That’s life insurances job, this would be on top of life insurance, and is more about where the money comes than where it is going.