So long as the mandate only applies to new designs, it will have near-zero cost

No, the cost accrues whether it is for new cars or for retrofitting existing vehicles. It may not be called out as a line item in somebody’s budget and schedule, but the cost is there and allocable to that function. Functions, requirements and lines of code are countable, and industry standard cost models will tell how much and how long it took to implement them.

“it just takes a small amount of computer code to accomplish the lockout”

This will be what DO-178 calls Level A code – life critical. Which is not cheap, even for a single line. And no Level A function is carried out in a single line of code. This will probably require 5 to 10 requirements, 50 to 100 lines of code, 20 hours of reviews, and probably 50 hours of test development and qualification testing. Plus additional testing on every computer produced. And that assumes that all the functionality can be incorporated into one computer. Double or triple that if two or more computers have to be involved (e,g., throttle/brake pedal monitoring, fuel injection, anti-lock brake module).

There is no such thing as a “simple” code change.

If you disagree, it does not mean you are wrong and it hardly forecloses discussion of the matter. Nothing I have said suggests or implies that it does.

In far too many instances, government is going to be inefficient by its inherent nature. There is no doubt about this. I still think it is a regrettable mistake to paint the individual employees with a single defamatory brush. Many departments of the federal government are really hard to get into and have unbelievable qualified people. (The State Department comes to mind.) We should be focusing on trying to understand the efficacy limitations of government in general and do the best we can to overcome them. Because that is the real problem. It is not, in my humble opinion, the employees themselves.

And with this, Ron has placed the notion to consumer self-protection and individual responsibility beyond the scope of reasonable debate. None of us can decide whether want to buy a car without airbags — that decision belongs to the government. From seatbelts to airbags to override systems designed to keep inattentive drivers from accelerating when they mean to brake, it’s all the same thing, right?