I've not thought about this problem very long, but at a glance it seems like something very difficult to get right and I don't trust my government to get even the easy things right most of the time.
The American government was capable of putting a man on the moon in 1969; private corporations in the 2020's are failing to put much smaller landers on the moon.
The government can be competent, but people have been brainwashed by corporations into believing that it can't be.
Regardless of competence, the government can certainly be trusted far more than corporations when it is profitable for them to be untrustworthy.
Can the US government be competent? Sure. Do I trust it to be competent today when it's dropping the ball on arguably it's most important task? No, not at all.
I can stop giving corporations my money, I don't need to trust them.
I have the cynical view that the government gives contracts not to the lowest bidder (that would be generous), but rather, whoever is going to give the greatest kickback to the re-election campaigns of the people deciding who to give a contract to.
Government isn't incompetent, it's corrupt.
In the EU it’s just set at 2 years. Anything you buy has to last at least 2 years or the manufacturer has to repair, replace, or refund.
The Netherlands takes this further and says it must be supported for as long as one would reasonably expect it to last.
In the article he says he was specifically told they don’t support any product after 5 years, which I do not think anyone would assume to be the max lifetime for a $100k device.
the relevant regulation is here, but you would need to find the requirements for the particular device: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFR...
https://www.therobotreport.com/rewalk-robotics-rebrands-to-l...
Wikipedia still has the outdated name, in case someone here is an experienced editor.
