They would care because laws would be put into place making such certificates required for doing work. Just like accountants need to follow GAAP etc.

> I think that the majority of stakeholders in software would be opposed to licensing legislation for coding.

For sure they would. But that doesn't necessary mean it could be stopped from happening.

Yet programmers writing embedded software for medical devices are not regulated for safety and reliability purposes, as far as I know. Why is that?

There are some guidelines for writing software in regulated industries, eg: FDA Part 11 and Annex 11 in the EU for food and drug manufacturing.

However it's more of a speed limit situation. If you're willing to risk your client getting audited while you're speeding you could get yourself and your client in trouble with the industry watch dog.

That being said I think our industry does need professional recognition and liability. That's not a bad thing... it just means you can't be reckless and you have to have someone with a PE on your team. I know SV likes to move fast without their permission but that's insane when it comes to protecting the public interest. Just look at the vulnerabilities and shady practices in automobile automation, testing, verification, etc, etc.

We could do a lot better and build more reliable things if there were some guiding hands leading the way.