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Volkswagen Ordered To Recall 500K Vehicles Over Its Own Malicious Programming
Etherwalk writes: The Obama Administration today ordered Volkswagen to recall 500,000 4-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi vehicles from model years 2009-15. The vehicles were programmed to turn on more thorough emissions control and generate cleaner readings when tested for emissions than they did when in ordinary operation. In effect, the software made everything operate normally when you looked at it, just like any good malware.
Might want to be more specific in the synopsis.
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
Yes, it is. See: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7522.
And there is precedent for this specific case. Ford was fined millions for selling Econoline vans that disabled emissions controls at highway speeds, leading to excessive nitrogen oxide emissions. If anything this seems a more egregious violation. See: http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-06/documents/defeat.pdf
It sounds like they went way beyond that. A comment on Jalopnik says:
According to the report from the EPA, it used figures such as steering wheel input, barometric pressure, engine run-time, wheel speed, etc, to determine it was being tested on a dyno.
I think VW is going to be in a world of hurt over this. Apparently their 2016 models are already being held at the port and cannot be delivered to dealers.
Driving around with a known polluting car is awful. You are a jerk for suggesting folks just ignore their cars being 40x out of compliance. Diesel particulate emissions are a major contributor to diseases like lung cancer, asthma, etc. Eff you.
I couldn't easily find if VW is just going to update the software, or what?
No, VW are the jerks. If there ends up being a noticeable negative impact on performance, the only fair thing for VW to do is offer full refunds (including tax, and everything) for those who want it, and take the cars back. Otherwise, how are people jerks for wanting to keep what they paid for? Even compensating people a few hundred dollars isn't enough to make up for being stuck with a multi-thousand-dollar asset you no longer enjoy using.
It's such a common problem-type it even had a name: Externalities (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality).