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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.
Translated: If you have one, don't take it in, unless you want it to run even worse.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Might want to be more specific in the synopsis.
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
So VW incorporated stuff you see advertised in the back of hot-rod mags into the car. Now they'll have to go after those after-market guys, assuming the chips actually do what they say. It's not like anybody even tells state inspectors they swapped out the chips. I'm not sure how much this goes on. I've got a relatively new car and have only had it smogged once since I bought it. No, I don't plan on ever messing with it. I just know that such things exist.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
... but how does the software in the car know that the vehicle's emissions are being tested in the first place?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If they had been honest about what they were doing, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But they defrauded consumers, emissions technicians, and the government. Remember, markets work best when market failures such as information asymmetry are eliminated.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Unless the law says you can't game the test. I believe you meant to make a normative statement instead of a positive one.
Actually, it is. It is fraud.
Saying "The Obama Administration [sic]" makes it sound like some sort of political meddling was behind this action. While the EPA is part of the executive bureaucracy, this does not stink of Obama political officials pushing an agenda, but just normal regulatory oversight and it therefore should be attributed to the agency.
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
They should be, but since they only defraud the consumer, no action will be taken.
Selling something as expensive as a car using published information that's intentionally falsified to fool the tester and reviewer is making a financial gain through deliberate misrepresentation. There's a name for that. It's fraud. Fraud is a felony.
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Bought a 1959 Chevrolet Apache 31 pickup truck in 1978. Motor blew up within fifty miles and I replaced it with a freshly rebuilt 235 L-six motor. Brand new.
Guy at the California Emissions Control Testing Center (actually, a major auto-repair shop which shall remain nameless here) say's "There's no smog control cannister on this truck. Can't pass it." I had to argue with him and make him look up the concept of a grandfathered vehicle, same thing that got me out of no seatbelt tickets later - but I digress. Mechanic dude, clearly unhappy that he can't sell me over a thousand dollars of unnecessary work to retrofit a PCR and catalytic converter on my Chevy, finally insists on probing the exhaust pipe.
His probe didn't even wiggle. Read around zero. Guy now insists that the probe is broken and he can't smog certify my truck. Another hour of arguing gets me the shop manager who's going to prove they can't smog my truck by probing his. Lo and behold! the needle obediently shows his truck is a filthy (yet legally compliant) pig. My truck, OTOH, still reads essentially zero - hey, it was essentially a brand-new, properly installed and tuned small-block six-cylinder engine.
Finally (after several more dirty looks and argument) I get my truck smogged in the state of California.
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Any questions about why states do the smog control inspection thing? Anybody here still gullible enough to think it's actually to protect the ecology?
It's probably how VW got a Euro spec engine to meet US regulations. Euro specs measure pollution per distance - the way to win is to burn fuel really efficiently. US specs measure pollution per unit of fuel consumption - the way to win is to burn fuel really cleanly. That difference is a big reason why they have much more fuel efficient vehicles in Europe. It's much easier to get a larger engine to burn cleaner. Most manufacturers that sell the same engine in both continents use different tunings in each, where the EU one gets better fuel economy and the US one burns cleaner.
Manufacturers have been trying to bring the incredible economy that small diesels in Europe get to the US for years but it turns out making a diesel that is significantly more efficient than a comparable gas engine and also meets EPA regulations is really hard. For example, Mazda has been promising Skyactiv-D (diesel) engines in the US for years now, but they keep getting delayed because they're not satisfied with their performance.
No, they were told they were buying a car with a specific mileage and performance. They had the right to presume that those figures could be had while the car complied with federal law.
If either of those is degraded in order to comply with the law, they were defrauded and have a right to compensation.
For the majority of people, a slight difference in emissions would be preferable to a noticeable drop in performance.
For the majority of individuals, yes. Because you're not *paying* for the harm your emissions do.
Update indicates it could be $18 Billion in fines, $37,500 per non-complying car. It is doubtful it will stand at that amount, but a fine is very much in play.
This is what my design professor called a high tech solution to a low tech problem. I use a dipstick.
Dipstick tells you oil level, and if you're good, a smidge about oil condition. Unless you're driving an oil-burner, level doesn't say much.
Also, oil turns black pretty quickly, and it's actually guesswork on how well it's holding up depending on numerous values - changing it early saves the engine, but costs you more oil changes. Changing it late costs the engine, but saves you on oil changes. Ideally, you change the oil once the sustainers and such in it are exhausted and it can't carry out the contaminants quickly enough.
In order to really do this, you need to test. I actually ordered an oil test kit recently, and I already use an oversized oil filter - cleans just as good as the standard, but has ~50% more filter.
I don't read AC A human right