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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.
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"?
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?
Depends which emissions they're concerned about. Diesels (as I recall) are worse for particulates and NOx, but better as far as CO2.
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.
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.
CO2 is plant food, therefor it's harmless. Nightshade berries are bird food, therefor they are harmless. Why don't you eat some nightshade berries and let us know how that logic of yours works out.