VW Fiasco Puts Ethics In Engineering Under the Spotlight, CEO Steps Down

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @04:22AM from the well-it's-been-talked-about-plenty dept.

szczys writes: By now you've heard that VW has been accused of doctoring the software in their small diesel models to sidestep emissions standards. The thing that hasn't been talked about is engineering ethics. An algorithm in the code detects when the vehicle is under test conditions and causes it to perform differently. This couldn't have been accomplished by just one person. Brian Benchoff looks at the conditions leading up to the scandal and discusses the engineering ethics involved. Automotive engineers are held to a higher standard because mistakes and cut corners can kill people. This kind of suspected deceit goes well beyond concerns of environmental damage. Willing ethics violations challenge our trust of the engineering as a whole. Volkswagen‘s chief executive Martin Winterkorn has announced he is stepping down.

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Finally, we've arrived! by uCallHimDrJ0NES · 2015-09-23 04:26 · Score: 4, Funny

Now we can have the same distrust society affords to doctors and lawyers! We're finally real professionals. Let's start a guild.

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Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
1. Re: Finally, we've arrived! by OhPlz · 2015-09-23 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Doctors want us to die? Interesting. That must be why so many people die at hospitals.
Re:Whistleblowing by argStyopa · 2015-09-23 05:26 · Score: 2, Funny

Germans as a group are pretty good at following orders, even when it might be unethical.
So I've heard.

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-Styopa