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Volkswagen Diesel Scandal Logistics Imply Sizable Conspiracy
Guinnessy writes with an interesting analysis of the Volkswagen software cheating scandal: Physics Today's Charles Day takes a look at how diesel engines work, and why it's clear it's not just a lone software engineer who came up with the cheat. "...[S]oftware is impotent without hardware. To recognize when a car was being tested and not driven, the defeat device required data from a range of sensors -- sensors that a noncheating car might not need.... Whereas it's conceivable that a single software engineer, directed by a single manager, could have secretly written and uploaded the code that ran the defeat device, installing its associated hardware would require a larger and more diverse team of conspirators," he says.
Anti-lock brakes, computer controlled transmission shifting, variable assist power steering, fly-by-wire throttle and closed loop engine management all require sensors. Taken together, those sensors exceed what's needed to explain VW's cars ability to distinguish between active driving and a steady state test.