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Volkswagen Boss Blames Software Engineers For Scandal (bbc.co.uk)
hattig writes: Today VW's Michael Horn is testifying to Congress and has blamed the recent scandal on engineers saying: "It's the decision of a couple of software engineers, not the board members." However, 530,000 cars in the U.S. will need to be recalled for significant engine modifications, not a software fix. Only 80,000 Passats are eligible for the software fix. There is no word on the effects these modifications will have on the cars' performance, fuel consumption, etc. The BBC reports: "The issue of defeat devices at VW has been a historic problem, points out a Congress panel member questioning VW US chief Michael Horn. In 1974, VW had a run-in with US authorities regarding the use of defeat devices in 1974, and in December 2014 it recalled cars to address nox emissions."
The previous events seem to point towards a problem in the company's culture, rather than just a couple engineers. Maybe I'm too cynical. But that's what it "smells" like.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Yeah, I'm sure, a few rogue software guys got together and said, "Gosh, how can we cover for the people who built the engine that isn't as efficient as it is supposed to be? Surely there's no legal ramifications for cheating on federal emissions tests!"
It doesn't make sense on too many levels. What a bunch of crap.
Love sees no species.
That company executives rarely know what is going on in their organization.
What do they get paid to do again?
As an executive, you take on the responsibility and risk for your department/BU/company/team/whatever and the people under you. *That* is why you get the big bucks, not for any other reason.
If somebody you are responsible for screws up, it is YOUR JOB to know about it!
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Software engineers have little natural incentive to make the car perform differently for testing than for regular use. If the car is incapable of meeting emission standards without this sort of hack then that's an issue for the mechanical engineers, not the software guys. There's no reason to believe this was the result of anything but orders from on high.
Do you have ESP?
Aren't there actual mechanical parts of the engine which simply weren't even implemented and then this kludge was done in software?
You can't design this way of cheating without people who know the details of the engine signing off on it.
This is so much bullshit it isn't funny.
A software engineer could not have made the decision to leave off the components which were supposed to make clean diesel.
This is purely about finding a scapegoat.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If they were really engineers they would be civilly and legally responsible and would have to carry malpractice insurance.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Fritz: Hey, Hans, you know how we are both software engineers working for Volkswagen?
Hans: What a strange question, Fritz. But yes, I suppose I do know that.
Fritz: Well, I was thinking, these new U.S. emissions standards are actually pretty stringent, and I don't think our diesels can pass them.
Hans: Yes, this is obvious. So?
Fritz: Well, what if we changed the software so that, while the cars were being tested, they behaved in a completely uncharacteristic way so that they could appear to comply with the standard?
Hans: You mean if we wrote a test-detection and -subversion routine into the car's firmware?
Fritz: Yes, of course.
Hans: But how would we personally stand to benefit from that?
Fritz: Well, we'd be able to sell more cars in America that way.
Hans: We? You mean Volkwagen. Sure, until they caught on. But Fritz, we're just engineers--we get paid the same either way.
Fritz: Well, we could tell the executives about it later, and maybe they would reward us.
Hans: No, trust me, the executives won't want to know about it.
Fritz: Yes, they do certainly value integrity over the bottom line. Completely unlike an engineer. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to do it without telling them, and for no good reason at all.
Hans: Yes, that sounds reasonable.
First rule of leadership: Everything is your fault.
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As possible pointed out elsewhere, the collaboration between hardware and software is needed for such a scheme to work.
Properly detecting the condition of being under test would definitely require collection from multiple hardware sensors.
Also, didn't they perform the QA testing on such software? Doesn't this require testing units and a testing program to be agreed upon across departments?
Or did they blindly put some untested software in control's of car's electronic and engine?
It seems impossible to me that this can be pulled off just by a "couple of software engineers".
Even doing that on a single car of a single model would have required much more than that. Let alone with such a pervasive extent.
Yea Right. If someone found and 'undocumented feature' that allowed turning on the emissions cheat I could believe it was just the software developers. But this has a direct impact on the vehicle's performance that would have been caught by multiple levels of the organization. There are more heads to roll yet in this issue not the least of which is the software developers that didn't call foul when asked to code it it.
Come on Volkswagen execs, you really expect us to believe that?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
1) Upper management are morons that have no idea what is going on in their company. It's the equivalent of a farmer claiming he had no idea that his 'organic' corn is actually bio-engineered and covered with Round-Up.
2) That they personally are directly and legally responsible by failing to manage their employees. The buck stops at the BOSS, not the janitor.
3) Are also committing the Wage-Theft by not doing their official declared job of MANAGING their employees.
Claiming ignorance, stupidity, and incompetence is not a valid legal defense.
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I'm thinking there should be a new motto for corporations in late-period capitalism:
"Nothing is True; Everything is Permitted."
You are welcome on my lawn.
This isn't some little project where one or two rogue engineers can throw a commit into github without oversight. We're talking about a major, multi-million dollar engineering project that spans both software and hardware, goes into a production run of many thousands of vehicles, and is regulated by many governmental bodies across multiple countries.
At a minimum, you'd need the involvement of:
The software engineers
The hardware engineers
The integration engineers
The software QA testers
The hardware QC testers
The integration testers
The production engineers
The production QC testers
Various compliance managers
Whoever is submitting the test vehicles to the government testers in each country.
The managers and supervisors of all of the above
With that many people involved... and that's probably a conservative list... it's hard to believe that there wasn't some C-level approval or direction. Massive fraud in a major engineering project doesn't bubble up from one rogue employee or two. It's rolled from the top down.
Imagine all the people...
According to this article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...
It should turn out to be a lesson for all top management who think they can throw the nerds under the bus. It should also turn out to be a good lesson for all software engineers to create a complete record of change history. Even if you get a oral order to implement something and the boss refuses to leave *any* paper record, and you are not really in any position to defy the boss, leave it in the source. Leave comments and pull-req messages saying "Adolf and Erwin asked me to make this change".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The link does not go to the article. Could somebody post the actual link?
Here are some other sources:
http://www.newser.com/story/21...
http://www.theguardian.com/bus...
http://www.npr.org/sections/th...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
and the boss promised us a large bonus if we can do it with software
Now I know this is fanfic because no-where in any real company have I, as a software engineer, been promised a bonus for doing ANYTHING.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In my position as an engineer for one of the largest computer companies in the world, I would find this situation to be impossible.
Yes, the "Board" wouldn't know about the software issue. However, any software engineers would report to a technical manager that would know what was going on. That manager would then report to a superior who would be given a synopsis of any issues. If something halts the release of a new product, it usually gets attention higher up the management chain for tracking and corrective action.
Typically, most organizations like this would have a "code review" meeting where peers, with management present would walk through each line of code being written, checking for errors before releasing to production. Any revisions would also go through a similar review process.
Changes would be documented so corrections wouldn't be omitted in the rewrite process. Each code revision code would have linked to it, the changes made for that particular code revision.
So yes, "top management" wouldn't know of the code issues but *lower management* WOULD.
Saying that a "couple of engineers" caused this situation is ludicrous.
Pressure from management, to do one of two things: 1) Deliberately cheat, 2) Demand what is only possible by Deliberately cheating.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
Yes. Exactly. In fact, whenever a regulatory authority is involved, the process of tuning the car to be compliant with regulations is *always* thoroughly documented and revision controlled, usually as a rule of law, just so "he said, she said" can't happen. That's because everyone involved at VW knows the rule of law may send them to jail, and revision control is proof that they complied (or cheated). Like any car company VW surely makes extensive use of safety audit trails during crash testing. I don't believe for a minute that emissions testing doesn't also leave an formal audit trail. These are *Germans* after all.
In the pharmaceutical space, also highly legally regulated, there are lots of strictures and audit trails of 1) what must be done, 2) how it must be done, and 3) many confirmations that for each product, all of this *was* done, both how and when. And a small army of people are required to sign off on each step, well up the chain of command. The price for noncompliance is being fired, fines, jail time, and the company may pay billions in litigation if the drug injures, especially if staff hid tox data.
If an emissions regulatory compliance process was not in place at VW or no official externally audited revision history was kept, then the blame sits squarely at the top of the company, with C-suiters alone. It's they who will go to jail -- unless they can bluff their way past the law.
This latest finger pointing is just an attempt by VW to cut their losses politically or in the court of public opinion. Legally, Mr Horn is screwed.
Of course, it's the engineers fault for following orders.
Hitler's ghost blames holocaust on single soldier.
Sorry Mike.
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Don't blame the managers, directors, marketers, or anyone else. Blame the people who have the least control over what they do, software development has become an industry of everyone else telling us how and what to do and we just get stuck with the work.
Which is why I tell all my bosses that I control the code and that's all there is to it.
What then? That's really why this is blowing up so much. Seriously. VW is going to get fined a couple of billion. That's not even chump change. Nobody at that level gives two shits about pride, and the average consumer will forget this same as they forgot Toyota's acceleration problems. What _has_ come out is that _everyone_ was cheating, they were just better at it so that when they got caught there was some doubt and nobody got in real trouble. So what the hell do you do if you're an engineer and this is industry practice?
It's like a buddy of mine who used to drive truck and followed the rules. He went from company to company and they all promised him he'd never drive over limit. And when he didn't they eventually stopped giving him runs. For all you're talk that's not the way the real world works.
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What's the point of having managers if they don't take responsibilty? My impression always was that upper management gets paid big bucks because their main job is to take responsibility for the company, in good AND bad times. It's bad enough that a lot of managers just leave like a whipped dog when the slightest problem arises, but not taking responsibility for your company's strategy and staff while in cahrge is another level.