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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.
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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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.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
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...
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.
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Hitler's ghost blames holocaust on single soldier.
Sorry Mike.
Requiem for the American Dream
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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