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US Finds New Secret Software In VW Audi Engines, Says Report (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It looks like Volkswagen's diesel scandal could keep rolling as reports claim that the automaker has three hidden software programs in its 3.0-liter engines. Concerns about the German car manufacturers' 2.0-liter engines could soon reach a conclusion, but the discovery of the hidden software has thrown the future of 3.0-liter diesels into uncertainty. That secret software in Volkswagen's 3.0-liter diesels can turn off the vehicles' emissions controls, Reuters reports, citing the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. The emissions control system allegedly shuts off after 22 minutes, when most emissions tests take about 20. If this software does exist, it likely resides in all 3.0-liter diesels that Volkswagen sells in the U.S.. This includes the Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne SUVs. Approximately 85,000 of these cars are roaming around the US, and they're already under scrutiny for some software that VW "forgot" to tell regulators about.
It's all secret from the get go. I don't remember getting a source code dump with my car.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Whatever punishment the government inflicts, it must exceed the profit these scams generated for VW.
Otherwise, the sociopaths at the top will just call it the cost of doing business.
Also: Watch out for VW trying to use the government penalty for a tax write-off (an old oil company trick).
Yeah, fuck witch hunts that uncover willful fraud. Oh, wait, that's not a witch hunt at all.
The EPA doesn't enforce emissions on individual vehicles. That's the states and the local police's job. The EPA is doing their job. This is not a "witch hunt". This is a "fraud hunt".
I don't respond to AC's.
Except those idiots are not really having much impact either. Its the rest of the people driving around much larger vehicles than they need all the time that matter. Lets just shit can CAFE standards entirely and start taxing people individually on their actual impact.
by-annual E-check - done on the dino at the tail pipe
1) measure fuel consumed over the test miles driven (to determine current fuel economy)
2) measure the PPM of interesting emissions in exhaust NOx, CO2, CO, others?
3) calculate the approximated amount of these gases emitted by using the current measured fuel economy, measured PPM of each type of gas and multiplying by the miles driven based on the odometer between this and the previous E-check.
4) apply tax rates for each gas emission type - bill the vehicle owner!
Do NOT fail anyone for a check engine light, high emissions etc, just notify them and let them pay the taxes. They will get it fixed before the next check or they will heavily again! This will incentivize individuals to actually maintain their vehicles, choose the most efficient vehicle that meets their needs because driving everywhere in their Suburban will cost more than driving a Sonic per mile in taxes. Yet by not actually limiting emissions people who actually *need* big stuff can still get it/operate it. The market will demand manufactures sell vehicles that don't result in high tax bills.
Do not make exceptions for classics etc, every vehicle gets tested every vehicle gets taxed.
Could individuals cheat by flashing their EFI control modules etc before they have their test and then putting it back after, well yes but they can do that kinda stuff in places that do checks now anyway. The smallish number of individuals that cheat won't amount to much.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
To save you a click-through, the three hidden programs are:
- Bing Search Bar powered by Bing
- Norton Anti-Virus one year trial version
- Candy Crush Saga
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I do systems engineering work. The worst I've ever been asked to do is hack together a completely unrealistic demo environment or two, basically to give our developers time to fix something they're showing to a customer. I feel bad when customers get sold something that barely functions in the real world because of it. I can't imagine what the actual engineers who got asked to implement this "workaround" were thinking at the time. Germany has one of the best engineering cultures on the planet, so I can't imagine they felt too good about this. I can only guess their jobs were threatened -- in the US it would be something like "If you can't work 90 hour weeks, I can certainly find an H-1B who can..." Unfortunately, in any culture, having no income and a family to support is a pretty good incentive to just do what the boss says.
It'll be interesting to see what happens -- having to recall/buy back basically all of your modern diesel cars is not a cheap proposition. I work with German companies all the time for my job, and I can't imagine they don't have meticulous records of email cataloged down to the millisecond showing who put this in motion. Again, part of the culture. It will certainly be an interesting case study for MBAs, if they actually studied stuff like this in business school. (I would assume the MBAs would be doing this case study to find ways to not get caught.)
Why should they be treated any differently? Perhaps you missed this, from the GP: "...multiplying by the miles driven based on the odometer between this and the previous E-check..." So, even if that classic is polluting 10x the new car, if it's driven 1/100 the miles, the bill will be 1/10 as much. Seems fair.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
When companies begin cheating the system by hiding their dirty secrets in the ECU's (Engine Control Unit's) binary, it seems like the proper response to this is to begin mandating that binary in the ECU be 100% open source and able to be built with open source tools. This way, the binaries can be verified as being representative of the source code and the source code can be inspected by anyone.
Continuing on like we have will only yield the same result because the best predictor of future actions are past actions.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
In addition to the drastically higher of pollution their cars have been spewing for years, millions of people bought these under false pretenses and will now be saddled with weaker acceleration, reduced fuel efficiency and severely lower resale value (in fact the bulk of the settlement is reserved for to fund buybacks of the vehicles at pre-scandal prices). And that doesn't take into account federal and state tax deductions and credits that were fraudulently secured or the cost of the investigation and lawsuits themselves.
This was egregious and deliberate fraud at a global scale. It deserves a harsh response.
VW has cause to sue. According the the DMCA, you're not allowed to "reverse engineer" their proprietary software and trade secrets. This is a clear violation of VW's copyrights and trademarks.
And as we all know, corporations have way more rights than people, and since the US government is of the people, for the people, by the people, it's people, and therefore VW has more rights than it does.
So, the US government had better watch out or they could face serious fines and jail time.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.