the VW scandal

[Thorin]

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/21/9365667/volkswagen-clean-diesel-recall-passenger-cars

Volkswagen has intentionally written engine control software that turns off its pollution/emissions controls at all times except when it thinks it's being tested for emissions.  Intentionally.  Not just some mistake, but some ingenious computer engineer or group wrote lines of code to interpret pedal vs steering wheel interaction to figure out if the car was sitting in a lab or driving down a road.

Why?  Well, that was the easiest way to produce a car that both met the emissions standard and had enough power and fuel economy for people to buy it.  The problem was that VW couldn't produce the clean-burning diesel with enough power or fuel economy to warrant people paying extra for it over a gas engine.  So they decided to make it not clean-burning.

Incroyable!

[Tom]

And they and the EPA are opposing special exceptions to the DMCA for people to access or modify vehicle firmware on the grounds that they might break the clean air act. lawl.

[Mr. Analog]

No surprise but Martin Winterkorn is stepping down, I wonder if his rival (Ferdinand Pi?ch) will come back?

http://www.montrealgazette.com/cars/volkswagen+martin+winterkorn+says+stepping+down/11384485/story.html

From what I gather the internal politics at Volkswagen are legendary.

[Thorin]

This was a clear and deliberate attempt to break the laws regarding pollution in order to save money.  The pollution laws exist to decrease the negative impact of the cars on everyone's health.  Ergo, this was a clear and deliberate attempt to save money at the expense of people's health.  Send the CEO to jail for a substantial number of years, since he's ultimately the one that controls what the company does on a large scale (and this was definitely a large scale).  Making the company pay fines will not stop this from happening again - Winterkorn has been paid a large amount of money and gets to live free and wealthy while the share owners take the hit for his decisions.  Send the CEO to jail.

[Tom]

This was a clear and deliberate attempt to break the laws regarding pollution in order to save money.  The pollution laws exist to decrease the negative impact of the cars on everyone's health.  Ergo, this was a clear and deliberate attempt to save money at the expense of people's health.  Send the CEO to jail for a substantial number of years, since he's ultimately the one that controls what the company does on a large scale (and this was definitely a large scale).  Making the company pay fines will not stop this from happening again - Winterkorn has been paid a large amount of money and gets to live free and wealthy while the share owners take the hit for his decisions.  Send the CEO to jail.

Also send the board to jail, and somehow penalize anyone else the CEO reports to (like the foreign VW guys, surely they oversee the us VW).

[Lazybones]

Already in 1991 was the standing practice of the VW subsidiary Audi put the engine to go into saving mode, when tested by the authorities, says a Danish engineer who has worked at Audi. They were playing fast and loose with the authorities, he said.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.business.dk%2Fglobal%2Fvw-kan-have-snydt-i-mere-end-20-aar&sandbox=1