This week’s Economist had a really interesting letter to the editor touching on how well known the strategy of having your software detect testing and modify emissions to look good in the testing is:
[quote=Letter to the Editor in Economist Magazine]In 1998 America’s Environmental Protection Agency reached a $1 billion settlement with heavy-duty diesel-engine manufacturers over their use of precisely the same software approach as VW. There were literally hundreds of articles discussing this use of engine- controller software in technical, popular and engineering-news journals. Media reports show that officials from the EPA were present at a meeting in 1994 at which an EPA staff member discussed control strategies based on the test cycle. This demonstrates that at the very least the EPA had notice that electronic engine-controllers were being programmed to detect tests as early as 1994. It is impossible for any competent regulator to have been unaware of what was going on with other diesel engines after 1998.[/quote]
If all this is true, then it is far less likely that a rogue programmer or two inserted the code without anyone up the food chain being aware.
The full letter is fascinating also because it calls for regulators to be held accountable for failing to detect this and honestly if true I couldn’t agree more.
