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Volkswagen has issued a statement regarding the emissions cheating incident:
Discrepancies relate to vehicles with Type EA 189 engines, involving some eleven million vehicles worldwide. A noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use was established solely for this type of engine. Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures. The company is therefore in contact with the relevant authorities and the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA – Kraftfahrtbundesamt).
To cover the necessary service measures and other efforts to win back the trust of our customers, Volkswagen plans to set aside a provision of some 6.5 billion EUR recognized in the profit and loss statement in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Due to the ongoing investigations the amounts estimated may be subject to revaluation. Earnings targets for the Group for 2015 will be adjusted accordingly.
Volkswagen does not tolerate any kind of violation of laws whatsoever. It is and remains the top priority of the Board of Management to win back lost trust and to avert damage to our customers. The Group will inform the public on the further progress of the investigations constantly and transparently.
From The Register:
To put that in perspective, Volkswagen's profits for the last financial year were €10.85bn (US$12.1bn), so the firm is banking on having to pay out at least half of its profits, and possibly a lot more. The EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) has already said that the company could be liable for up to $18bn in fine and fix costs, and that was when only half a million cars were thought to be dodgy. As a result, the wheels have fallen off the company's stock price. Shares have nearly halved in value since the firm admitted using the emission-control software, and they are likely to fall further as the scandal unfolds.
Volkswagen's CEO Martin Winterkorn has already issued a public apology for his firm's conduct, and his position is looking increasingly untenable. Rumors of his forced retirement are already circulating, although these are being denied at present.
The case could also have an interesting knock-on effect in the software field. Technically, Volkswagen's software was covered under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, meaning tinkerers couldn't have examined and altered the code. The EPA has been lobbying with car companies to make sure the DMCA continues to make engine management software off limits to tinkerers. But based on its experience with Volkswagen, the agency may be changing that stance.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been quick to pounce on the DMCA connection.
The BBC reports that this affects 11 million vehicles worldwide, although many of those have passed local emission controls satisfactorily. Neverthless, the same or similar software is believed to be fitted in all those vehicles. The EPA found the "defeat device", the device that allowed VW cars to emit less during tests than they would while driving normally, in diesel cars including the Audi A3 and the VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.
Update: Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigns.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday September 23 2015, @09:05PM
I regard Android and iOS both as defective because they don't permit me to block analytics servers. While iOS recently enabled ad blocking, it doesn't block the apps that phone home when you tap the "OK" button.
All the other retail OSes I know about provide such functionality, really what I'm doing by jailbreaking my iPhone then editing the hosts file is fixing quite a serious security hole.
Consider that many cars are equipped with GPS. How do you really know when or whether it's reporting your position? Consider the automobiles owned by closeted gay Republican Presidential candidates.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday September 24 2015, @01:49AM
Consider that many cars are equipped with GPS. How do you really know when or whether it's reporting your position?
GPS is receive-only. A car can't report your position anywhere unless it has some kind of radio transmitter, usually a cellular modem. Some cars do have these (those with "OnStar" built in), but most do not. But a lot of cars can pair (with Bluetooth) with your own cellphone, so that is possible, but of course, if you don't pair it with your phone you won't have that worry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 24 2015, @03:06AM
"but of course, if you don't pair it with your phone you won't have that worry."
I had a JVC system that randomly paired with my phone on its own sometimes. I sensed it was sending information about the radio stations I would listen to through the Internet. I don't know, just a suspicion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 24 2015, @02:57PM
Hmm that is odd. I have a JVC headunit and it is nearly impossible to get my device to pair with it sometimes, and occasionally in the middle of a song it will loose connection and I have to wait until I restart the car to get it to work.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday September 24 2015, @11:17PM
That is, if you get my drift.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]