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Multiple sites have been reporting that former Audi CEO, Rupert Stadler, will plead guilty for his role in the 2015 emissions scandal where Audi and VW software was modified to evade emissions testing. The proprietary software embedded in the cars was modified to detect when the cars were being operated in testing conditions and modified the vehicle's operation to reduce emissions enough to pass the inspection. However, during normal operation, they polluted like crazy, up to 40x the NOx shown during testing conditions. The plea deal he has been offered to him in this trial which started 2020 is expected to be a €1.1 million fine and serve a suspended sentence of up to two years. Stadler has spent several months in pre-trial detention to prevent him from interfering with witnesses further.
Remember Dieselgate? It's been nearly a decade since a whistleblower outed Volkswagen and its sister brands in 2015 over tech invented in 1999 that was designed to fool emission testing. Despite the company facing fines worldwide, having involvement in further probes, and being forced to buy back affected cars, the automaker and its problem-era executives are still facing legal backlash.
The scandal has cost those automakers tens of billions so far. There was an initial attempt to blame only low level employees. However, as the trial shows there was more to it than that and that plans came from the highest levels. Further documents show that the emissions software had been in cheat mode for many years.
- Engadget: Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler will plead guilty to Dieselgate involvement
- New York Times: Former Audi Chief to Plead Guilty in Emissions Scandal
- The Drive: Former Audi Boss Set to Confess for Role in VW Dieselgate Scandal
- VOA: Ex-Audi CEO to Plead Guilty Over 'Dieselgate' Scandal
- The Verge: Germany charges ex-Audi CEO for alleged role in Dieselgate
- Deutsche Welle: Former head of Audi to confess in 'dieselgate' fraud trial
(Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Saturday May 06, @11:07AM (3 children)
What would have been really useful, aside from actual jail time for the C-suite, would be a prohibition further closed-source development for their embedded systems. They have not just violated trust but the actual law and the only way to ensure that there are no repeat violations would be to move the work out into the open. I don't care if they choose the 2-clause BSD license or the AGPL 3 or something in between. The important thing is to stop them from further cheating by shining a light on what's going into the car's computers. Otherwise it will just be more of the same again once the court's attention turns elsewhere and a little time has passedd.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Saturday May 06, @04:39PM (1 child)
Add a court order / rule saying they're not allowed to encrypt or in any way hide or obfuscate the code in the cars or anywhere, nor are they allowed to prohibit reverse-engineering of the code or any of the systems.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Sunday May 07, @07:52AM
A court order would help but they don't really have to do much of anything to block that. Both the CFAA and the DMCA are written broadly enough that there are many loopholes to consider. That's why requiring them to publish the embedded code under an explicitly Free and Open Source Software license would be the way forward in this specific case. Taking on the CFAA and the DMCA is a low priority what with the RESTRICT Act (s.686 [congress.gov]) or EARNIT in the works aiming to make the situation astronomically worse.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday May 06, @04:44PM
passedd: daemon form of passed. :)