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Very similar to the way Intel, years ago, rigged its Pentium CPU to excel on certain industry benchmarks. http://www.classactionrebates.com/settlements/intel-p

Very similar to the way Intel, years ago, rigged its Pentium CPU to excel on certain industry benchmarks. http://www.classactionrebates.com/settlements/intel-pentium-4/ http://www.classactionrebates.com/settlements/intel-pentium-...

nerdy 11y ago
Yep, or GPU benchmark cheats back in the early 2000s
- gravitronic 11y ago
  except for, you know, the environmental damage.
  - ChuckMcM 11y ago
    There was an interesting follow up on this which pointed out three things, one GM killed people with their ignition switch cover-up and the CEO didn't resign, the "fix" is a software patch to leave the engine controller in 'minimize emissions' mode all the time, and in spite of this 'cheat' emissions overall have come down 76% in the last 10 years. So was it more damaging that a small percentage of cars were cheating on their emissions? Yes. But how much more damaging? Not much, especially since diesel cars are a very small fraction of VW's sales in the US. Overall it is better that this group of cars were cheating as opposed to say Toyota's gasoline powered cars. The overall effect was so small it was not detected by the EPA's and CARB monitoring efforts on air quality which they model against the assumption that people are complying with the regulations.
    - at-fates-hands 11y ago
      >> Overall it is better that this group of cars were cheating as opposed to say Toyota's gasoline powered cars I'm assuming this is due to the fact diesels run cleaner than gas powered cars? This is what I've been told my whole life, so it seems this part of the scandal has been forgotten or overshadowed by the bad deeds of rigging their cars?
      - ChuckMcM 11y ago
        No because the impact of cheaters is a function of how much of the population they represent. Since diesels aren't a large percentage of the cars on the road in California the fact that they were cheating was not statistically significant in the overall contribution of pollution. Toyota however has a huge percentage of the California vehicle market and had they been cheating, the measured air quality would not have matched the predicted air quality.
      - douche 11y ago
        There are a hell of a lot more gasoline-powered Toyotas out there than diesel VWs. At least in the U.S., diesels are generally dirtier. That might be because our diesel has mostly been high-sulphur, not the cleaner diesel that Europe has. Most diesel engines are built for heavy equipment, tractor-trailers, or pickup trucks in the U.S.
        selimthegrim 11y ago
        Ultra low sulfur diesel has been the law in the US for highway vehicles since 2007
    - happyscrappy 11y ago
      > But how much more damaging? Not much, especially since diesel cars are a very small fraction of VW's sales in the US. If they are really spewing 40x the limit, then we're talking emissions equivalent to almost 20 million cars that do meet the limit. This is around 1 to 2 years of total new cars sales, or roughly 10% of the active light-duty vehicle fleet in the US. Europe allows more pollution but I doubt it is 40x, and they have a lot of diesels.
- diabeetusman 11y ago
  And Android benchmarks two years ago http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-android-benchmarks http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-andr...

nerdy 11y ago

Yep, or GPU benchmark cheats back in the early 2000s

gravitronic 11y ago
except for, you know, the environmental damage.
- ChuckMcM 11y ago
  There was an interesting follow up on this which pointed out three things, one GM killed people with their ignition switch cover-up and the CEO didn't resign, the "fix" is a software patch to leave the engine controller in 'minimize emissions' mode all the time, and in spite of this 'cheat' emissions overall have come down 76% in the last 10 years. So was it more damaging that a small percentage of cars were cheating on their emissions? Yes. But how much more damaging? Not much, especially since diesel cars are a very small fraction of VW's sales in the US. Overall it is better that this group of cars were cheating as opposed to say Toyota's gasoline powered cars. The overall effect was so small it was not detected by the EPA's and CARB monitoring efforts on air quality which they model against the assumption that people are complying with the regulations.
  - at-fates-hands 11y ago
    >> Overall it is better that this group of cars were cheating as opposed to say Toyota's gasoline powered cars I'm assuming this is due to the fact diesels run cleaner than gas powered cars? This is what I've been told my whole life, so it seems this part of the scandal has been forgotten or overshadowed by the bad deeds of rigging their cars?
    - ChuckMcM 11y ago
      No because the impact of cheaters is a function of how much of the population they represent. Since diesels aren't a large percentage of the cars on the road in California the fact that they were cheating was not statistically significant in the overall contribution of pollution. Toyota however has a huge percentage of the California vehicle market and had they been cheating, the measured air quality would not have matched the predicted air quality.
    - douche 11y ago
      There are a hell of a lot more gasoline-powered Toyotas out there than diesel VWs. At least in the U.S., diesels are generally dirtier. That might be because our diesel has mostly been high-sulphur, not the cleaner diesel that Europe has. Most diesel engines are built for heavy equipment, tractor-trailers, or pickup trucks in the U.S.
      - selimthegrim 11y ago
        Ultra low sulfur diesel has been the law in the US for highway vehicles since 2007
  - happyscrappy 11y ago
    > But how much more damaging? Not much, especially since diesel cars are a very small fraction of VW's sales in the US. If they are really spewing 40x the limit, then we're talking emissions equivalent to almost 20 million cars that do meet the limit. This is around 1 to 2 years of total new cars sales, or roughly 10% of the active light-duty vehicle fleet in the US. Europe allows more pollution but I doubt it is 40x, and they have a lot of diesels.
diabeetusman 11y ago
And Android benchmarks two years ago http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-android-benchmarks http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-andr...