ABSTRACT
At the time of writing this book, the future of the automotive company Volkswagen hangs in the balance because programmers installed a ‘defeat device’. Vehicle pollution emissions are supposed to be controlled, but the emissions control system reduces driving performance. The Volkswagen defeat device software detected whether the car is undergoing emissions testing and if not, switched the control system off, so that in normal driving, the pollution emissions were between 15 and 30 times higher than they should be (Ford 2015), and drivers were unaware.
