by Ramon Mejia
This week the EPA accused Volkswagen of illegally using software to cheat emissions standards, allowing the German automaker to sell half a million cars that produce nitrogen oxide, which creates smog, at up to 40 times the legal limit.
Volkswagen admitted to the software hack which could detect when the vehicle was undoing a Smog check and change the emissions profile to pass the test. The CEO of Volkswagen resigned due to this scandal and the company has voluntarily recalled 500,000 diesel vehicles to fix the hack. Volkswagen faces up to $18 billion dollars in fines from the EPA.
The International Council on Clean Transportation, a research group, discovered Volkswagen’s software hack.
The group was conducting unrelated research on diesel vehicles and noticed the discrepancy between Volkswagen’s emissions in testing laboratories and on the road. They brought the issue to the attention of the E.P.A., which conducted further tests on the cars, and ultimately discovered the use of the defeat device software.
Welcome to episode 167 of Geek Bytes Podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia and I’m Edgardo Acosta
Every podcast we bring you the roundup of the week’s best Geek and Tech news, then we discuss that news and anything else we’re interested in that week.
In Geek News this week, we’ll talk about video game news, Batman’s penis, PG-13 Deadpool, tons of superhero casting news, movie trailer showdown and more...
That’s it for the show
If you like the podcast and want to help support us you can find out all the ways to do so at geekbytespodcast.com/support
Thanks for watching and listening.
For the Geek Bytes Podcast I’m Ramon Mejia and I’m Edgar Acosta. Now Go Geek out about something.
(Music 9)
Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
