The scandal Dieselgate is not subsiding after Volkswagen in the sights of the European Union and the various bodies in charge of environmental protection end all our other car manufacturers, from BMW . One thing that is not surprising at all: the certification pollution is a fight that has been going on for years and that involves virtually all .
On the one hand there are the houses, which must find ways (hopefully legitimate) to pass tests that year after year they become more and more rigid, the other who invents the same, periodically reviewed and refined to avoid just that companies do as Volkswagen , or recognize the test and adapt accordingly. Tests can be made only road or on the reels , when in many cases it would be enough to look first few lines of code and figure out if what you are going to measure is a real behavior and not one simulated for the occasion.
Possible is so hard to find cheaters? Yes, it is possible because unfortunately is not allowed to “look” into the software of the car and understand what actually is done and what the state . They can not do the users, and this is normal, and can not do even those which issue the certificates. If cars were once real mules full of gears and wires, Today the unit has a key role : When we buy a car and leave it to the dealer a check for € 20,000 and goes, we’re not in Actually buying the whole car, but only the body and mechanical parts. All the software that governs the car is licensed for use , but remains the property of the car.
Woe then to touch: who takes risks hand an indictment by the same automakers , because all the software part of a car is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law American who becomes a federal crime any attempt to put hand and understand how a secure system, including the software of the car .
The question widens obviously also to smartphones, televisions and any system with on-board software or a system of protection, but it is obvious as in the case of cars, where in addition to the pollution there is also half of the safety, The DMCA is a real obstacle to security researchers who want to somehow help to make sure the product. Paradoxically, if the researchers who discovered the dieselgate they did in the laboratory analyzing the messages sent by the control unit of the car to the catalyst and engine, would have risked an indictment, a situation similar to that of someone who finds a bug of the locking of the car and is forced to keep silent about the pressure of a team of lawyers .
A shield that of the DMCA that most times the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American organization that fights for the rights in the digital world, has asked the government to loosen excluding certain categories of product such as cars and agricultural vehicles. The reasons are many: could be repaired vehicles in unauthorized workshops , which often is not possible if the problem is with the software, and secondly it would be easier to find possible security holes. But the automakers do not hear us: a report of General Motors clearly explains that allow access to the software could lead people to touch vital not only for cars but also for the environment. “ To increase the power of the motor cars may no longer be in compliance with the parameters of EPA certification “. The same answer that a few months ago gave its the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency: “ can not allow everyone to watch what’s in the software of the control units of the car – said a representative of the agency – an option that would allow anyone to alter the parameters of the engine with the ability to increase emissions beyond the provisions of the Clean Act . “
It seems that this risk does not exist: there are already thinking producers to do the “dirty” work.
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