Re: The role of FOSS in preventing a recurrence of vehicle emissions scandals

["J.B. Nicholson" <jbn@forestfield.org>]

A very effective argument is to look back at what happened under software 
non-freedom. The entirety of https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/ is replete with 
examples of this, often from establishment-serving media which passes muster in the 
computer field. In fact https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-cars.html#M201904150 
covers the Volkswagen emissions scandal and succinctly captures how free software 
would have helped:

> Using free software would not have stopped Volkswagen from programming it this
> way, but would have made it harder to conceal, and given the users the possibility
> of correcting the deception.

Multiple large automakers coordinated their actions to exploit the vulnerable 
resulting in "about 11 million cars worldwide"[1] emitting more pollutants than is 
legally allowed in real-world driving.

The punishment for this fraud did not include mandating free software. As far as I 
know, none of the victimized customers ended up with free software car firmware and 
the means to update applicable cars to a libre version of that software (no 
TiVOization allowed). I'm not interested in how many anyone thinks would have used 
it, as that's a side issue and pure speculation. I'm interested in what the public 
should have demanded and what the public should still receive.

Demanding software freedom is eminent sense if we are genuinely trying to "[prevent] 
a recurrence of vehicle emissions scandals" as is the subject of this thread. One 
should want the car owners to be free to run their cars as they wish and to also let 
publishers know that their illegal collusion will be punished by losing that 
proprietary control.

Matt Ivie wrote:
> Back in the day, before ECMs and computer control, one could tune their engine any
> way they chose. If you needed to pass an emissions test you would make sure your
> engine was setup to do just that, but then you could change it back after the test
> was passed.

We can examine history to see what occurred; we can ask "did anyone cheat?". I know 
of no car enthusiasts doing anything comparable to what Volkswagen Group did in 
anywhere near comparable numbers. If there is some other group that pulled that off, 
I'd like to know the specifics including how many millions of cars they modified to 
run in violation of emissions law in real-world driving.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_scandal

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