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by esrauch 2175 days ago
> If the water heater engineers designed the water heater to never turn on and keep the water at room temperature while being tested

I think the difference between what they did and this is only a difference in degree and not kind though, right?
1 comments
titzer 2175 days ago
It is a difference in kind: VW dynamically detected and adapted behavior to the test. It would never operate in that way under normal conditions. The water heater example was completely static: it always behaved the same way, under test or not.
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esrauch 2174 days ago
People obviously disagree since I was downvoted but I don't really see the black-and-white difference between the two.

In both cases there was an intentional design change to deliberately changed mislead a measurement, and the final product does not match the intended thing. Both adversarially directly cause the consumer's purchase to not be the intended item; no one gets a car that has emissions measured and no one gets a heater that has the efficiency measured.

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