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>I wouldn't call it 'rigged tests', it's more like they optimize the system under test to meet the spec.

You would do so wrongly. In these cases, like VW, the car is programmed specifically to detect when it is being tested, and lower emissions. They aren't optimizing to test spec, they are cheating. There's no other word for it.



In the auto industry, it's called a "defeat device", and has a long history of causing woe to car companies who use such devices.


Since when? And which long history? Seriously, I don't know, where can I read up on this?


Wikipedia has a list of a bunch of incidents going back to the 70s, in which the phrase "the largest fine to date" appears often: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defeat_device


No, he's right. That's "optimize for the test spec". Detect an idiom and optimize it is very common in this situation.

For example, commercial compilers are often written to specifically detect and rewrite idioms/code in oft-used benchmarks (that aren't common to the real world), etc Your browser's javascript engine almost certainly does it.

They aren't cheating, they are just making the test worthless by optimizing it. They still shouldn't do it, but it's super-common.




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