DRM on Polish trains - a train manufacturer breaking their own trains

[tom66]

I think this story is kind of mental. 



A Polish train manufacturer services their own trains, but the contract comes to an end and they don't win the next contract as another supplier bids under their price.  To make any other companies that do the servicing look bad, the manufacturer has embedded code into their train software which makes the trains malfunction under certain conditions, such as the day of the week and GPS position matching the servicing area of competitor companies.

If the people involved in this malicious engineering (including the management that surely demanded it) are not prosecuted, it will be a great disservice to all society.

[pcprogrammer]

Believe to have seen something about this kind of practice before on this forum. Something with tractors of some big company?

It is indeed appalling behavior.

[Jacon]

Discussed already here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/when-your-train-suddenly-stops-working/msg5209014/#msg5209014