"The Volkswagen case breaks new ground for how corporations can make "end runs" around legal requirements, said Ryan Calo, a University of Washington professor and expert in robotics and autonomous systems law and policy.
A company, for example, might learn of an inspection at a construction site and then make sure that workers wear helmets or it might clean a food plant thoroughly before a scheduled review even if it doesn't operate that way all the time.
"But this is encoded," Calo said. "I bet that it happens elsewhere but it is rare we detect it because we typically don't go through the code. There could be many examples in everyday things."
The VW issue demonstrates why regulators need more technical expertise, including a federal robotics commission, he said.
"We need experts in a centralized place whether the issues are drones, driverless cars or things like the VW example," Calo said."