VW cheated on emissions tests

[Samson]

From the beebs review:

It's been dubbed the "diesel dupe". The German car giant has admitted cheating emissions tests in the US. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), some cars being sold in America had devices in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results.

VW has had a major push to sell diesel cars in the US, backed by a huge marketing campaign trumpeting its cars' low emissions. The EPA's findings cover 482,000 cars in the US only, including the VW-manufactured Audi A3, and the VW brands Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat. But VW has admitted that about 11 million cars worldwide are fitted with the so-called "defeat device".

Full details of how it worked are sketchy, although the EPA has said that the engines had computer software that could sense test scenarios by monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and even the position of the steering wheel.

When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions - which typically involved putting them on a stationary test rig - the device appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched from this test mode.

The result? The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.
...
Are VW's problems confined to the US?

Certainly not. Other countries, including Italy, France and South Korea, are opening investigations. Throughout the world, politicians, regulators and environmental groups are questioning the legitimacy of VW's emissions testing. France's finance minister Michel Sapin said a "Europe-wide" probe was needed in order to "reassure" the public.

At this time, only cars in the US named by the EPA are being recalled, so owners elsewhere need take no action. However, with about 11 million VW diesel cars potentially affected, further costly recalls and refits are possible. Half of the company's sales in Europe - VW's biggest market - are for diesel cars. No wonder the carmaker's shares plunged around 30% in the first couple of days after the scandal broke - with other carmakers also seeing big falls in their stock prices.

30% of the value of the company in 2 days? This is obviously massive for VW, I cannot imagine it will be terminal but there are some serious questions.

Discuss what you like, from "big corporations screwing us" to "government should keep out of the market so brave entrepreneurs will not need to do this". One thing that occurs to me is how this happens. How can you usefully measure the emissions of a car without simultaneously measuring the power output? Surely to translate laboratory emissions tests to real world emissions levels you need to know the amount of emissions at certain energy output levels, and then translate that to required energy output of driving?

 

[Borachio]

I dunno.

I don't know why VW thought this was a good idea. I know it gave them better pollution figures, but they must have known they'd get caught. Surely?

In any case, this is going to cost them dearly.

 

[Samson]

I dunno.

I don't know why VW thought this was a good idea. I know it gave them better pollution figures, but they must have known they'd get caught. Surely?

That certainly brings up another question: how did they get caught? All the reports I have read have simply said "[VW] has admitted cheating emissions tests in the US", but I am sure they did not just come out with this out of the kindness of their hearts.

[EDIT] I asked google and found:

The problem was only uncovered by an independent group, the International Council on Clean Transportation, which wanted to investigate why there was such a discrepancy between laboratory tests and real-road performance for several of VW's diesel cars in Europe. So they worked with researchers at West Virginia University, who stuck a probe up the exhaust pipe of VW's clean diesel cars and drove them from San Diego to Seattle.

What the researchers found was shocking. On the road, VW's Jetta was emitting 15 to 35 times as much nitrogen oxide as the allowable limit. The VW Passat was emitting 5 to 20 times as much. These cars were emitting much more pollution than they had in the labs.
...
Volkswagen hasn't explained exactly why it cheated, but outside analysts have a good guess. The NOx emission controls likely degraded the cars' performance when they were switched on — the engines ran hotter, wore out more quickly, and got poorer mileage. Some experts have suggested that the emission controls may have affected the cars' torque and acceleration, making them less fun to drive.

In other words, Volkswagen wasn't able to produce diesel cars that had the ideal mix of performance, fuel economy, and low pollution. (Or, at least, they couldn't do this profitably.) So they "solved" this trade-off by sacrificing cleanliness and loosening the pollution controls. And they accomplished this via software designed to deceive regulators. This was wildly illegal, and they got caught.

 

[warpus]

Volkswagen

Das Fraudo

 

[Formaldehyde]

Volkswagen

Das Fraudo

Wow. This is huge if it turns out to be actually true.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Sweden should sue them for Trillions of Euro.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Yeah cars right now are kind of like where software was in the 80s and 90s. There's very little regulatory oversight of the increasingly computerized facets of automobiles, and the companies themselves are doing very little to protect against intrusions and other potential safety liabilities. I won't be surprised if we have a few more tech-car scandals before governments start to get a grip on things.

This kind of environmental meddling and dishonesty needs to be dealt with very harshly.

 

[Formaldehyde]

So much for "if this is true":

The Guardian: VW software scandal: chief apologises for breaking public trust

Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation after US regulators found that the carmaker designed software for close to half a million diesel cars that gave false emissions data, its CEO said, adding he was “deeply sorry” for the violation of US rules.

“I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Martin Winterkorn said in a statement published on Sunday by the carmaker on Sunday. “Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.”

When confronted with the EPA and Carb’s evidence, VW admitted that its cars were fitted with the defeat device.

What is truly hypocritical is that VW has been marketing these cars as "clean diesels".

Direct injection turbodiesel engines are frequent winners of various prizes in the International Engine of the Year Awards. In 1999 in particular, six out of twelve categories were won by direct injection engines: three were Volkswagen, two were BMW, and one Audi.[citation needed] Notably that year, the Volkswagen Group 1.2 TDI 3L beat the Toyota Prius to win "Best Fuel Economy" in its class.[citation needed] The TDI engine has won "Green Car of the Year" award in the years 2009 (Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 litre common-rail TDI clean diesel) and 2010 (Audi A3 TDI clean diesel) beating other various electric cars.

 

[Gucumatz]

This certainly doesn't help the already struggling for growth VW. The CEO will almost certainly be let go after this and I can see countless justified lawsuits following this revelation

 

[EnglishEdward]

In general there are many people who want to own a car and want
one's government to regulate that it is:

(a) cheap to buy
(b) cheap to run
(c) good performance
(d) safe
(e) good carrying capacity
(f) long lasting
(g) friendly with low emissions.

Ultimately these are incompatible objectives. I.e. wishful thinking.

The car companies observed that customers would notice (a) to (f) but not
notice (g) so that the last requirement (g) was in reality quietly dropped.

They likely concluded that ecowarriors insistent on (g) be better sold a bicycle.

The way I see it people more or less asked to be lied to and there was a
competition that went out of control between the companies as to who
could tell the biggest lie and VW simply made the mistake of winning that.

The greens have been foolish and allowed themselves to be deceived, strangely
enough this reminds me most of the neo-cons asking for evidence of Saddam's WMD.

There is a lot of this hopeful thinking; e.g. we only buy palm oil/timber from
sustainably maintained plantations/logged forests; where the fraudsters charge
a premium for a documentation trail to set the customers' conscience to rest.

 

[Mise]

Unbelievable. How could they possibly think they would get away with this? I don't think I would ever buy a VW, Audi, SEAT, or Skoda ever again...

 

[Zelig]

Yeah cars right now are kind of like where software was in the 80s and 90s. There's very little regulatory oversight of the increasingly computerized facets of automobiles, and the companies themselves are doing very little to protect against intrusions and other potential safety liabilities. I won't be surprised if we have a few more tech-car scandals before governments start to get a grip on things.

This kind of environmental meddling and dishonesty needs to be dealt with very harshly.

There's regulatory oversight of software now?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Not to mention Europe is already taking steps which would have exposed this scam:

From the Guardian article I posted above:

In Europe, new laws have forced manufacturers to test their cars under real world conditions and not in laboratories, helping to reduce unrealistic claims about emissions. By 2017 all new cars will have to be more stringently tested, effectively ending an era when car makers could exaggerate the performance of their machines.

UK car industry group the SMMT claims that, because of European legislation to cut tailpipe pollution, Britain’s air quality is better now than it has been for centuries.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Unbelievable. How could they possibly think they would get away with this? I don't think I would ever buy a VW, Audi, SEAT, or Skoda ever again...

I'm not sure they're alone in cheating. US maybe felt the need to get some influx of cash. Can't sue their own manufacturers then..

 

[Formaldehyde]

I'm not sure they're alone in cheating. US maybe felt the need to get some influx of cash. Can't sue their own manufacturers then..

The US is picking on VW to get cash because they don't want to accuse their own vehicle manufacturers of the biggest auto scam ever of doing the same thing? Is that what you just posted?

 

[uppi]

Unbelievable. How could they possibly think they would get away with this? I don't think I would ever buy a VW, Audi, SEAT, or Skoda ever again...

They did get away with this for 6 years or more, and if it was not for that independent group, we might be none the wiser.

Cheating on the test stand is quite common, which is why cars never get the advertised mileage. They just overdid it this time and got caught.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Advertised mileage has nothing to do with emissions testing.

 

[bhavv]

If anyone wanted to be truly green, then they wouldnt own or use a car, but use a bicycle and public transport.

 

[Zelig]

Cheating on the test stand is quite common, which is why cars never get the advertised mileage.

Cars easily get the advertised mileage if you drive sensibly and don't accelerate towards stop signs and red lights.

My car's currently rated for 8.5 city, 6.5 hwy, and I average around 5.4 for combined city/in-city highways with 50 km/h average speed.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

The US is picking on VW to get cash because they don't want to accuse their own vehicle manufacturers of the biggest auto scam ever of doing the same thing? Is that what you just posted?

Well, not exactly. You're just very good at suing. ..and I don't really trust your politicians-corporate relations. EU is getting better at suing though. Maybe China and Russia will get there too.