Via The GWPF:
The European car industry was shaken on Monday as Volkswagen’s share price fell almost 20 per cent over its admission that it cheated on US emissions tests, triggering calls for a broader inquiry into the sector. More than €13bn was wiped off VW’s market capitalisation, spurring a wider fall in carmakers’ shares, after Martin Winterkorn, the group’s chief executive, apologised and ordered an external investigation into the affair. he news prompted a fall in carmakers’ shares with Daimler, BMW, Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroën each being sold off amid investor concerns over the potential scale of the cost to VW and the broader industry. VW faces billions of dollars in fines and warranty costs, possible criminal charges for executives and class-action lawsuits from US drivers. –Andy Sharman and Jeevan Vasagar, Financial Times, 22 September 2015
The federal government paid out as much as $51 million in green car subsidies for Volkswagen diesel vehicles based on falsified pollution test results, according to a Times analysis of the federal incentives. Such green car incentives have also gone to buyers of hybrid, electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars. But the EPA does not track aggregate figures for incentives paid out to buyers of specific models or brands. –Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times, 22 September 2015
Carmakers bombard consumers with marketing about how “clean” and “eco” their products are, but incidents like VW’s software cheating are a reminder that the auto industry has no abiding love for the green ideals it’s peddling. Volkswagen will pay dearly for its transgression, but you can be sure there are many more companies out there—both inside and out of the auto industry—that are taking advantage of the average consumer’s enjoyment of feeling environmentally friendly, without actually delivering the benefits promised. —The American Interest, 22 September 2015
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Readers might be interested to know how this sort of technique started.
It was initially developed in the consumer software industry, where ‘standard’ tests became widely publicised amongst industry sectors. Two areas which stand out were the anti-virus industry and the graphics card manufacturers.
When software looks for viruses, it needs to balance speed of scanning files against depth of scanning. A good AV product will scan fast, but also investigate a whole file thoroughly for multiple viruses. That takes time.
Now, if a system is infected, it usually has just one or two viruses, and the software should examine all files closely. However, if an anti-virus package is pointed at a system which has 100,000 viruses, all different, in separate small files, it is a reasonable assumption that it is being tested against a virus database, and there were a number of scandals in the Virus Testing community with AV packages containing code to recognise that they were being tested, and silently reconfiguring themselves to just find one virus per file, which speeds things up a lot.
Similarly, Graphics card manufacturers are often tested with standard tests that the software can recognise, and it can then overclock itself for a short time to speed up the test, or perform some other optimising action.
In theory, this can be within the letter of the law. If you are required to ‘pass a test’, then it should not matter how you pass it. But if the aim is to ensure low emissions in ‘average driving’, then this trick will obviously fail to meet that aim….
Ahhhh Florida, where we don’t need no stinkin’ emissions badges.
The upside is the greenies that bought the “clean diesel” can suffer the guilt of driving a not so green car. If they keep it they are guilty of the sin of excess pollution. If they sell it they are still guilty, only moving the sin out of sight. The only ethical thing to do is destroy the car so it can pollute no more.
The fraud carried out by VW is as nothing compared to the frauds being perpetrated by the EPA and the Obama government. $51 million in green car subsidies for Volkswagen diesel vehicles based on falsified pollution test results looks like money well spent when compared to money wasted by the EPA.
I wonder how the serial rent seeker, Elon Musk, would go with his ‘trading’ in certificates based upon battery claims?
Who knows what the actually fine will be, but undoubtedly it will large. Will it be in relation to the actual damage caused by this — no one was killed or injured, and the damage to the environment probably isn’t even measurable.
I’m not defended VW, what they did was wrong and they should be punished, but in the whole scope of corporate malfeasance how serious is this? Today, a man that knowingly sold salmonella infected peanut butter was sentenced to 20 years in prison — 9 people died from this.
A comment on the photo accompanying the article:
Would it not be better to have a photo of one of the (modern, diesel engined) VW models being discussed, and NOT a 40-year-old air-cooled ‘Beetle’?
Geez JimBob I kinda think that may be the point. A carbureted air-cooled VW would have polluted a lot … much like the new diesels.
Air-cooled V-Dubs were some of the worst polluting vehicles ever built. The garage I worked at during college did smog inspections, we stopped doing smog checks on them because they would never be able to pass. They also leaked oil, so much so that oil top ups were a regular part of ownership.
Funny how the VW Beetle and Van became symbols of the Hippy Generation, and are still that today.
I guess you need to work in the software industry to understand the humor of “it’s a feature, not a bug” that the picture represents….
Peter
OK Pete, ya got me!
I saw the plate, but the little dim bulb never flickered on that there even WAS a joke.
I guess I’m getting to be an old fogey…..
Maybe VW could make a deal with the EPA by cleaning the rivers the EPA polluted.
My ecoloon leftists associates are outraged, not comprehending that everything VW has done, and the personal wealth reduction suffered by the fools that paid more for a green-dyed useless product, applies equally to the fake green carbonbaggers from Big Wind who they idolise and whose wealth they spend their lives embiggening for no environmental benefit (or indeed net harm).
Volkswagendämmerung.
Convert one or two coal fired power plants to natural gas and you’ve offset pretty much all the NOx emissions from these little cars. Anyway I think condemning thousands of cars to the scrap heap decades ahead of their useful life because they’re so clogged up with sludge from these emissions controls is a worse environmental disaster.
Disclaimer – I am in a sarcastic mood.
If H2O is a bigger driver of temp than CO2.
What would happen if all the motor vehicles became hydrogen cell powered and started outputting H2O rather than CO2? Would we have a H2O rich environment which would cause the planet to heat up disastrously? 😉
It would be funny to see the calculation on that one – total number of vehicles in use x H2O output from a hydrogen cell car + fudge factor for trucks = hot weather and new thongs.
Also – if CO2 is the biggest driver of global temps as stated by some folks, why is the whole planet not all the same temperature?? It just seems illogical….
The about 7-10 years later there’d be a big scandal about cars blowing up due to hydrogen embrittlement.
Peter
Only half O/T, but what actually happens to EPA fines?
I assume that they don’t actually go into the spending-purse of the EPA. But do they end up being considered as credits to the EPA’s account in the general scheme of government auditing?
I saw an article where some of the huge ($Billions) paid by some of the big banks (some of the mortgage-selling scandal from years ago) went into an Obama slush fund that was then doled out to the renamed-Acorn groups and some of Obama’s other left-wing activist buddies. According to the article, the money did NOT go to the US Treasury!
You can reflash you car computer.
Here is an off shore company that has written new software that allows you to gain access to your computer, modify the settings, and give the EPA the middle finger. Hi EPA.. see my middle finger?
http://www.jkm.org.uk/performance/index.htm
The EPA psychopath overlords,….This will be as easy as putting a custom key in the ignition.
Put a customized key in the ignition, and drive your boosted car. Put the original OEM key in the ignition and you get to drive.. and test at inspection, your P.O.S. EPA-mobile and pass.
There are people who work for the EPA and BRAG (yeah brag) about forcing people into compliance. In another time they would be the half-wits who torture the innocents on the rack or twisted the thumb screws in the name of “the law”. The EPA relies on the willing participation of these “compliance” jerks to implement their tyranny.
I’m amazed at some of my eco-weenie friends have installed new pipes and firmware and gained about 50BHP on their cars. There’s a mode on those firmware patches to allow you pass emissions…
They then bitterly condemn VW for what they are doing…
Maybe I shouldn’t be amazed, but I can’t help it…
Peter
I’m amused that VW didn’t just copy Subaru’s perfectly legal EPA test cheat: “SI-Drive”.
http://www.subaru-global.com/tec_sidrive.html
Also Ford, GM, et. al. as something similar:
https://owner.ford.com/how-tos/maintenance/engine/drive-vs-sport-mode.html
http://www.challengertalk.com/forums/f5/can-someone-explain-sport-mode-71892/
And I bet if I kept looking most manufacturers have some way of delivering all the requirements of MPG, emissions, and user performance – just not all at the same time. VW just tried to make this modal system automatic, which is then considered an illegal circumvention device. Whoops. (“Device” in bureaucratese means hardware+software). (Though from the above comments I guess MPG and emissions are in physical conflict for diesels, so making this user-modal is a tad harder than “sport” mode).
You can be assured that in EPA testing of Subarus, Dodges, Fords et. al. this mode is in the default state – clean emissions, crappy horsepower, good MPG – the “Intelligent” or “economy” mode of the car. You can also be assured that when I drive, it’s in “Sport Sharp” mode spewing all sorts of good stuff out the back as I blaze past Priuses driving slow in the left hand lane or slow starting hypermilers at stoplights. (endemic problem around here in the PNW). Time is money, after all, which is something antithetical to bureaucrat culture…
Hybrid cars cheat by outsourcing 5-25% of the emissions from mileage gains to whoever manufactured the batteries (note, if you do reading on this you’ll find it’s not the lithium part, it’s the whole package especially the electrodes that require the built in energy). It’s a wide range because it depends on how you do the calculations. (Note the partial derivative of MPG is a 1/x^2 function so very sensitive to MPG assumptions). On the good side, regenerative braking really truly is an energy and emissions saver in city driving.
In the end, like the air conditioning example above, the economical physical part of the car has been completely optimized, and in order to meet the increasing efficiency and emissions requirements imposed by bureaucrats (and those who worship them), while still meeting end-user requirements, you have to cheat in some fashion using software or “moving” the emissions to China.. Some cheats are legal, and some are not. VW was stupid and chose the illegal route.
The good news for me is my teenager needs a car soon, and I anticipate the secondary market for a TDI will be quite good in the near future…
Peter
The Honda approach was to just lie and pay the fine later, after millions of Hondas were sold for their great fuel economy to hapless working class commuters. EPA was asleep or busy with form-fit science projects to meet agendas. There is no need to stand in line to cheat those stupid Americans, right Dr. Grubber? All are welcome all the time and by any group. No one is really on the job watching anything. That is the lesson of financial regulation, veterans health care, fuel efficiency standards, campaign finance reform in name only, and health insurance shell games.
How about a wireless emissions test from home with an app. That would save time in going to permit inspection stations and the cheating could be done from the comfort of home on a sofa. The carbon savings would be enormous.
interesting thread.
for the first time automotive
technicians state ‘These conditions no one can meet.’
why have they been silent 40 years.
‘hard’ science frozen to humble everydays cheating themselves.
lost 40 years.
Hans