Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#11

Post by mpweiher »

> in August 2007,[..] It rebranded the company’s diesel engine TDI—for turbocharged direct injection.

Huh? VW's diesel engines had been TDIs for well over a decade at that time, for example my 1996 Golf was a TDI. The TDIs are awesome engines. I previously had a gasoline engine with the same horsepower rating, but the TDI was better in every way: unkillably high torque at low RPMs (I could go from a standing start to 4th gear without ever pushing the gas pedal), great acceleration at high speeds (at 160 km/h, hit the pedal and it goes, whereas with the gasoline engine it was hit the pedal and ... wait ... wait ... still trying to accelerate ... wait ). And of course far, far better gas mileage.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#12

Post by AnimalMuppet »

to3m wrote: post #7

"regulators are considering steps to tighten emissions standards for diesel engines"? - interesting that the old emissions standards were (one presumes) absolutely fine, until somebody turns out to have been cheating.

Well, enforcement of the old emissions standards was lacking. If "tightening" means "actually enforce the ones we have, even against the revealed gamesmanship", that's a very proper step.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#13

Post by 5h »

akamaka wrote: post #9

The rest of the commenters are quick to dismiss this article as presenting scapegoats, but I'm very keen to see more in-depth investigation about how this was orchestrated. There are a lot of different ways that this type of cheating can develop over time, and simply saying "lots of people knew must have known about this" isn't very satisfying to me. There are plenty of ways that upper management can stay in the dark…

I wonder how differently the reaction here would be if the title/article didn't call them Engineers.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#15

Post by to3m »

mpweiher wrote: post #11

> in August 2007,[..] It rebranded the company’s diesel engine TDI—for turbocharged direct injection. Huh? VW's diesel engines had been TDIs for well over a decade at that time, for example my 1996 Golf was a TDI. The TDIs are awesome engines. I previously had a gasoline engine with the same horsepower rating, but the TDI was better in every way: unkillably high torque at low RPMs (I could go from a standing start to…

To be fair, great gas mileage is true for every manufacturer. It's inherent in the technology, and applies across the full range of engine sizes and configurations. I've driven my BMW 330d 35,000 miles and to my knowledge it's never used even a single millilitre of gasoline.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#16

Post by hkmurakami »

TheCapn wrote: post #4
dev1n wrote: post #3

I'm sure these engineers weren't acting on their own here.

Well, seeing how one is titled the "Chief Engineer" I wouldn't be too surprised that he represents an entire department (or many) and is the last stop before board of directors.

To me, having been in the auto industry as a peon, Chief Engineer sounds like a person with a Junior Middle Manager pay level without officially having any direct reports.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#18

Post by zardo »

hkmurakami wrote: post #16
TheCapn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, seeing how one is titled the "Chief Engineer" I wouldn't be too surprised that he represents an entire department (or many) and is the last stop before board of directors.

To me, having been in the auto industry as a peon, Chief Engineer sounds like a person with a Junior Middle Manager pay level without officially having any direct reports.

That's odd, I work in an auto company, our chief engineer is the head of all engieering, he reports to the GM, who reports to the board of directors.

Another odd thing though, is that VW apparently puts their compliance responsibilities under engineering management. Our compliance department, which I work in, is an independent department. That has its own difficulties with being less integrated with development, but we don't have any competing goals.

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#19

Post by electricblue »

akamaka wrote: post #9

The rest of the commenters are quick to dismiss this article as presenting scapegoats, but I'm very keen to see more in-depth investigation about how this was orchestrated. There are a lot of different ways that this type of cheating can develop over time, and simply saying "lots of people knew must have known about this" isn't very satisfying to me. There are plenty of ways that upper management can stay in the dark…

"we didn't know" is curiously not an excuse you can use in any other facet of human life except to exculpate rich people

Re: Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes in on Two Engineers

#20

Post by smoyer »

In my opinion, this is going to get far worse for VW. People bought cars expecting the stated fuel economy - if they submit their cars to the recall, there's likely to be a class-action suit aiming to recoup enough cost to pay for the difference in fuel costs over the life of the car.

Cars that don't go through the recall process will continue to pollute at a greater rate and will earn the ire of the EPA (here in the US).

It's going to cost them a huge amount of money to satisfy both the EPA and their customers.

Post reply on HN