VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
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VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
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Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#2So Chairman Pötsch said "All of this was caused by a desire to expand diesel sales in the US, a desire that wasn't matched with sufficient time or budget to develop engines that fully complied with the tough NOx emissions regulations of the US." The unsaid implication being that someone was pushing that desire, and the very much danced around implication of either "Management said we have to sell more cars no matter what it takes" (indicating management knew about it and didn't care) or possibly even "Management wants to sell more cars and you must make cars more sellable at all costs" (indicating that the developers were afraid for their jobs if they spoke up about potential misdeeds while making cars more attractive to consumers.)
Someone, somewhere, either felt like they couldn't blow the whistle without getting fired (obviously a problem) or management knew about the rule breaking and just didn't care (which is a bigger problem.)
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#3I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.'
Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges applied at market rates for the locality. The police have automatic number plate recognition, this talks to the licensing authority and a few lines of code could be added to flag up the emission-spewing diesels. Simple.
This would also be an experiment in air quality. If overnight a sizeable percentage of cars were no longer on the roads, would there be a noticeable increase in air quality?
This would also be handled by market forces, I am sure my VW driving friends would sort out alternative rides or find garages that could add some fancy exhaust pipe that makes them compliant.
Draconian? It depends on whether air quality matters or not. That is a fairly black and white thing - either it matters or it doesn't.
The 'rule breaking' culture in VW is all very interesting but neither VW or our elected governments have done a thing to take those polluting machines off the road until they are fixed. It is this culture of complacency that bothers me more because it is happening now. The 'rule breaking' culture continues.
You would not breathe diesel fumes if you could see them.
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#4I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
> If overnight a sizeable percentage of cars were no longer on the roads, would there be a noticeable increase in air quality?
We've already done this experiment a number of times. C.f. the hospitalization rates during the Atlanta Olympics.
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#5'Move fast and break the law' might not have been the best slogan to put on the wall....
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#6I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
Unfortunately, such a draconian rule would hurt the owners of the cars more than VW. It would essentially force every car buyer to buy a new car.
Plus, there are plenty of cars on the road built before 2000 that have even worse emissions than these VWs. Would you propose taking those cars off the road as well?
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#7I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
> It depends on whether air quality matters or not. That is a fairly black and white thing - either it matters or it doesn't.
If you really mean that you should only accept zero emission vehicles.
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#8I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
> Draconian? It depends on whether air quality matters or not. That is a fairly black and white thing - either it matters or it doesn't.
Nothing measured on an analog scale is black and white. Something is not "safe" or "dangerous" just because it is on one side or another of a semi-arbitrary limit.
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#9I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
Unfortunately, such a draconian rule would hurt the owners of the cars more than VW. It would essentially force every car buyer to buy a new car. Plus, there are plenty of cars on the road built before 2000 that have even worse emissions than these VWs. Would you propose taking those cars off the road as well?
Well, the potential EPA fine per-car is $37,500.
An amazing move would be for the EPA to force the cars off the road, and force VW to pay for the affected customers' new cars.
Re: VW says rulebreaking culture at root of emissions scandal
#10I just wish one government would say to VW - 'sorry folks, those cars do not meet emission standards, they are destroying the health of the general public to an extent that our health services do not want so please take those cars off the road today.' Thereafter the police being instructed to stop any offending VW found on the roads and tow it to the yard, to be released once VW fixed it, with yard storage charges ap…
That sounds a lot like punishing the consumer for being duped by VW.
On the bright side, VW is a very small portion of the market, and I suspect the cheating cars are not much worse than older cars that we allow on the road, which are held to less stringent standards. So while it's completely unacceptable behavior of VW, it's also not the end of the world if people keep driving them until VW issues the software update.