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F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

nytimes.com

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Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#61

Post by jdhn »

davewritescode wrote: post #48
Pyxl101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not been closely following this scandal, so I was unaware that other car manufacturers have been indicted in emissions cheating. Could you share a source with more information about this?

Not even just emissions, lots of companies play software tricks to game efficiency numbers. Chevy and Ford have both played games with the manual V8 sports cars that locks out the 1 -> 2 shift and force the driver to go 1 -> 4 to save gas when the computer sees the car accelerating at the same rate as the EPA test. The funniest thing was the Ford would sell you a software update to defeat skip shift under the guise o…

I was under the impression that unless you bought an aftermarket tune the 1 -> 2 (and maybe even 1 -> 3) shift was always locked out no matter your rate of acceleration. Has this changed in the past few years?

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#62

Post by akerro »

PunchTornado wrote: post #57
pvlima wrote: post #19

Most amazing is that in Europe VW does not have to pay anything. And car owners are forced to do a software update that reduces engine power and increases risk of malfunction. VW never again.

Not true. see spain.

What happened there?

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#63

Post by londons_explore »

gst wrote: post #45

I'm surprised that he decided to stay in the United States. Germany doesn't extradite its own citizens to countries outside the EU (except in very limited cases such as war criminals), so he would have been perfectly safe if he'd moved back to Germany. And even if he would have been sentenced in Germany the sentences handed out in such cases are _much_ more relaxed than the potential sentence he's facing in the Unite…

Maybe he was an american? He wouldn't have citizenship in Germany then.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#64

Post by akerro »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #25
pvlima wrote: post #19

Most amazing is that in Europe VW does not have to pay anything. And car owners are forced to do a software update that reduces engine power and increases risk of malfunction. VW never again.

> Most amazing is that in Europe VW does not have to pay anything. Yet.

South Korea put an exec guy to prison.

Already.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#65

Post by AndyMcConachie »

falkooo wrote: post #13
Pyxl101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not been closely following this scandal, so I was unaware that other car manufacturers have been indicted in emissions cheating. Could you share a source with more information about this?

Have a look at this talk of the latest CCC at 13:11 https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7904-software_defined_emissions He talks about how it is possible that the cars achieve the low results in the testcycles but produce much higher emissions on the real road. The reverse engineering in the beginning of the task is also very interesting.

The companion talk about how the Dieselgate cases are transpiring is also worth a watch.

https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8131-dieselgate_a_year_later#vid...

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#66

Post by Jgrubb »

chopin wrote: post #37
vostok wrote: post #27

As someone who works in finance, I'm shocked at the level of fraud and corruption that is tolerated in other industries. I'm glad to see that at least some action is being taken.

You forgot the /sarcasm tag...

I took that to mean that OP is shocked that the level of fraud and corruption tolerated in other industries is so much lower than in finance.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#67

Post by LordKano »

disiplus wrote: post #42
_nedR wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be game over for diesel cars in general, even if you ignore their eventual replacement with electric cars. They have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Their popularity was due to their higher fuel efficiency; But for diesels, it seems that there is trade-off between fuel efficiency and NOx emissions ( http://www.livescience.com/52284-volkswagen-scandal-clean-di... ). With many cities and countries t…

diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern

A big part of diesel's fuel efficiency advantage is caused by the emissions controls on gasoline powered vehicles.

Vehicles from the early 70s often had similar gas mileage to smaller lighter vehicles from the late 90s-early 2000s but the newer cars had much better emissions.

If the makers of gasoline powered cars had cheated like VW did on their diesels, the diesel advantage would have been nonexistent.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#68

Post by usrusr »

disiplus wrote: post #42
_nedR wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be game over for diesel cars in general, even if you ignore their eventual replacement with electric cars. They have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Their popularity was due to their higher fuel efficiency; But for diesels, it seems that there is trade-off between fuel efficiency and NOx emissions ( http://www.livescience.com/52284-volkswagen-scandal-clean-di... ). With many cities and countries t…

diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern

In Germany it is not just about the efficiency: diesel fuel is taxed lower per liter than gasoline, for exactly the same stupid reasons personal cars are (were?) often cheaper to register in the USA if you find an excuse to call it a truck.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#69

Post by imagist »

easytiger wrote: post #34
alexandercrohde wrote: post #2

Good. I'm tired of high-ranking high-status members of society dodging consequences of multimillion or billion dollar catastrophes while the lowest classes get life sentences for ruining a single life. I think the only way to stop the white-collar crime problem (which I think is a bigger problem than the physical crime problem) is by holding people accountable.

You fell for it.. this is US economic imperialism, and nothing to do about emissions.

Maybe, but it's also justice being served.

When a poor black man in America is arrested for a rape, it's racism and classism because a rich white man is far more likely to get away with that crime. But it's also justice. I don't think you would argue that we should let poor black men get away with rape just to make things more fair.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#70

Post by edanm »

JohnGB wrote: post #46

I wonder if the same would have happened to an American company in the USA. If so, what's the deal with the bankers that did orders of magnitude more damage?

I think it depends on whether they did anything illegal. Doing damage is not by itself enough to arrest anyone, there has to be something illegal about having acted in the way that caused the damage.
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