Earlier quoted context omitted.
Luigi as privatized accountability?
If powerful people were afraid they would be a lot less unhinged.
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German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
191–200 of 348 posts
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can’t wage modern war without diesel engines, those trucks won’t drive themselves close to the front-lines (and, no, electric-powered trucks in times of war are a terrible idea, and the ones powered by gasoline are a lot less efficient and don’t provide the same torque numbers).
Why would electric trucks be a terrible idea in war time?
The US military is starting to use some hybrid vehicles to improve fuel logistics and reduce operating noise. But pure electric ground vehicles are obviously a stupid idea for combat usage due to charging issues.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Start a company and steal billions from your customers and/or the tax payer, and you will probably get away with it. In this case not only were the managers personally held liable, the company itself also had to pay vast amounts of compensation to customers. Not only in Germany or the EU, but also to US customers.
> not only were the managers personally held liable Yes but not all of them. The top one is still evading justice.
He’s not evading justice if he was never involved. That’s the whole point of having a 4 year trial, so you can figure out who was actually guilty.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#194> The court sentenced two of the former executives to prison for several years... Anyone here know German? I couldn't find a good translation for the number "several."
(I assume you ask about the exact numbers, not how to translate it?) The actual prison sentences are 4.5 years for the former head of diesel engine development, 2 years 7 months for the former head of engine electronics. Two more got sentenced on probation, a former (guessing at the translation here) Chief R&D Officer for 1 year 3 months, a (unspecified in the source I'm reading) department head 1 year 10 months. App…
Yes, thanks for doing the journalism that the author of the story could not be bothered to do.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question is, whether VW as a German company is now going to end up being beaten by US competitors which could do even more nasty stuff unpunished.
What US competitors? Tesla is the only single American company that has had any success besides maybe Ford (but Ford Europe has a similar relationship to it's American parent company that Opel and GM used to have i.e. in a large part it's an European company)
I'm not sure only the German market was meant by OP.
VW has international sales, and OP's implication might've been that Germany has a national interest in VW being competitive.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#196And one engineer went on vacation to America. Congratulations, you‘ve won seven years in a foreign prison! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Schmidt_(engineer)
that wikipedia article is atrociously written holy cow. "pawn sacrifice"?!?
"Bauernopfer" (German for "pawn sacrifice") is a common term in German to mean "sacrificing someone insignificant to get the big guy out of trouble".
So the English translation might be machine-done; in the original German, the word makes a lot of sense and carries a definite meaning.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#197Good for Germany, but it is all too rare to see bad corporate behaviour punished like this. Steal £10k from a company, and you will probably go to prison for a long time. Start a company and steal billions from your customers and/or the tax payer, and you will probably get away with it. I believe Iceland was the only country to jail bankers after the 2008 banking disaster. We are still waiting for the British governm…
SBF is in prison, so it happens sometimes.
He'll be pardoned.
But at least he's there for a bit
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they meant: 窃钩者诛，窃国者侯 qiègōuzhě zhū, qièguózhě hóu He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord. Yes, it is a Chinese idiom.
The same in Spanish. Steal a hen, get a harsh sentence. Steal millions, you are now a respectable 'businessman'.
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#199[deleted]
Re: German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could be wrong but I think BMW and Mercedes still make diesel engines. So maybe it's only impossible at a lower price point? Although the difference isn't that large.
Using [1], BMW have 87 models, of which 13 can be electric, 13 plug-in hybrid, 47 petrol and just 6 diesel. The six are all SUVs. Mercedes don't have an easy filter, but they do have some cars available with diesel engines, e.g. C-Class. Diesel is now down to 9.5% of new cars sold in Europe (Q1 2025), less than full EVs ([2]). [1] https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/all-models.html [2] https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new…
There are several 3 series diesel variants sold right now in my country, so maybe we need a bit more data gathering before drawing conclusions.
It does seem like diesel is trending lower, but it's not gone yet, regardless whether you think that is a good thing or not.
In any case, my point was this:
> it would be impossible to create diesel engines which would comply with enviromental standards
is false. Which it is.
Or multiple car manufacturers are still cheating, I guess we must consider the possibility.