Hmm did they release their April 1 joke too early by mistake?
The whole thing was an elaborate joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...
Voltswagen of America
521–530 of 632 posts
Re: Voltswagen of America
#522Earlier quoted context omitted.
More recently, he has been released on parole after roughly half his term served.[1] Interestingly, the article says: In Germany, inmates can be released after serving two thirds of their term. Parole after only half of the time is rare, but can be granted to first time offenders who demonstrated good behavior and are deemed unlikely to commit crimes in the future. I don't doubt he exhibited good behavior. I'm not su…
A close associate is an engine designer at a VW group company. VW is not some bottoms up startup. It has a clear micromanaged road map for virtually everything. Data is gathered, sheds are biked ad nausuem. this person was jailed because they were the last one holding the hot potatoe. There is no way (according to said associate) that upper management were not aware of what was going on. as any decision like that has…
> re-map the ECU
Sorry, what does this mean in layman's terms?
Re: Voltswagen of America
#523Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of posting uninformed speculation, you can just Google it… > In 2017, the U.S.-based VW executive Oliver Schmidt, who oversaw emissions issues, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000, the maximum possible under a plea deal the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws. The US has charged nine people, a…
More recently, he has been released on parole after roughly half his term served.[1] Interestingly, the article says: In Germany, inmates can be released after serving two thirds of their term. Parole after only half of the time is rare, but can be granted to first time offenders who demonstrated good behavior and are deemed unlikely to commit crimes in the future. I don't doubt he exhibited good behavior. I'm not su…
As a non violent criminal, who will never get a job where he can even try to commit a similar crime, that sounds reasonable.
Re: Voltswagen of America
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of posting uninformed speculation, you can just Google it… > In 2017, the U.S.-based VW executive Oliver Schmidt, who oversaw emissions issues, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000, the maximum possible under a plea deal the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws. The US has charged nine people, a…
More recently, he has been released on parole after roughly half his term served.[1] Interestingly, the article says: In Germany, inmates can be released after serving two thirds of their term. Parole after only half of the time is rare, but can be granted to first time offenders who demonstrated good behavior and are deemed unlikely to commit crimes in the future. I don't doubt he exhibited good behavior. I'm not su…
> I'm not sure I believe he's unlikely to commit a crime in the future.
I don't think many car companies hire ex-convicts in upper management.
Re: Voltswagen of America
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is still quite likely he won't be repeating the mistake though. Prison is something else than just money.
Is the rest of the world as harsh as the U.S. in that a prison sentence is basically the end of your career? Would this guy have a shot at being an executive again?
Is there evidence that white collar criminal convictions are career ending in the USA?
Re: Voltswagen of America
#526Earlier quoted context omitted.
"V" can be randomly soft or hard, "Volk" is pronounced like "Folk" but "Volt" like "Wolt". THere's no real equivalent sound in English, I think. But, yeah, I've owned several VWs and electrical wiring is usually faulty so I'll go with Faultswagen as well.
Volt uses "W" sound instead of F, because Volt comes from the name of Italian physicist Allessandro Volta. Italian sound for V is W or english V. Are there proper German words that don't read V as F? I've been lead to believe German is strict with phonem/letter combination.
Excellent question, running through a few options in my mind "Version and Variation" come to mind. I'm not sure those qualify as a proper German words, probably not.
Re: Voltswagen of America
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
A close associate is an engine designer at a VW group company. VW is not some bottoms up startup. It has a clear micromanaged road map for virtually everything. Data is gathered, sheds are biked ad nausuem. this person was jailed because they were the last one holding the hot potatoe. There is no way (according to said associate) that upper management were not aware of what was going on. as any decision like that has…
> re-map the ECU Sorry, what does this mean in layman's terms?
Change the parameters used to calculate the fine details of how the internal combustion engine operates, e.g. how much fuel to inject into each cylinder, when to send a spark to trigger ignition, how much pressure should the turbocharger provide, etc.
Re: Voltswagen of America
#528Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I have seen VW had a sort of genuine reckoning with the whole diesel issue. They have reinvented themselves, shed cruft, cut all fuel vehicle development and completely devoted themselves to an electric future (vehicles, batteries, chargers). They have turned things around wholesale and are now producing amazing, relatively affordable electric vehicles (their new id.4 SUV will debut in the US for just a lit…
Despite all the focus on Tesla, companies that makes a minimal, good and inexpensive electric car/truck will win big as far as I'm concerned. Bonus points for an iconic look.
Base model ID.4 SUV for approximately $33,000 (price taking US government tax break into account. $39,995-$7,500) is getting very close to that. A mid-20's priced EV would be amazing but low 30's is starting to get within range of a lot of people (and it ends up being nearly $10,000 less than nearest competitor Tesla's Model Y... best price I could find was $41,290... which sadly no longer qualifies for the same tax break. If it did I would probably say the Tesla is a better deal).
Re: Voltswagen of America
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about it? No vehicle will do it from the factory, so I don't see how it's relevant here. It's the result of running a diesel massively, massively over-rich (with aftermarket tuning), and it's absolute hell on the engine - that amount of diesel in the cylinder washes down the cylinder walls and wipes off the lubricating film, so the cylinder wear is insane from even fairly short periods of it. Even in diesel truc…
I used to live next to a freeway and I know the true cost of dirty diesel engines. Get on any US freeway and you'll notice that while a majority of diesels are fine, there is a minority that is belching soot any time the driver steps on the gas. This is simply unacceptable - this tiny minority of diesels kills people over time - especially the poorer populations who live close to the freeways. I would prefer much mor…
Shit I see that in town. Shiny new cars.
Re: Voltswagen of America
#530Earlier quoted context omitted.
In practice, if a name has a common pronunciation within English, you show respect by using that pronunciation when speaking to native English speakers. Otherwise you just cause confusion. The adapted names have their own history. If you insist on saying København and not Copenhagen, you get to have a little pretentious discussion explaining what you meant to every person you talk to. Ditto for Folks-vagen.
> In practice, if a name has a common pronunciation within English, you show respect by using that pronunciation when speaking to native English speakers. Here's how I read this. "We as an English speaking group will continue to not make an attempt to pronounce it right even if we can. Once we don't we will have a common pronunciation that doesn't fit the original one. Once it becomes common, we will get offended if…
> If the original speakers insist, we will call them pretentious."
Way to overreach way beyond what I originally said. If I was speaking to someone I knew was Dutch, of course I would (try to) say "København." Then they'd probably laugh at me and we'd agree to call it Copenhagen. :P
Or if I want to read your view in the worst possible way-- similar to how you've read mine-- "People who use the established pronunciation of a loanword or place in their native tongue are wrong. We should always seek to find where we are using words of foreign origin and correct them to be perfectly pronounced in their original tongue, even when this causes confusion and isn't helpful to people from the original place. Japanese gairaigo should be abolished and they should just say those words in the correct original English (or German or French). And those damn Frenchmen should stop calling the place I live Californie dans les Etats Unis, which is nothing like how I say it, and should stop calling me 'Michel' which sounds a whole lot like the female version of my name"