Volkswagen Cheated Emissions Testing

South Korea is now looking into recall actions.

http://europe.newsweek.com/volkswagen-investigation-spreads-south-korea-333414

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Quote:

Michael Horn, the head of Volkswagen in the U.S., admitted late Monday that the company had "totally screwed up."
"Let's be clear about this, our company was dishonest with the [Environmental Protection Agency], and the California air resources board, and with all of you," Horn said.
"In my German words, we have totally screwed up."

What were they thinking?

I find it hard to even wrap my head around how bad the decision at VM was to choose to do what they did.

How would this even be presented up the Management chain... I'm picturing a Sr. Software Engineer going to his boss one day and saying, "I have this great idea blah blah blah, bear in mind that it's highly illegal, blah blah blah". And his boss says, "Great idea, let's do it. I'll just clear it with my boss...". Hey boss, we have this great idea, blah blah blah highly illegal, defrauding international governments and our entire customer base, blah blah blah"... "I love this idea, let me just clear it with the CEO and board of directors"... "blah blah blah, international scandal, blah blah, risking tens of billions of dollars in fines and a total loss of customer loyalty and consumer respect, potentially endangering the very existence of VW, blah blah blah"... long silence... Great Idea! Let's do it.

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It will be interesting to learn at what level this decision was made. It may
not have gone very far up the chain. Sometimes, when the numbers are
met, management doesn't want to ask questions.

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@rosborne979,

It didn't go down like that. I best it started with "we have to get good emissions and good performance". Then it was "you really need good emissions when you are at idle and really good performance when you are at speed". It migrated to "I can devise a routine that tells you when to focus on emissions and when to focus on performance". Finally it became "Boss, we have solved your challenge. Our new software delivers outstanding results in emissions testing and blows the competition away on the highway with best in class mileage performance. Just look at these numbers from the lab. The vision is clean diesel is here today!" Management clapped and bonuses were awarded.

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@engineer,

It is also interesting to read the comments on a lot of US websites. Plenty of people out there saying "too bad they got caught". Lots of people take clean air for granted. The VW's in question produce excessive levels of NOx which produce acid rain and smog. You can read about it here.

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Volkswagen now says it is not half a million US cars, it is 11 million cars worldwide. They have also removed all their diesel ads from Youtube.

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@engineer,

Your guess as to how it happened makes sense to me, seen it happen that way in other companies where I was in a position to see it happen.

Do you happen to know the emission control strategy they used? It sounds like they relied on ECU injection timing exclusively rather than post combustion measures like urea injection, etc.

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

Volkswagen now says it is not half a million US cars, it is 11 million cars worldwide.

See my earlier post. But now, even this number might be low.

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@engineer,

Yup, you're probably right. That sounds more reasonable. But not as entertaining. Smile

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

It didn't go down like that. I best it started with "we have to get good emissions and good performance". Then it was "you really need good emissions when you are at idle and really good performance when you are at speed". It migrated to "I can devise a routine that tells you when to focus on emissions and when to focus on performance". Finally it became "Boss, we have solved your challenge. Our new software delivers outstanding results in emissions testing and blows the competition away on the highway with best in class mileage performance. Just look at these numbers from the lab. The vision is clean diesel is here today!" Management clapped and bonuses were awarded.

Nail head, meet hammer.....

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@DrewDad,

A larger filter for the Volkswagen models would have done the same effect as the software - but constantly, and just for the price of 71 or 103 Euros (different calculation since done a) in the Netherlands, b) in Germany).

With the AUDI, it would have been more expensive than the above mentioned Euros. And a bit more complicated, since there, they had to made either a larger tank for the "AdBlue" [a 32.5% high-purity urea Diesel exhaust fluid] or the refilling had to be done more frequently (=very often).

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@Walter Hinteler,

The EA189 engines at the centre of the emissions scandal had also been fitted, as is known by now, to several Skoda and Seat models as well as the VW Jetta, VW Beetle, VW Golf and VW Passat models and the Audi A3.

Slightly engines modified are in other models of Volkswagen group cars as well as in cars of other car markers it his been confirmed.

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@Walter Hinteler,

The local responsible state prosecution office in Brunswick said today they were conducting a preliminary investigation of manipulation at Volkswagen as they had received a number of criminal complaints.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Volkswagen Group's CEO Winterkorn resigns.

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@engineer,

I was talking to hamburgboy about this last night. His take on it was something like yours - particularly around "Boss, we have solved your challenge."

though in the insurance world he worked in back in the day, management would have nodded, not clapped.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Here’s the full statement from WInterkorn:

"I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group.

As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part."

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Never resort to conspiracy when incompetence, greed or desperation is adequate.

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@Leadfoot,

Leadfoot wrote:

Never resort to conspiracy when incompetence, greed or desperation is adequate.

Are you speaking from experience? Wink

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What I don't get is how the responsible party (whoever it was) thought it would go unnoticed. If nothing else, Competitor companies are always reverse engineering your successful products to see how they work and would probably be only too happy to blow the whistle.

I'm surprised it took this long.

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From the Guardian, an estimate of how much additional pollution VW cars generated.

Quote:

Volkswagen’s rigging of emissions tests for 11m cars means they may be responsible for nearly 1m tonnes of air pollution every year, roughly the same as the UK’s combined emissions for all power stations, vehicles, industry and agriculture

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Volkswagen Cheated Emissions Testing

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