VW emissions scandal hits 11m vehicles

One more reason for publishing the source code to drive-line software in cars. And don&#x27;t give me nonsense about &#x27;millions of lines of code&#x27; (I&#x27;ve heard that before in another context too), an ECU is not &#x27;millions of lines of code&#x27;.<p>And as far as VW is concerned this is only the beginning: how many customers are going to sue VW for a sudden decrease in market value &#x2F; resale value of their vehicle?<p>The damage to the VW brand is enormous, if not fatal. But the damage to &#x27;Made in Germany&#x27; and the rest of the German brands is collosal as well. This will surely be reflected in the GDP of Germany for many years to come.

Given that they did this, then denied it for a year when challenged, surely the big question is: what else are they lying about?<p>Normally you&#x27;d assume that basic self-interest would stop a large company from lying too much, but that theory has gone right out the window after these revelations.

There are a couple of questions that I haven&#x27;t seen addressed on this issue: why, if this is a feature of the software, is this expected to cost so much for VW to fix?; and how do they expect to get people to bring their cars in for the fix when the fix can be expected to make their cars get worse fuel economy and a decrease in power?

I apologize in advance, but this feels rather un-German... What was the motivating factor in this? This blowout is going to affect so many of VW&#x27;s lines, and their reputation.

Trickery like this has been long used in the automobile industry. VW is just the first to exaggerate it and getting caught.<p>Not a big deal, imho. There are far bigger threats to the environment than all cars combined - just look at all those freight ships burning bunker fuel, coal power plants emitting more radioactivity than a decades old nuclear plant...

Rigging cars to pass emissions tests has been a game for a long time. For a long time all you had to do was pass a tailpipe sniff test on a dyno and the car would be held at two slow speeds for the duration of the test, so you&#x27;d get results for those kinds of cruising situations but not for acceleration or highway operation. So, cars were adapted to pass these tests. Later when fuel economy rules came about, the same thing happened: the test cycles for fuel economy were examined and cars were changed to achieve better results just for these tests.

I&#x27;m curious what the reasoning was behind approving a measure which had such a high risk of backfiring very badly for vw. Is it something which was approved higher up or something an engineering team quietly hacked into place to meet an emissions target.

Are we going to see any prison time for the executives in charge?<p>The DOJ said they&#x27;d start seeking it. (Yes, I know it&#x27;s a German company...)

like always - it wasn&#x27;t one person doing it, it was large number of people involved ... Reminds me like at some previous employer some years ago a critical security bug was explicitly and openly waived by the product team under leadership of the same PM who had just been foaming that &quot;security is our top priority&quot;.

Can someone track down the devs that wrote the code to dupe the system and do a documentary? I think it would be fascinating, given the ethical decisions that had to be made. Also, what the reaction was inside the company?

I wonder if Audi is affected by any of this.

On the flip side, the new line of Honda Accord Hybrids are amazing. Fantastically simple drivetrain, it&#x27;s basically an electric car where the &quot;batteries&quot; consist of a Li-On buffer bank and a gas-to-electricity 4-cylinder generator that&#x27;s recruited via a clutch for high-torque&#x2F;high-horsepower assist to the electric motor. Being driven by an electric motor, torque is instant and constant, there&#x27;s no transmission to speak of. I&#x27;ve driven one, it&#x27;s pretty peppy, 0-30 in 2.9 and 0-60 in ~7 seconds (it&#x27;s a family sedan so I know it&#x27;s not blowing the doors off of a Tesla, but it&#x27;s about a full second faster than a Passat TDI)<p>Uses cheap low-octane gasoline and can get 45-50 mpg (like a Prius), and 700 miles on a tank of gas. Emissions are 188 grams&#x2F;mile (vs. VW&#x27;s 298 for a Passat TDI). Trickled down Acura active suspension, <i>wider</i> tires than a stock Accord.<p>Priced about the same as a Passat TDI, but with <i>almost</i> Tesla level engine tech and probably more reliable than either on average.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thetruthaboutcars.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;02&#x2F;review-2014-honda-accord-hybrid-with-video&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thetruthaboutcars.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;02&#x2F;review-2014-honda-a...</a>

I don&#x27;t think VW has hurt their customers in any way. They gave their customers fuel economy and power that was not possible under EPA regulations. I think if anything the current VW Diesels will be more valuable in future as subsequent model years will be crippled by default to satisfy the EPA, and the government has no way to determine if a vehicle has firmware that lies to their equipment without drastically altering their testing procedures.