from the smoking-guns-pollute-less-than-diesels dept.
Hackaday reports:
In an interesting turn of events last week in a German court, evidence has materialized that engineers were ordered to cheat emissions testing when developing automotive parts.
[February 21], Ulrich Weiß brought forward a document[1] that alleges Audi Board of Director members were involved in ordering a cheat for diesel emissions. Weiß was the head of engine development for Audi, suspended in November of 2015 but continued to draw more than half a million dollars in salary before being fired
afterprior to last week's court testimony.Volkswagen Group is the parent company of Audi and this all seems to have happened while the VW diesel emissions testing scandal we've covered since 2015 was beginning to come to light. Weiß testified that he was asked to design a method of getting around strict emissions standards in Hong Kong even though Audi knew their diesel engines weren't capable of doing so legitimately.
According to Weiß, he asked for a signed order. When he received that order he instructed his team to resist following it. We have not seen a copy of the letter, but the German tabloid newspaper Bild reports [Deutsch] that the letter claims approval by four Audi board members and was signed by the head of powertrain development at the company.
[1] Forbes has all content behind scripts and is AdBlocker-phobic. archive.li's copy
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DECbot on Wednesday March 01 2017, @12:36AM (10 children)
Don't fire employees right before they testify to authorities when they have a signed letter directing them to break the law.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:12AM (4 children)
> Don't give signed orders to cheat, only clear hints that tests need to pass for the company to retain enough profit for everyone.
FTFY
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:25AM (3 children)
Don't give signed orders to cheat, only clear hints
Like this [youtube.com]. "This emissions testing thing has an irritating talent for disrupting our arrangements... perhaps it would be better if it were... taken out of the picture".
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:11AM
I knew this would be Mitchel and Webb before clicking the link. "Do you mean anal sex?"
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday March 01 2017, @06:27AM (1 child)
Although this is portrayed as comedy, I have empirical experience of people who talk like this. And yes, others obey.
I think every one of us who "have it in us" to "do the job right" run up against this type. It sure seems those best at "getting the job done", regardless of quality of workmanship, seem inevitably to rise above the ones who do a conscientious job.
I have faced this all my working life. Even in my extremely restricted role of retiree, I still face it when trying to interface to "the suit". Many people out there seem to have no idea of tomorrow's cost of fixing all the crap that *will* wrong. All these problems ( "We will solve Tomorrow's problems Tomorrow") in order to get a signature out of someone *today*.
My latest example is several production runs of equipment has just been manufactured and shipped, with a heavy EMI ferrite core hanging on by its flimsy leads to a connector. Many of these shipped units are now arriving on RMA for repair. Vibration during shipment. Our first impression with our customer was a dead unit. We knew about the problem. We did nothing. Yesterday's timely signature has now come home to roost. The hands have already shaken, and bonuses paid.
Now the stuff is coming back to our shipping dock. No one would listen to the assemblers who knew last year of what was to come. When one is that high up, investors don't seem to give that much of a damn whether the product works or not... rather just did it sound good during a presentation. My own observation is this is what happens with "investment groups" which hire managers who have none of their own dogs in the fight. They just go around popping off other people's money in exchange for impressive presentations and expensive dinners.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @06:35PM
I'm relatively young, but I have experienced this even while working part time while in school. It is inevitable, a serious of small "right at the time" steps will always lead you to a big fuck-up.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:22AM
With a smoking gun like that, I hope these are the first executives to actually feel justice. As in, they actually lose something tangible. Like freedom, or the the vast majorities of their wealth. Personally, I like throwing their asses in Chinese prison for 3-5 years.
But it was only an executive explicitly stating that an employee should break the law. We may not have enough to obtain justice.......
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @02:28AM (3 children)
This isn't the first story I've heard of similar circumstances - key person who knows where the bodies are buried gets mistreated by management who know they are vulnerable to the guy and are then taken down by the revelation of the bodies. Its like the people who are at the top have a distorted view of their own ability to influence others. Maybe they have gotten away with being utter shits for so long that they forget that it was leverage that let them get away with being utter shits rather than some sort of god-like ability. So they figure that even without leverage people will still just bend to their wills. The audacity of dopes...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 01 2017, @12:10PM (1 child)
It's a product of them surrounding themselves with sycophants who stroke their ego all day long and filter out anything that might contradict their internal bubble's narrative. The more that happens, the more their ability to withstand criticism withers while their belief in their own superiority waxes. Ultimately they lose touch with reason and do consider themselves gods.
Further out from the loci of power and decision-making the phenomenon yawns into the less absolute but still self-defeating phenomenon of the echo chamber. People close themselves off to all messages but those that agree with what they believe. In both cases, in the end they never see the end coming because they don't want to.
Freedom, progress, and success are intimately tied to honest, respectful debate in the agora.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @06:11PM
That's why I read Breitbart.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Thursday March 02 2017, @08:21PM
Erin Brockovich and the (then) record setting class action win. Key evidence in that case was provided by the guy they fired for opposing what they had planned. He took the executive memos ordering it with him when he left.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:22AM (2 children)
...by Barack Obama and his people. They all took an oath.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:29AM
wat
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:46AM
Trump is gonna take your weed. Courtesy of Sessions. States' rights!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:13AM
Usually... Nuff said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:40AM (4 children)
What we need to ask is if the emissions "regulations" were even realistic in the real world? Were they designed to make sure they cannot be passed? Was it intentional or was it an incredibly stupid person(s) who signed his name on it?
As far as we know, very few (if any) diesel cars passed the regulations while retaining engine power, so we know the regulations were a fantasy.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:17AM (2 children)
As far as we know, very few (if any) diesel cars passed the regulations while retaining engine power, so we know the regulations were a fantasy.
Actually, the cars and trucks that use a urea system are able to pass just fine while retaining power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @11:44AM (1 child)
I sure wish they would have come up with a urea system where I could just occasionally pour in a bottle of pee.
I simply detest having to go buy something I make naturally.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:02PM
Your pee might be OK, but the emission control system will not work with pee from Ethanol-fueled !!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:18AM
It's entirely possible that they were designed to be unrealistic.
How do you know they weren't unrealistic precisely because of a deal arranged with the big car companies to be able to cheat them?
If we could presume that companies are honest, politicians are hopelessly delusional, and we could have nice things, it would have become apparent the regulations were fantasy when cars could no longer be sold that still had any get-up-and-go. Nobody would be able to sell them, so there'd be no competitive advantage.
Instead, we see that certain chosen companies were able to "meet" the regulations while selling cars with get-up-and-go.
I won't believe for a second that was by accident.
Perhaps this clamoring over "fake news" is--this incident being a very small but tangible part thereof--the Masters of the Universe realizing that they no longer have the level of control they had during the 20th century.
Make no mistake, before somebody goes there, Trump is just another puppet of theirs, part of the push and pull they use to control us all at a subconscious level. Push and pull. The twin sports teams we think constitute democracy, two sides of the same coin ever spinning. Push and pull.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:40AM (5 children)
[1] Forbes has all content behind scripts and is AdBlocker-phobic.
Odd - Forbes loads for me. The German site doesn't load, due to adblocking. Strange.
This is one reason I use different browsers, and different ad/script blocking addons. They don't all do the same thing in the same way. Anyway - here's one guide on defeating adbocker-blockers. YMMV
http://www.guidingtech.com/60376/bypass-ad-block-detection-sites/ [guidingtech.com]
Specifically, Forbes loads on Firefox 50, using request policy and ublock, and I've never whitelisted Forbes. Note, I run Linux, so again, YMMV on other OS's.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:57AM (1 child)
I don't want to 'win' a rat race against ad-blocker -blockers. I just leave the site. Every time. They can have the "win". I don't need the site.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday March 01 2017, @06:36AM
Usually, the people who run this kind of thing are control-freaks anyway. Every time I have dealt with this kind of people, I get bamboozled, tricked, and otherwise given a dog and pony show in exchange for my assets.
Just as good they show their hand, first, and let me know before I do much browsing on their site. The greed and control-freak screams so loud at many of these business sites that its kinda like a clear show of business leprosy, and ones aware of the dangers of promiscuous browsing habits would be advised to best let them be.
Those sites are for people with lots of disposable money and no "street smarts".
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:27AM
I noticed that it started working after I switched from AdBlockPlus to uBlock. Only very recently have sites starting detecting uBlock.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @05:38AM (1 child)
Works for me too, then again, I do block a lot of the adslinging sites in the boundary firewall, dnsmasq, hosts, caching web proxy server and hosts file before the browser gets to play with the content, anyhoo, I worked my way through all the stuff listed on their site via http Switchboard, disabling everything I could, but still didn't trip any anti-adblocker stuff.
(I suffer major culture shock when I have to browse@work, and all the BS I don't see at home fills the screen..yech!, why the hell do people put up with it?...need to have a serious talk with our IT bods...)
(Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Wednesday March 01 2017, @05:53PM
Couldn't agree more about the work thing. I don't know if it just something IT has done to it or if ads are just that shitty, but Chrome just completely locks up all the time. It is a totally different experience than chromium with ads blocked on all my personal devices.
Side note, has anyone been on the green site lately. Giant floating ads that cover 1/3 of the screen! You can't even read the comments!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Wednesday March 01 2017, @09:14AM (2 children)
When you do it it's felony fraud.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 01 2017, @07:12PM (1 child)
They are charging executives with fraud. [theguardian.com]
A Volkswagen executive was charged on Monday with conspiracy to defraud the United States in the latest chapter of the long-running scandal over the company’s deliberate cheating on emissions tests.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02 2017, @07:15PM
exec != board
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @01:26PM
As if amorality is somehow unique to VW/Audi technocrats.
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