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from the that's-a-lot-of-rogue-engineers dept.
Four More Companies Caught Cheating Emissions Standards
From The Guardian :
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi have joined the growing list of manufacturers whose diesel cars are known to emit significantly more pollution on the road than in regulatory tests, according to data obtained by the Guardian.
In more realistic on-road tests, some Honda models emitted six times the regulatory limit of NOx pollution while some unnamed 4x4 models had 20 times the NOx limit coming out of their exhaust pipes.
"The issue is a systemic one" across the industry, said Nick Molden, whose company Emissions Analytics tested the cars. The Guardian revealed last week that diesel cars from Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat, Volvo and Jeep all pumped out significantly more NOx in more realistic driving conditions. NOx pollution is at illegal levels in many parts of the UK and is believed to have caused many thousands of premature deaths and billions of pounds in health costs.
The article goes on to state that the toxic emissions levels are anywhere from 1.5 to 6 times higher in road use than in the lab tests. Of the 200 cars tested only five had emissions levels that matched their test results. This is a rather distressing fact. It seems that we the public have been lied to (again) for many years now. The "clean diesel" might just be a myth.
Given that these manufacturers come from all over the world, how is it possible that this is an accident? Is there so much incest in the automobile industry that the code from one manufacturer has permeated the industry and the rest of the manufacturers are just waiting to get caught?
VW Says Rogue Engineers, Not Executives, Responsible for Emissions Scandal
Volkswagen's US CEO testified Thursday that the decision to use emissions cheating software was not made at the corporate level. Instead, it was "software engineers who put this in for whatever reason," Michael Horn told a congressional panel that is investigating the scandal.
What's more, Horn told US lawmakers that the German automaker was withdrawing its application to sell 2016 autos with 2.0-liter diesel engines because they don't comply with US emissions standards. Horn testified that the 2016 vehicles were equipped with the same type of software that allowed millions of VW diesel vehicles to cheat pollution tests. "As a result, we have withdrawn the application for certification of our model year 2016 vehicles. We are working with the agencies to continue the certification process," Horn told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
The timing is perfect to throw the engineers under the bus.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 12 2015, @09:37AM
Oh, I should have clicked this aditional link before I posted.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/epa-gathering-up-used-diesels-to-test-if-other-manufacturers-cheated-too/ [caranddriver.com]
If there were any illusions that Volkswagen’s emissions-test cheating wouldn’t spark a broader investigation into diesel-car emissions, please allow us to disallow you of them. As reported by the Financial Times, the EPA is going to begin testing pretty much every diesel car model sold today, from all manufacturers, to determine whether companies not named VW also cheated the system. Should anything be found, the EPA will conduct further testing on more examples of a given model. But the EPA already warned automakers that it would start shaking up its testing procedures—what’s interesting is how the agency plans to go about acquiring cars for its experiments.
In order to compare real-world and lab-generated emissions results, the EPA will rent or borrow cars to test rather than receive them from manufacturers. That eliminates any pre-test fiddling by an automaker. To compensate owners for giving up their diesel ride, the EPA will provide them with a loaner as well as free oil changes or car washes. It’s all very clever, but then, the EPA has a lot of cleverness to make up, at least in the public’s perception.
So who’s caught up in this tougher round of emissions testing? Everyone who sells a diesel-powered passenger car in the U.S., basically, with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, General Motors, and Land Rover all being looked at, 28 different car models in all. Nearly every non-VW, diesel-producing automaker has denied cheating its emissions data. But given how far Volkswagen’s ruse extended, well, obviously the EPA isn’t going to just take manufacturers at their word.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12 2015, @10:02AM
> please allow us to disallow you of them.
That's a new one. And an eggcorn I hope to never see again. The term they were looking for is "disavow".
(Score: 4, Informative) by schad on Monday October 12 2015, @10:46AM
The term is disabuse. You disavow your own alleged knowledge. You disabuse others of illusions they have.
(Score: 1) by TheReaperD on Monday October 12 2015, @02:25PM
Damn english majors... *grumble*
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 3, Funny) by BK on Monday October 12 2015, @04:18PM
Language Engineers...
It's just syntax anyway.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday October 12 2015, @07:53PM
Language programmers... they have weapons of Vi destruction.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by gidds on Tuesday October 13 2015, @12:57PM
Isn't the test approval needed before the cars could be available to rent or borrow? (Else any test failure would lead to a massive recall.)
It's an interesting idea, though. Perhaps such tests could be used in addition to pre-production testing? If the results were significantly different, that could lead to approval being withdrawn.
However, simply making the existing tests more realistic could go a long way. The closer the test conditions are to the real-world conditions we actually want to optimise for, the harder it is to game the test.
[sig redacted]