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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 "As a result, we have withdrawn the application for certification of our model year 2016 vehicles.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: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Monday October 12 2015, @01:13PM
Exactly this. Management never actually ordered engineers to cheat, they ordered them to produce results, or else. The engineers concluded that it wasn't possible to achieve the desired results, certainly not within the budgetary constraints. They probably took these conclusions to management, who weren't impressed, and may well have suggested various solutions that were stupid, impossible, or illegal, all while acting as if the engineers were the idiots who couldn't see all these "obvious" solutions. Somewhere in the back and forth, cheating came in as the only way to beat the problem. No doubt the engineers tried mightily to make it crystal clear that management was pushing for results even if that meant cheating, while management was refusing to acknowledge that they pushed anyone to cheat, they only wanted results.
A big problem with combustion is that a major way to achieve more efficiency is leaner fuel mixtures and higher compression, but that also produces more pollutants. I have not heard of any feasible way around this problem. Only thing they can do about it is enrich the mixture and/or lower the compression. And that's the central difficulty with diesel. Diesel engines are higher compression than gasoline. They have to be, in order to work at all. They don't ignite the fuel with a spark plug, they ignite fuel with the heat of compression, and for that to work the compression has to be quite a bit higher than in a gasoline engine. The chemical reaction is CHx, O2 -> CO2, H2O. But if the mix isn't close to a perfect balance or is made hotter, the unwanted N2 in the mix reacts more to form other nasty chemicals. O2 will preferentially bind to the hydrocarbons, but if there is more O2 than hydrocarbon, as happens in lean mixtures, O2 starts bonding with N2. The optimum ratio for minimum pollution is richer than the optimum ration for maximum efficiency.
Are the standards unrealistic? I haven't seen this question asked yet. Perhaps a trade-off is worthwhile. It could be acceptable, not good, just acceptable, to produce more NOx if that results in significantly less CO2. Sounds like most of the industry was cheating, and when that happens, we should re-examine the rules. Perhaps smaller, more efficient engines should be allowed lower emissions standards. For example, what if engines had to produce less pollution than some fixed amount, no matter what size they were? That would give a small engine a significant advantage over a large one. Not saying such a standard is a good idea. It probably isn't.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday October 12 2015, @04:47PM
It could be acceptable, not good, just acceptable, to produce more NOx if that results in significantly less CO2.
Thats the micromanagement problem where there are famous smog filled valleys (maybe 5% of the population lives there?) where more CO2 would be better than smog in terms of total devastation, whereas the rest of the world with working ventilation would prefer higher NOx than CO2.
Meanwhile NOx rusts your exhaust system so you'd have a natural motivation to want more CO2 output and the mfgr who wants to sell you a new car ASAP wants as high NOx as possible.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 12 2015, @07:28PM
"Are the standards unrealistic? I haven't seen this question asked yet."
The answer to that question seems to be implied, in the fact that the manufacturers already have in place "agreements" with the regulatory agencies. In effect, if they disclose in advance that under certain conditions, their vehicles won't meed emissions standards, they are generally given waivers for those conditions.
If we use Google to go back to the first "exposures" of this cheating, the problem is less that the cars sometimes exceed emissions standards, but that they didn't disclose these exceptions in advance.
EPA and everyone else involved knows full well that automobiles on the highway are NOT getting advertised fuel efficiency, and they are NOT meeting emissions standards. And, they sure as hell aren't meeting fuel efficience and emissions standards at the same time. They might meet one, but not the other, or vice versa. Most often, they don't meet either standard. It's all trade-offs.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.