How the DMCA may have let carmakers cheat clean air standards
http://www.computerworld.com/article/29 ... dards.html
VW programmed its cars to pass emission tests
-
FlyingPenguin
- Flightless Bird
- Posts: 32784
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
- Location: Central Florida
- Contact:
VW says rogue engineers, not executives, responsible for emissions scandal
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/volkswagen-pulls-2016-diesel-lineup-from-us-market/
He can blame the engineers as much as he wants. Someone in management signed off on the final design.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/volkswagen-pulls-2016-diesel-lineup-from-us-market/
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 "As a result, we have withdrawn the application for certification of our model year 2016 vehicles.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.
"On behalf of our company, and my colleagues in Germany, I would like to offer a sincere apology for Volkswagen's use of a software program that served to defeat the regular emissions testing regime," Horn added. Horn was emphatic that there was no internal, executive-level decision to program the emissions software to cheat.
Horn testified that three VW workers have been suspended over the issue and that "this was not a corporate decision" to outfit vehicles to dupe emissions tests.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told Horn later in the proceeding: "I categorically reject everything VW is saying about a couple of rogue engineers. It goes way, way higher than that." Collins labeled the fraudulent software code as "pixie dust."
For his part, Horn told lawmakers that the automaker is working on "software and hardware solutions."
When asked how the cheating software worked, Horn said he didn't know. "Personally, no. I'm not an engineer," he said.
Horn also testified that an internal investigation is ongoing to determine exactly who was responsible for approving the use of the emissions-defeating software. He later promised that VW "can fix these vehicles to achieve emissions standards." He added that "there might be a slight impact on their performance."
The VW scandal came to light when researchers from the International Council on Clean Transportation and West Virginia University performed all kinds of tests on VW vehicles, discovering that when the vehicles were on the road, they polluted substantially more than when they were being tested for pollution emissions. Nobody could make any sense of how that could be. So the US Environmental Protection Agency threatened not to approve the automaker's 2016 models for sale. In response, the automaker said last month that its software was designed to hoodwink emissions tests for diesel vehicles dating back to 2009.
"The company's word isn't worth a dime," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) at the outset of the hearing.
Horn's testimony came a day after the Germany-based automaker announced that, in the coming months, it will begin the largest recall in history to fix affected VWs in Europe. A US recall time frame has not been set.
This isn't the first time VW has come under fire for an emissions scandal. In 1973, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency noted (PDF) that Volkswagen sold around 25,000 cars with temperature-sensing switches that were used to deactivate the emissions control system. Specifically, Volkswagen’s Fastback and Squareback 1973 models would sense low temperatures and cut out the cars' exhaust recirculation system. In addition, 1973 VW buses had switches that would override "the transmission controlled spark-advance system at low temperatures."
He can blame the engineers as much as he wants. Someone in management signed off on the final design.
-
FlyingPenguin
- Flightless Bird
- Posts: 32784
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
- Location: Central Florida
- Contact:
Can anyone say scapegoats?
While not impossible, I find it VERY hard to believe that someone in management didn't sign off on this. Maybe it never made it to the board and CEO (doubtful) but someone wearing a suit made the call.
As has been pointed out by engineers on some of the auto blogs, the software would have to have been specifically road tested to make sure it worked properly, and probably required some tweaking to allow the software to reliably deduce when it was being emissions tested. Someone would need to have explained and signed off on all the necessary hours for all the testing.
Somewhere along the way some engineer must have gone up to a suit and said they can't meet the emissions standards without loss of performance and/or mileage. MAYBE an engineer floated the idea of the software cheat, but someone higher up had to have approved it IMO.
Hell THIS IS VOLKSWAGEN! I could almost buy "the engineers did it!" plea if it was a Detroit company. These are Germans, and there's probably an employee manual for everything at VW from the proper restroom cleaning technique, to the proper way to stand in line at the employee cafeteria.
Christians warn us about the anti-christ for 2,000 years, and when he shows up, they buy a bible from him.
-
Executioner
- Life Member
- Posts: 10141
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
- Location: Woodland, CA USA
2016 VWs have a new emissions helper and are not being sold
if it ain't one thing, it's another...
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... rom-defeat
Volkswagen: secret emissions tool in 2016 cars is separate from 'defeat' cheat
US regulators ‘have long list of questions’ over ‘auxiliary emissions control device’, which forced automaker to leave new vehicles sitting unsold on docks
US regulators say they have a lot more questions for Volkswagen, triggered by the company’s recent disclosure of additional suspect engineering of 2016 diesel models that potentially would help exhaust systems run cleaner during government tests.
That’s more bad news for VW dealers looking for new cars to replace the ones they can no longer sell because of the worldwide cheating scandal already engulfing the world’s largest automaker. Depending on what the Environmental Protection Agency eventually finds, it raises the possibility of even more severe punishment.
Volkswagen confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday that the “auxiliary emissions control device” at issue operates differently from the “defeat” software included in the company’s 2009 to 2015 models and revealed last month.
The new software was first revealed to Environmental Protection Agency and California regulators on 29 September, prompting the company last week to withdraw applications for approval to sell the 2016 model cars in the US.
“We have a long list of questions for VW about this,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant EPA administrator for air quality. “We’re getting some answers from them, but we do not have all the answers yet.”
The delay means that thousands of 2016 Beetles, Golfs and Jettas will remain quarantined in US ports until a fix can be developed, approved and implemented. Diesel versions of the Passat sedan manufactured at the company’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also are on hold.
Volkswagen already faces a criminal investigation and billions of dollars in fines for violating the Clean Air Act for its earlier emissions cheat, as well as a raft of state investigations and class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of customers.
If EPA rules the new software is a second defeat device specifically aimed at gaming government emissions tests, it would call into question repeated assertions by top VW executives that responsibility for the cheating scheme lay with a handful of rogue software developers who wrote the illegal code installed in prior generations of its four-cylinder diesel engines.
That a separate device was included in the redesigned 2016 cars could suggest a multi-year effort by the company to influence US emissions tests that continued even after regulators began pressing the company last year about irregularities with the emissions produced by the older cars.
The software at issue makes a pollution-control catalyst heat up faster, improving performance of the device that separates smog-causing nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and oxygen gases.
“This has the function of a warmup strategy which is subject to approval by the agencies,” said Jeannine Ginivan, a VW spokeswoman. “The agencies are currently evaluating this and Volkswagen is submitting additional information.”
Automakers routinely place auxiliary emissions control devices on passenger vehicles, though they are required by law to disclose them as part of the process to receive the emissions certifications that are required to sell the cars.
EPA’s McCabe wouldn not say if VW’s failure to disclose the software in its 2016 applications was illegal. “I don’t want to speak to any potential subjects of an enforcement activity,” she said.
If VW was cheating a second time, that would probably mean higher fines against the company, Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
Regulators are “going to be even more angry than they already are”, Brauer said. “The punitive actions from the EPA are only going to get more aggressive.”
The German automaker already faces up to $18bn in potential fines over the nearly half-million vehicles sold with the initial emissions-rigging software.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... rom-defeat
Volkswagen: secret emissions tool in 2016 cars is separate from 'defeat' cheat
US regulators ‘have long list of questions’ over ‘auxiliary emissions control device’, which forced automaker to leave new vehicles sitting unsold on docks
US regulators say they have a lot more questions for Volkswagen, triggered by the company’s recent disclosure of additional suspect engineering of 2016 diesel models that potentially would help exhaust systems run cleaner during government tests.
That’s more bad news for VW dealers looking for new cars to replace the ones they can no longer sell because of the worldwide cheating scandal already engulfing the world’s largest automaker. Depending on what the Environmental Protection Agency eventually finds, it raises the possibility of even more severe punishment.
Volkswagen confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday that the “auxiliary emissions control device” at issue operates differently from the “defeat” software included in the company’s 2009 to 2015 models and revealed last month.
The new software was first revealed to Environmental Protection Agency and California regulators on 29 September, prompting the company last week to withdraw applications for approval to sell the 2016 model cars in the US.
“We have a long list of questions for VW about this,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant EPA administrator for air quality. “We’re getting some answers from them, but we do not have all the answers yet.”
The delay means that thousands of 2016 Beetles, Golfs and Jettas will remain quarantined in US ports until a fix can be developed, approved and implemented. Diesel versions of the Passat sedan manufactured at the company’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also are on hold.
Volkswagen already faces a criminal investigation and billions of dollars in fines for violating the Clean Air Act for its earlier emissions cheat, as well as a raft of state investigations and class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of customers.
If EPA rules the new software is a second defeat device specifically aimed at gaming government emissions tests, it would call into question repeated assertions by top VW executives that responsibility for the cheating scheme lay with a handful of rogue software developers who wrote the illegal code installed in prior generations of its four-cylinder diesel engines.
That a separate device was included in the redesigned 2016 cars could suggest a multi-year effort by the company to influence US emissions tests that continued even after regulators began pressing the company last year about irregularities with the emissions produced by the older cars.
The software at issue makes a pollution-control catalyst heat up faster, improving performance of the device that separates smog-causing nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and oxygen gases.
“This has the function of a warmup strategy which is subject to approval by the agencies,” said Jeannine Ginivan, a VW spokeswoman. “The agencies are currently evaluating this and Volkswagen is submitting additional information.”
Automakers routinely place auxiliary emissions control devices on passenger vehicles, though they are required by law to disclose them as part of the process to receive the emissions certifications that are required to sell the cars.
EPA’s McCabe wouldn not say if VW’s failure to disclose the software in its 2016 applications was illegal. “I don’t want to speak to any potential subjects of an enforcement activity,” she said.
If VW was cheating a second time, that would probably mean higher fines against the company, Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
Regulators are “going to be even more angry than they already are”, Brauer said. “The punitive actions from the EPA are only going to get more aggressive.”
The German automaker already faces up to $18bn in potential fines over the nearly half-million vehicles sold with the initial emissions-rigging software.
<a href="http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=123" target="_blank" >Heatware</a>
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2T9XKGMKb ... showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
------------------------------------------
-
renovation
- Posts: 13859
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 8:24 am
- Location: on a lake in michigan
- Contact:
I hate to be a VW dealer or sales person /saleman I'm sure sales have slumped bad .also even do its Diesel versions that are affected .the general public still looks as it being all models affective .there only so much make up for them to work with to off there stock pile of cars .they still have bank loans to pay on cars sitting in the dealer lots. I'm sure a lot of American car dealers are feeling the pinch over this . I'm only guessing but this problem with VW .may turn out to be with more auto companys to and not just imports or Diesel motors . my guess is VW just the first to be busted. the pressure put on auto manufactures to meet MPG and emission standards . also keep us the general public happy . may just be to much for today technology. also they standards are placed years before the technology is even develop. it's going to come to a point were all the liberals are going to be told to stick it up there ass . look at the waste product's from these electric car used battery's . what percent of that battery is really able to be recycled as of today?
also who really is getting the MPG listed on that sticker on your new car window ?
how many people really drive a car to achieve the millage that is said it will perform, maybe 1/10 of 1 or 2 percent of new car buyers.
I really like the eveready battery commercial were they say this battery is made of recyle battery - fine print is 4 % of that battery is made of old battery's .and what was the true envormental cost to produce that said battery . did it take more resources to make it. then it would of to just make a brand new one. I love these tree huggers who think there saving the world .but at what real cost to are world. my nephew is a prime ensample he buys a chevy volt . he plugs in every place it can . friend house ,parents home ,work and so on. anyway his parents have found it really added to there home electric bill. when he did that for a month . I asked him one day what kind of gas he was required to use .he been using reg. but when he had it in my driveway he pulled out the owners manual .there it was calling for prem. gas in balck and white print. from general motors. ok so how much money really was he saving ? also the car really only has a 20 mile range on 100% battery power if I remember correctly . I'm betting he dumps the car after he has the first battery swap. then there all the other costs you don't see .did you know special equipment has to be used if a electric car is in a auto crash to get you out of them . not every fire dept has the funds to own the equipment .so hope your not in a car that has to have it and the dept never invested in buying it.you may of lived but had to wait for a different towns fire dept to arrive to free you.
also who really is getting the MPG listed on that sticker on your new car window ?
how many people really drive a car to achieve the millage that is said it will perform, maybe 1/10 of 1 or 2 percent of new car buyers.
I really like the eveready battery commercial were they say this battery is made of recyle battery - fine print is 4 % of that battery is made of old battery's .and what was the true envormental cost to produce that said battery . did it take more resources to make it. then it would of to just make a brand new one. I love these tree huggers who think there saving the world .but at what real cost to are world. my nephew is a prime ensample he buys a chevy volt . he plugs in every place it can . friend house ,parents home ,work and so on. anyway his parents have found it really added to there home electric bill. when he did that for a month . I asked him one day what kind of gas he was required to use .he been using reg. but when he had it in my driveway he pulled out the owners manual .there it was calling for prem. gas in balck and white print. from general motors. ok so how much money really was he saving ? also the car really only has a 20 mile range on 100% battery power if I remember correctly . I'm betting he dumps the car after he has the first battery swap. then there all the other costs you don't see .did you know special equipment has to be used if a electric car is in a auto crash to get you out of them . not every fire dept has the funds to own the equipment .so hope your not in a car that has to have it and the dept never invested in buying it.you may of lived but had to wait for a different towns fire dept to arrive to free you.
the Last time I was Talking to myself . I got into such a heated argument . that is why I swore I never talk to that guy again. you know what it worked now no buddy talking to me. 
It looks like they are trying to create a laminar flow across the Mass Air Sensor for better readings. This is probably only a small part of the fix as I'm sure all the cars will require a reflash to remove the cheating software and to correct the air/fuel ratios for emissions.Losbot wrote:So some chintzy looking strainer will fix the problem? LOL
Diesels don't have a A/F ratio like a car does. A diesel does not have a throttle plate and will take in as much air as it possibly can at all times. But you can adjust fueling and boost to control smoke (and emissions)
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]