Volkswagen Diesel Scandal Spreads To Porsche and Audi

New submitter sumanareddyraval writes: The fallout from the Volkswagen diesel scandal is spreading fast to the company's other famous brands, including Porsche and Audi, and across the Atlantic to the U.S. The scandal reached down into the company's engineering corps as the CEO of Volkswagen's US business, the research and development chief from Audi and the engine chief from Porsche, which are part of the Volkswagen Group, are said to be following Volkswagen's CEO out the door of the company, according to multiple reports Thursday. The impending departures are a sign that the Volkswagen scandal is ready to grow to much larger proportions.

Comments

Pulling that off was a major conspiracy

[jfdavis668]

Hiding car emissions was not done by a couple of people. A large number in the people inside these companies were involved in pulling it off.

BMW also...

[Anonymous Coward]

BMW engines were emitting nitrogen oxide levels that were 11 times more than the current limit set by the European Union. However, it later reported that there was no indication of tampering with the vehicles. Citing road tests by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), it said that a model of the BMW X3 was emitting more poisonous gases than the Volkswagen car that is currently at the center of the emissions scandal. http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/24...

Guess: Engineering told to do the Impossible

[crow]

My guess is that what happened is that Engineering was told to do something that turned out to be impossible. They built a diesel engine and determined what was the maximum performance and efficiency they could achieve. Then management told them they needed to hit those numbers while still passing emissions requirements. Eventually they realized that the only solution to meet the requirements was to game the tests.

Re:Guess: Engineering told to do the Impossible

[Anonymous Coward]

Kobayashi Maru.

Captain Kirk would be proud.

Re:One guy is plenty

[mrchaotica]

I know they say VW cars detected complex heuristics to determine if they're on the rolling bed....

According to one article I read, the heuristic was "did the emissions testing technician put the car into emissions testing mode." Apparently, the cars need a separate setting for that to prevent the electronic stability control from going haywire when it starts reading the front wheels going 50 MPH while the back wheels are stationary.

It's about fraud

[sjbe]

I suppose it depends on how you feel about car emissions.

No it depends on how you feel about fraud. The reason this is a big deal isn't the pollution though that is not a trivial part of it. No the big deal is that this company intentionally defrauded millions of customers. They promised their technology worked in a way that it didn't.

In my opinion the people who ordered and the people who carried out this fraud should see some time behind bars. They committed a crime that cost customers and taxpayers many millions of dollars.

Re:It's about fraud

[TWX]

They will also care greatly when those cars must be retrofitted to force emissions-compliance, stripping them of their roadgoing performance. I fully expect a complete list of VINs to be provided to state motor vehicle departments, and regardless if those cars are operated in emissions-test zones or not, unless proof of retrofit is supplied, they will not be able to renew their registration after a certain point.

I think that as punishment, given that most of these cars are probably still in the hands of their original owners, VW should be forced to buy-back at original transaction price all of these cars, as no owner will be satisfied by the performance of the cars post-retrofit. Other industries have been forced to buy-back product during a recall and couldn't depreciate that purchase price, I don't see how VW and automobiles should be any different in this circumstance.