Slashdot Mirror
VW Engineers Have Admitted Manipulating CO2 Emissions Data (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According to a report in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag several Volkswagen engineers have come forward and admitted manipulating carbon dioxide emissions data, blaming the overly ambitious goals set by former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn. Reuters reports: "The paper said VW engineers tampered with tyre pressure and mixed diesel with their motor oil to make them use less fuel, a deception that began in 2013 and carried on until the spring of this year. 'Employees have indicated in an internal investigation that there were irregularities in ascertaining fuel consumption data. How this happened is subject to ongoing proceedings,' a Volkswagen spokesman said, declining to comment on the Bild report."
...instead of making up regulations and playing "Gotcha!", why not just beef up and extend public transport infrastructure, make it more affordable, while at the same time reduce the multi-billion dollar subsidies to the oil industry, thereby making private car use more expensive and encouraging more people to use public transport. It'd also make more sense to give priority to people from poorer communities who may be paying a substantial proportion of their income on cars or having to rely on weak, unreliable public transport to get to work. This should result in higher productivity through fewer missed work days and greater availability of workers for jobs. Also, spending less on getting to work means more purchasing power for those people and therefore more economic activity/growth. Everybody wins.