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Estimating Damages From the VW Emissions Scandal (acs.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the grim-accounting dept.

ckwu writes: Last year, the news broke that in the U.S. almost 600,000 Volkswagen diesel vehicles, model years 2009 to 2015, contain software that altered engine performance and lowered emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) during emissions tests but not during normal driving. A new study calculates the societal impact of this extra NOx: 46 excess expected deaths and $430 million in excess damages. U.S. regulators have filed a federal lawsuit against the automaker alleging violations of the Clean Air Act.

5 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Imagine Europe by shortscruffydave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So much for the myth of high quality German engineering and standards.

    Not at all - from what I can tell the defeat device worked flawlessly, so very high quality engineering developed to a high standard

  2. Like Software Metrics by jrumney · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These figures remind me of software metrics. Management loves them and thinks it lets them put a dollar (and lives) figure on some random event, but in all reality they are meaningless, constructed from a formula pulled out of some overpaid consultant's arsehole.

  3. I don't understand? by Grand+Facade · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They passed the test.

    It's obvious the test is/was broken!

    --
    Rick B.
  4. As if only EU... by DrYak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since VW diesel is much more common in the EU, imagine what harm the German manufacturer caused there. {...} So much for the myth of high quality German engineering and standards.

    Except that VW is far from the only existing car manufacturer.
    And lots of them are NOT in the EU.

    If the first caught lying happened to be Japanese, you would be saying "So much for the myth of Japanese technological innovation."

    What, you expected VW to be the only one lying ? They just happen to have been the first caught doing it.

    Car manufacturer and lying is a redundancy.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  5. Re:You don't get it.. EPA is forcing me to comply by ray-auch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Firstly - no one knows what the performance cost of compliance will be yet, no fix has yet been approved. If they retro-fit an AdBlue SCR it may be negligible.

    Secondly, it isn't clear that any other car or mfr would be better, you could have bought an Opel instead - they are currently silently updating cars during services to reduce emissions (and allegedly performance according to some reports I've seen) - http://boingboing.net/2016/01/...

    Thirdly, once the dust settles on this the VW engines might even be among the best, they are certainly not amongst the worst in recent independent testing (e.g. http://www.which.co.uk/cars/dr... ). Even the petrols are busting limits (majority exceed CO limits, 10% exceed NOx), and the hybrids.

    Or you could have bought a Tesla, which is probably the only unaffected option...