VW - not so "Clean Diesel"

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,359
And yet he had his whole crew killed on a personal quest...
I don't just blame Ahab or the CEO of VW. The crew would have profited from the death of that whale and the entire crew died when the chief mate Starbuck took up Ahabs quest in a lust for oil and money. He's the engineer who obeys the mad orders knowing they are mad.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,788
I don't just blame Ahab or the CEO of VW. The crew would have profited from the death of that whale and the entire crew died when the chief mate Starbuck took up Ahabs quest in a lust for oil and money. He's the engineer who obeys the mad orders knowing they are mad.
And I guess that by that logic, the rest of the crew working for VW could be called Ishmael...
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
18,125
Moving is tough and usually impractical but my response was aimed at the post just preceding mine, from a suburb of SanFrancisco, which is a particular cesspool of corruption. Getting away from there is maybe not so impractical.
 

jgessling

Joined Jul 31, 2009
82
I suppose that I will be waiting for weeks/months until I actually get an offer. Meanwhile we are driving the heck out of our Golf. Too bad we had to buy a new set of tires.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,359
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-audi-idUSKCN10I0PB

U.S. authorities have found three unapproved software programs in 3.0 liter diesel engines made by Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi (NSUG.DE) unit, German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported, without saying where it had obtained the information.

The software allowed the turbocharged direct injection (TDI) engines used in Audi's Q7, Porsche's Cayenne and VW's Touareg models to shut down emissions control systems after about 22 minutes, the paper said. Official methods to measure emissions usually last about 20 minutes, it added.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
The software allowed the turbocharged direct injection (TDI) engines used in Audi's Q7, Porsche's Cayenne and VW's Touareg models to shut down emissions control systems after about 22 minutes, the paper said. Official methods to measure emissions usually last about 20 minutes, it added .
Sounds like properly done engineering to me! Figure out what you need and add a 10% reserve to that. :D
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,788
Volkswagen engineer pleads guilty to US criminal charges in emissions cheating case

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/09/new...neer-emissions-scandal-guilty-plea/index.html

Volkswagen has admitted that its cars contained the illegal software. The company still faces a U.S. criminal probe. Volkswagen says its own probe has determined top executives did not know of the cheating scandal, and that it was the work of lower level employees.
Ouch! ... I very much doubt the top brass was oblivious to what was happening ... I think this engineer is being used as a scapegoat
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Ouch! ... I very much doubt the top brass was oblivious to what was happening ... I think this engineer is being used as a scapegoat
Don't jump to any conclusions there. If I were a VW exec, I would be so busy patting myself on the back for being the one who told an engineer to solve a long-standing and well known impossible feat and getting to be the leader standing at the foot of the stairway to heaven as that engineer brings the solution to me on a silver tray and sets it at my feet. I would be telling that story for years.

Why should I ask him "how" he did it?
Why should I have a party to celebrate his success?
Why would I expect that this engineer would take to trickery to solve this proplem?

All I did was tell him he will be fired if the problem is not solved. That he and his childeren will be living on the streets and he needs to provide a soltion by Tuesday.

I should get all the glory because I was the only one to really challenge the engineering team. I made it happen! (not the bad stuff, just the success). Oh, and I came up with he phrase "clean diesel".
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,359
He seems to be a smart guy by being the first to rat.

http://jalopnik.com/volkswagen-engineer-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-charge-over-1786436114
During his time in those roles, the indictment claims, LIANG and employees from another unnamed company based in Berlin “designed, created, and implemented a software function (the “defeat device”) to cheat the standard U.S. emissions tests.”

It goes on:

LIANG and his co-conspirators referred to the defeat device software as, among other things, the “acoustic function,” “switch logic,” “cycle beating” software, or “emissions-tight mode.”
I think we know the name of that 'another unnamed company based in Berlin'.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
18,125
He seems to be a smart guy by being the first to rat.
Yes, I think he otherwise faced rough going since he interacted with – and lied to – regulators in person. That would make it personal for the regulators. He wasn't just a misguided engineering laboring away under a difficult work environment.
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Yes, I think he otherwise faced rough going since he interacted with – and lied to – regulators in person. That would make it personal for the regulators. He wasn't just a misguided engineering laboring away under a difficult work environment.
He'll be fine. I'm sure a little countryside estate with a cellar full of Riesling will be waiting for him when he gets out and deported from the US in 3 years.
 
Top