VW Busted on emissions

[ancona]

VW got caught with software that cheated emissions testing. Apparently they had software that turned on the emission controls when the computer detected emission testing equipment being hooked up to the car interface so it would te3st below limits, and when it was un-hooked, emission controls were turned off so the car would get far better mileage. Nice trick, huh? Well they got away with it for a very long time, but someone tipped off the man, probably because someone didn't want to pay him off. Now, they are in very, very deep trouble. Word is, BMW is under investigation as well, and suspicion is being cast on several other European car makers as well. Overall, this does not look good at all for car makers, since the economy has been lackluster at best, and auto sales have been key in holding things together. If this thing blows up, we're in a world of shit folks. Hold on to your hats boys, maybe this is that black swan we've been hearing about.

[PMBug]

Yeah, I saw a bit on ZH the other day highlighting the absurdity of the penalty for this versus what other carmakers got slapped with for mistakes that actually killed people.

I suspect that penalties will ultimately be walked back a bit.