Pollution fraud, over half of all cars

This video, by the Chaos Computer Club in Germany, says about itself:

The exhaust emissions scandal („Dieselgate“)

27 December 2015

Take a deep breath into pollution trickery

Analysis of the emission scandal shaking the German automotive industry from a procedural, organizational and technical level. Includes insight into cheating for advanced managers and code extraction from ECUs from Ebay. And from Volkswagen. Initially.

The exhaust emission scandal has visibly shaken the confidence auto buyers put into the German automotive industry.

The details are – half a year after Volkswagen managers confessed to fraud – scarce, very scare.

Both around the procedural and the technical details of the betrayal. Daniel will show how engineering an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) works, and how many people are involved.

And he will take a look at the revealing communication from the affected parties. That try to share nothing with many words but still reveal a few interesting details.

Felix takes the other approach and looks at body of evidence that 8+ million people have access to but too few took a closer look.

He will share the tricks to extract the firmware from the affected engine control units and share the findings he made along the way and when he looked at the plain and honest truth in code.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

In 16 of the 30 tested diesel cars that had obtained their environmental certifications in the Netherlands, fraudulent software has been used which ensures that the cars on the chassis dynamometer emit much less than on the road. This has been found out by the RDW [Dutch car watchdog].

The Chevrolet Aveo, eg, emitted little at 21 degrees centigrade, and the next test day it emitted almost twice as much when the temperature was 16 degrees. The temperature in the test is higher than 20 degrees.

With the Suzuki Vitara the emission suddenly increased sharply after 22 minutes. The official test takes 20 minutes. With the Volvo XC90 the emissions increased much if the car was driving 10 percent faster than the official speed in the test.

Illegal

Adjusting the car emissions based on speed, time, or distance is unlawful, Government Secretary of State Dijksma writes in a letter to parliament. Exceptions to this prohibition are allowed only in situations where the motor should be protected from damage or to prevent accidents.

According to the Secretary of State the behavior of car manufacturers is “just on or transgressing the allowable limit.” Except for the Aveo and the XC90 that includes, eg, the Opel Mokka and the Hyundai I40.

Cars which failed the emissions test:

Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Van (2x)
Jeep Grand Cherokee Van
Hyundai I40
Kia Cee’d
Kia Optima
Kia Sorento
Suzuki Vitara
Suzuki SX4
Opel Mokka (2x)
Chevrolet Orlando
Chevrolet Cruze
Chevrolet Aveo
Volvo XC90 (2x)

In the coming months the European Commission will clarify when it is permitted to manipulate, and when not. On the basis of that directive, the RDW will decide which car manufacturers have violated the law.

Other countries

Earlier the German, British and French equivalents of the RDW came to similar conclusions. So far, no vehicle has been required to be recalled in those countries.

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