Audi Volkswagen pollution fraud update

This video from Australia says about itself:

Volkswagen drivers say software fix causes problems

9 April 2017

Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal has taken another twist, with some drivers now telling the ABC the company’s software upgrade is causing problems with their cars. The upgrade is the only compensation on offer to Australian customers. More than 100 drivers have contacted the law firms running class actions against Volkswagen, complaining about a drop in fuel efficiency and performance after having the upgrade.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Also Audi diesel fraud, 24,000 cars recalled

Today, 05:52

The German Transport Minister says that car manufacturer Audi is guilty of the use of so-called fraudulent software. Some 24,000 diesel cars of the A7 and A8 models have been recalled.

With special software, emission tests were manipulated, says Minister Alexander Dobrindt. The models in question are said to actually emit twice the allowable amount of nitric oxide (Nox).

The Ministry will give Audi up to 12 June the opportunity to come up with a viable solution to the diesel fraud. The car manufacturer says that the software update will start in July. About 14,000 of these A7s and A8s were sold in Germany. It is unclear whether, and if so, how many have been sold in the Netherlands.

Big bosses under scrutiny

The charge had been expected for a while. In March, hundreds of detectives entered the Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt. Then it became apparent that several top managers of the Volkswagen group (where Audi is part of) are under suspicion.

VW big boss Matthias Müller has been called on the carpet at the Berlin ministry, Reuters news agency reports.

Sister company Volkswagen has paid more than 22 billion euros for damages and settlements in the US due to ‘dieselgate‘. In 2016, the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily claimed that Audi is the source of the fraudulent software scandal.

21 thoughts on “Audi Volkswagen pollution fraud update”

Watching Mike Papantonio on the weekly show “America’s Lawyer” is an antidote to the narcotic called “corporate advertising.” Think of each installment as a new chapter in the book entitled “How Giant Corporations Screw You.”

Listening to the corporate ads that envelope us, you would think that this is the best of all possible worlds, and all your problems will be solved if you simply just buy-buy-buy.

Listening to “America’s Lawyer,” you’re forced to recognize that corporations push dangerous drugs and defective products on us, and filthify (neologism!!) our air, water, land and food. (In that sense, “American Lawyer” is an extension of Mike Papantonio’s popular progressive radio show “Ring of Fire,” which has been exposing corporate malfeasance since 2003.)

Take the BP oil spill. Oil company BP was fined $34 billion for that disaster.

Take the housing crisis of the last decade, with property values plunging all around the country. Wall Street bank Chase was fined $13 billion for lying to investors about the quality of Chase mortgages.

Take prescription drugs. Drug companies Pfizer, Glaxo and Johnson & Johnson have been fined more than $2 billion each for illegal marketing of their drugs.

Take illegal drugs. The bank HSBC was fined almost $2 billion for laundering drug cartel money.

Take international trade. Manufacturer Siemens was fined $1.6 billion for bribing officials to buy Siemens products.

Or consider the headline in today’s Wall Street Journal: “Opioid Makers Sued for Stoking Addiction.”

And those are just some of the illegal crimes. Think of all the legal ones that go unpunished . . . .

You won’t hear any of this from Capitol Hill. Honestly, in my last four years in Congress, I don’t remember a single anti-corporate speech on the Floor of the House. So if you want the truth, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Some interesting items recently on “America’s Lawyer”:

· Remington rifles have a built-in defect that makes them dangerous to the people holding the trigger;

· Dow Chemical pesticides are wreaking havoc;

· Trucking companies are responsible for 4000 road deaths each year; and

· Corporations who underpay workers (“wage theft”) usually get away with it.

All this is taking place in broad daylight. We could try to do something about it (like instituting a wage theft board that punishes cheating employers, like I did in my district last year).

Or we could try to puzzle out what “covfefe” means.

Alan Grayson, USA

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Slovakian VW autoworkers strike

Around 70 percent of Volkswagen (VW) employees at three VW factories in Slovakia began a 12-day strike Tuesday. They are seeking a 16 percent pay increase and have rejected management’s offer of a 4.5 percent rise this year and 4.2 percent next year together with bonus payments.

Bloomberg reported that workers gathered on the first day of the strike at VW’s Bratislava factory holding placards reading, “Don’t Humiliate Us” and “We Do the Maximum, You do the Minimum.” VW is Slovakia’s largest employer.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/06/23/euro-j23.html

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