
An Open Letter to California Air Resources Board on VW Cheating Scandal - bontoJR
http://www.takepart.com/open-letter-to-california-air-resources-board-chairman-mary-nichols
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occamrazor
Note point 5:

> 5./ Allow VW some flexibility in the execution and timing of this plan by
> allowing it to be implemented via zero emission vehicle credits.

Which, together with the rest of the requests actually means:

> Force VW to pay a lot of money to an existing EV manuctarurer.

~~~
kuschku
Which, together with the rest, means:

> Force VW to pay Tesla, instead of producing its own vehicles.

(VW is already killing its "efficient Diesel" program, and instead focusing on
EVs)

~~~
_ph_
I have seen nothing tangible so far that shows that VW is backing off Diesel
cars - perhaps they cancelled their marketing campaign in the US. I would very
much like them to focus on EVs, but whether they do remains to be seen. (A
very good indicator for that would be that they start building charging
infrastructure and introduce some vehicles with more than 100 miles range...)

~~~
kuschku
This article might give you more information: arstechnica.com/cars/2015/10/vw-
responds-to-diesel-scandal-says-the-future-is-electric/

They’re focusing on EVs now a lot.

~~~
_ph_
Being from Germany and a Volkswagen owner, I believe it, when they show some
real actions, not only declare to focus on EVs. I would be very happy if they
do - my next car is electric for sure - but they got to show first.

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superuser2
City dwellers who park on the street or even in apartment garages do not have
the authority to install chargers. EVs are 100% off the table for me for at
least 20 years (until I own a home) and probably forever (unlikely that I will
own a _suburban_ home).

Sure, there are public chargers, but not nearly enough, considering that you
have to sit at one for 45 minutes or more.

~~~
w1ntermute
In 20 years, most cars (electric or not) will probably be self-driving ones
owned and controlled by a centralized ride-sharing service. You won't need to
charge/refuel them.

~~~
paganel
> In 20 years, most cars (electric or not) will probably be self-driving ones
> owned and controlled by a centralized ride-sharing service

This is not true. Just to give an example, how do you plan to implement that
"centralized ride-sharing service" in a city like Cairo (current population
10+ million)? Sometimes HN users need to get out of their bubble.

~~~
mcguire
Or in a city like Huntsville, AL, with a population of 200,000 and a
surprising number of workers who commute from 40 or more miles away?

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NickM
I would hardly call being forced to make EVs a punishment. In ten or twenty
years, when EVs really take off, Tesla/Apple/Google/Samsung/etc are going to
eat the lunch of anyone left behind.

Investing in electric vehicles could save VW in the long term. I would argue
that if they don't want to make EVs of their own accord, then they don't
deserve to be saved.

EDIT: I would also worry that if they're only making EVs because they're
forced to, then they're only going to put in the minimum effort to make a
crappy second-rate electric car. Flooding the market with low-quality, short-
range electric cars doesn't seem like it will help push EVs into the
mainstream any quicker.

~~~
URSpider94
They are already being forced to -- California already has a ZEV mandate, and
VW is selling the Golf EV here. This would just accelerate the process.

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mcv
I've got no problem with fining intentionally deceitful companies into
bankruptcy, if that's what it takes to stop the rest from destroying our world
for short-term profit.

~~~
bertil
I have little problem in quartering the executives of those company if need
be, but bankruptcy condemns the lower-level workers a lot more. Many of those
are needed to transform the industry, so I hope they’ll find better position,
and bankruptcy could help them realise that — but it is going to be painful.
Firing those responsible and everyone above them sounds preferable.

~~~
Kristine1975
Right now not even the former CEO Martin Winterkorn (who resigned after
"taking responsibility" for VW's fraud) has been fired:
[http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-management-
idUKK...](http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-management-
idUKKBN0U02S020151217)

 _VW 's former CEO to draw salary until December 2016_

 _During almost nine years as CEO, Winterkorn amassed a pension pot of 28.6
million euros (21 million pounds) and last year was the highest-paid CEO among
the heads of companies listed on Germany 's DAX-30 blue-chip index with
remuneration of about 16 million euros._

~~~
URSpider94
No, he was fired, he just continues to get paid.

This would be true for almost any worker in Europe, unless you could prove in
court that he/she had been grossly incompetent -- and such a case could drag
on for years and cost as much as the severance pay.

~~~
mcv
Was he fired? I thought he just swapped positions with the CEO of Porsche.

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charliepark
This HuffPo piece adds nothing. The original content is actually here:
[http://www.takepart.com/open-letter-to-california-air-
resour...](http://www.takepart.com/open-letter-to-california-air-resources-
board-chairman-mary-nichols)

~~~
dang
Ok, we changed the URL to that from [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-
musk-volkswagen-emi...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-
volkswagen-emissions-scandal_5674686de4b014efe0d56bba).

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mtgx
This is exactly what I've been thinking, too. By all means "fine" VW with
billions of dollars, but instead of actually _taking_ those billions of
dollars from them, force them to commit to a very strict plan of investing
those billions into bringing EV cars to the market (but not hybrids - EVs!).

But they should also have audits every 6 months or so to make sure those money
go where they're supposed to.

~~~
XorNot
It's a really good way to get around the way companies usually weasel out of
punishment "well, you'll really only be punishing our workers..."

~~~
_ph_
Still, what is the benefit of driving a company into bankruptcy while the
actual responsible have left with a golden parachute? The only thing that
works is to go after all responsible managers. The Sabanes-Oxley act was a
start, perhaps it needs to be extended. And I do like the idea of rather
forcing the company to invest in making up for their wrongdoing than plain
fines which vanish in some budget.

~~~
NickM
The only trouble there is that what if a company wants to (for instance)
invest in EVs anyway? Now the incentive is to first make a quick buck cheating
and lying, and then when they get caught the punishment is to do the same
thing they were planning to eventually do anyway.

------
kafkaesq
Agree about it being more efficient to invest in emission reductions moving
forward. I'd still like to see heavy jail sentences for the executives
involved (assuming there's some law they actually broke, and all that). As if
the forced recalls ever would constituted true "punishment" for those
responsible for this crime.

------
bbarn
Every time I read an article, and 20 seconds into it, mid-paragraph a modal
window tries to get me to register it evokes such an rage I just stop what I
am reading and click back. This UI pattern is one of the worst I've ever seen.

~~~
bertil
I do not see this, and I believe this is thanks to me using _Ghostery_. It’s a
plug-in that allows you to see, choose and filter in or out the scripts that
run on your page. In this case, I see about 15 of them (and block most, out of
experience that those are from company with disreputable practices) so I
couldn’t tell you which is the culprit.

I strongly recommend that plug-in to any one, technically inclined or not: the
savvy because that level of control makes sense, marginally more than AdBlock;
the less so to appreciate how much data-gathering is happening, and what are
the names of the main actors.

~~~
nacs
I have Ghostery installed and enabled (along with uBlock Origin) and I still
saw the modal popup:

[http://thumbsnap.com/i/PQ0bY923.png?1219](http://thumbsnap.com/i/PQ0bY923.png?1219)

~~~
mziel
Depends on your settings. (right click -> options)

I have uBlock (additional lists) and Ghostery (block all) and don't see that.

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Tinyyy
I wonder why Elon Musk is involved in the panel and quoted here. Isn't there a
conflict of interest where "investing in research, development and
manufacturing facilities for new battery technologies" will indirectly benefit
Elon by driving the industry forward?

~~~
ghshephard
That's true - but, on the flip side, it would also create a massive competitor
for the Tesla.

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monochromatic
Well he seems like an unbiased observer. "Hey California, you should use that
settlement money to accelerate the rollout of the product I sell."

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bayesianhorse
He would have, wouldn't he?

