<story><title>Volkswagen Is Ordered to Recall Nearly 500k Vehicles Over Emissions Software</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/business/volkswagen-is-ordered-to-recall-nearly-500000-vehicles-over-emissions-software.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dayjah</author><text>When I last bought a VW (2008) I was concerned due to a clunking noise after first starting it up and driving a few miles; I called the VW service dept and they explained that there was a compressor which captured exhaust fumes and released them at a lower rate for the first few miles of each journey -- to help them meet EPA emissions standards. I was assured there was nothing to worry about.&lt;p&gt;While this is a different case, it struck me then that the emissions guidelines were being gamed by manufacturers. We&amp;#x27;re regularly reminded that barriers will be circumvented; what is the correct approach here? Like performance enhancing drugs in sports, too stiff of a fine and manufacturers are encouraged to find more subtle ways to beat the system, unenforced you leave a polluting industry to destroy our environment..</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spydum</author><text>Perhaps the noise was poorly explained. What they describe is likely the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Exhaust_gas_recirculation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Exhaust_gas_recirculation&lt;/a&gt; ). This isn&amp;#x27;t a system to game emissions, it&amp;#x27;s an active component in real emissions reduction.&lt;p&gt;Still I get your point: manufacturers are clearly going to optimize based on the measured metrics. How do we know those metrics are meaningful in the overall system.</text></comment>
<story><title>Volkswagen Is Ordered to Recall Nearly 500k Vehicles Over Emissions Software</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/business/volkswagen-is-ordered-to-recall-nearly-500000-vehicles-over-emissions-software.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dayjah</author><text>When I last bought a VW (2008) I was concerned due to a clunking noise after first starting it up and driving a few miles; I called the VW service dept and they explained that there was a compressor which captured exhaust fumes and released them at a lower rate for the first few miles of each journey -- to help them meet EPA emissions standards. I was assured there was nothing to worry about.&lt;p&gt;While this is a different case, it struck me then that the emissions guidelines were being gamed by manufacturers. We&amp;#x27;re regularly reminded that barriers will be circumvented; what is the correct approach here? Like performance enhancing drugs in sports, too stiff of a fine and manufacturers are encouraged to find more subtle ways to beat the system, unenforced you leave a polluting industry to destroy our environment..</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>CurtHagenlocher</author><text>There is a more charitable interpretation.&lt;p&gt;When engines are colder, they burn less efficiently and produce &amp;quot;worse&amp;quot; emissions. A system that treats the warmup period differently than the steady-state of running a hot engine is potentially quite reasonable.</text></comment>