In September the world of car industry went upside down when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed the car manufacturer company Volkswagen had installed a software on their cars to evade the emission of high pollution during the tests. Volkswagen was proven of violating the United States code title 42 chapter 85 Subchapter I Part A 7412 that specifies that any modification in a product that increases the emission of any air pollutant is considered dangerous and violates the Clean Air Act. Other than Volkswagen more companies are being suspects like Robert Bosch who is believed of being the developer of the device. On their report, EPA described the software, as the “defeat device,” when the car is going through the …show more content…
Volkswagen strongly contributed all this years in contaminating the air of large cities, like New York and Atlanta that have high ranks of Asthma residents in the area and there is not much density in the air. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America giving Atlanta the ranking 13 with a score of 86.88 in their Asthma Capitals report.
The Clean Air Act requires vehicle manufacturers to certify to EPA that products will meet the emission standards to control air pollution, and every vehicle sold must be covered by an EPA-issued certificate. The Clean Air Act also prohibits manufacturers’ the making and selling vehicles equipped with defeat devices that reduce the effectiveness of the emission control system during normal driving conditions.
With this big lawsuit, there are a huge number of suspects from the big CEOs at Germany to New York City. Suspects of the implementation of the defeat device are several however Bosch is one of the principal suspects. Bosch who seems to be the developer of the software device. According to the lawsuit against, “Volkswagen’s fraudulent scheme was facilitated and aided and abetted by defendant Bosch, which created the software used in Volkswagen’s defeat device.” Even though there is not much evidence that links him with the
People living in these communities are at particular risk of serious health effects due ground-level ozone and smog. There is a wealth of scientific evidence on the development of asthma,
Volkswagen is one of the largest automakers in the world and it has a global reputation as a high-quality German auto brand. Social responsibility is included in VW’s corporate culture and it seems that Volkswagen made some advances in Corporate Social Responsibility because the corporation was ranked 11th 2015 in the Global CSR Rep Track 100, which listed companies by reputation (Reputation Institute, 2015).However, the company has been threatened by an emission scandal which broke in September 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosed that Volkswagen had installed defeat devices on diesel cars which were sold in the US. These devices equipped on VW cars cheated regulators in such a way that it could detect
Before the Clean Air Act (CAA) was passed by Congress, the Air Pollution Act of 1955 and Motor Vehicle Act of 1960 preceded it. The two acts before the CAA did not really do much except jump starting research and throwing plenty of money at the research. When the research was released to Congress from the Motor Vehicle Act, Congress found out that approximately 60% of pollution was coming from vehicles; of the pollutants that were being emitted from vehicles, the most prominent that were found were Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), and Hydrocarbons. These findings pushed Congress to pass another bill that would help to slow down pollution, especially from vehicles. However, when the CAA was passed, it did not mandate any reductions
The mistrust between the Volkswagen Company and their customers developed after the scandal associated with the incorrect emission of data and cheating of the system unfolded. The scandal occurred on the eighteenth of September 2015 when it was found that the company had made a car with a turbo that released emission directly into the real word atmosphere. The allegations were genuine and were proved by the Environment Protection Agency in the United States (EPA) (Hotten, 2016).The chief
Volkswagen is under investigation following reports from the EPA that they had installed software into their engines that deceived emissions testers. Furthermore, engineers updated this software in 2014, claiming that they were improving the vehicles. James Liang, a senior engineer who had worked for Volkswagen for 30 years, admitted to investigators in September of 2016 that he had designed the software in question. Further investigation has revealed that this conspiracy may have involved executives of the company. It is unknown to the public whether Liang was acting under orders when he designed the software or he decided to create it on his own to meet requirements his superiors gave him. Both rule utilitarianism and Kantian duty ethics
It was not until the Clean Act of 1970 that enforcement at the federal level being in more a serious way. To quote the EPA website directly “The enactment of the Clean Air Act of 1970 (1970 CAA) resulted in a major shift in the federal government's role in air pollution control. This legislation authorized the development of comprehensive federal and state regulations to limit emissions from both stationary (industrial) sources and mobile sources. Four major regulatory programs affecting stationary sources were initiated: the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS, pronounced "knacks"), State Implementation Plans (SIPs), New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs). Furthermore,
to import a vehicle that does not conform to United States emission standards or qualify for an
regulation, in the United States, stemmed from the Clean Air Act of 1970. The act instituted the first federal standards for air quality and enabled these standards to be enforced. It also authorized federal and state regulations to limit emissions from stationary, or industrial, sources and mobile sources like automobiles. Specifically, its goal for automobiles was to reduce pollution and health problems caused by vehicles and by gasoline use. Catalytic converters, which convert would-be toxic emissions into less harmful gasses, became a required component in new vehicles in 1976. Leaded gasoline was phased out because vehicles with the converter could not operate on it, and this also eliminated the public health concern caused by lead. By
Volkswagen company put sensors in the emission component, so when tested, the examiner sees that the car meets emission standards. But because the sensors are to meet U.S emission standards, the car itself can be modified to ignore the sensor’s override and make the car believe it was in use. TFL motors was curious about the scam, so they decided to put a Jetta TDI turbo diesel on an AWD Dyno, to confuse the car into thinking it’s on the street, not being checked for emissions. Being in emissions mode, the AWD dyno lost horsepower and torque, but without the sensors active the car produced excess diesel exhaust, going over the EPA regulated limit. The car itself was able to perform at a higher level without the sensors active, proving reason to hide the fact that excess exhaust is produced. Certain companies realize the regulations hold their products back, so to promote the fuel efficiency and or horsepower of the car, they would gladly hide the fact that their cars are emitting excess diesel exhaust. Some ways to prevent excess exhaust would be to install EGR coolers, or to buy tuners for your engine’s valves. But many professional truckers tend to stick with rolling coal. “Rolling coal” can happen by making a smoke switch, or removing emission controls on truck models, and adding a tuner to produce fine smoke build ups. Diesel exhaust is actually less harmful then a
As a multinational corporation, the implication of the scandal determines the fate of numerous stakeholders both internal and external. Internal stakeholders comprise of the board, managers and employees while external stakeholders subsume shareholders, customers and suppliers. The economic, political and social impacts of the dishonest practices would shape the fate of Volkswagen and affect the future prospects of the automotive industry. Common shareholders whilst not involved in the day to day running of the business placed faith and belief in the firm by providing capital had suffered severe economic loss as share prices (get something for stat). Despite the callous deception in advertising the defeat device displayed no signs of disturbing vehicle performance, however, customers of Volkswagen and its subsidiary vehicles suffer from lower resale value. In addition, even though the scandal was global, European consumers were the most affected with diesel cars accounting for 41% of all European cars (Fontaras, 2016). This high percentage in respect to other nations is a result of incentives provided by the European Union for the purchase of diesel vehicles such as subsidies towards the production process resulting in lower premiums compared to petrol counterparts (Vidal, 2015) In additional with sales falling suppliers of Volkswagen would likely lose future contracts or have current contracts downgraded as less parts are required. Thus, this loss of future
The first legislation for air pollution was the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. Although air pollution was not a new phenomenon this legislation was the first to fund research to investigate the sources of air pollution, and raise public awareness. This legislation followed the 1948 incident in Donora, Pennsylvania of industrial smog that killed 21 people and sickened over 6000 people, and the international incident in London where smog killed over 4000. After research and investigation the Air Pollution Control Act was expanded into the Clean Air Act of 1963 and this Act was amended up until 1990. I believe that political/governmental reactions has been the biggest influence on reducing air pollution. Once the data and research was available the potential health risks were obvious. The CAA identified the largest contributors and imposed limits and subjected them to monitoring. The CAA has reduced emissions, removed lead from gasoline, reduced byproducts of fossil fuel combustion (SO2,NO2), increased fuel economy standards, and reduced the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC's) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's). A lot of these help regulate one of the biggest human contributors to air pollution, DRIVING. Big cities all suffer from traffic and congestion so my city (DC) implemented an anti-idiling law where vehicles are not allowed to idle for more than three minutes. My city also offers education and outreach services for air quality issues. The government in my opinion is the
According to National Geographic Magazine, countries around the world have undertaken and implemented measures to combat air pollution. These measures aim to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to air pollution. The United States of America is one of the hundred and seventy five (175) countries that signed the Paris Agreement to combat climate change which includes air pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of United States of America formulates strategies and enforces laws and regulations such as the Clean Air Act (CAA). The EPA as the enforcing agency stipulated in the clean air act that all stationary sources such as factories and chemical plants “must install pollution control equipment
The people at the West Virginia had tested vehicles as well as the EPA (Patel). Volkswagen chose to include rout programming device to cheat the system to pass the testing laws. Volkswagen as a corporation was basically trying to cut the cost of engines to be built by limiting the NOx emission system that controls how much dirty chemicals that goes into the air (Patel).By the company putting this device in their cars they were trying to cut down the cost that they would have to spend, at the same time Volkswagen cars had better performance. The ethical question would be is it really worth it to CHOSE to overlook the laws to save money on cash (Patel). "We expected better from Volkswagen," said Cynthia Giles, the E.P.A's. colleague manager for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance. She called the automaker's activities "a danger to general health of our
Volkswagen(VW), a classic and adored automaker who ruled the automotive manufacturing business for many decades suddenly found itself in the middle of the tragic business crisis with the news that they deliberately cheated on and falsified emission tests on many of their vehicles over the past several years. On September 15, 2015 VW was charged with allegations of manipulating US emission tests by installing cheating software by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In its response, VW admitted the charges which led the company to undergo a shakeup among its executives, a drop-in stock and resale values, government investigations, and a serious blow to their
With billions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of Americans employed (Department of Commerce, n.d.), the automobile industry has a vast influence in the United States. Since the time Henry Ford developed the assembly line production (Statista, n.d.) the industry has grown into a global market with no signs of slowing down. Top car companies are constantly searching for new innovations to set them apart from their competitors. Among those companies is Volkswagen (VW). A company which strides in emissions and fuel efficiency turned, not only to be false, but caused a severe amount of damage (Ewing, 2016).