[dark.knight]

Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) or the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Germany has found that Mercedes has "tweaked" its software to allow its 1.6 diesel engines (made in collaboration with Renault) to clear regulatory emission tests. This is similar to the VW case where the car-maker had set its software to detect if the car is undergoing the test on a dyno using SAS (steering angle sensors) and a variety of RPM computations to clear emissions tests.

Mercedes has earlier also come under the lens of American regulatory authorities who've suspected that the car-maker has made more advanced tweaks to the software to cut out the car's emissions control system after just 26 kms or 16 miles of driving - this was perhaps to bypass the road-run emissions check.

So far we've understood that emissions of a car isn't all that the public previously thought it to be, its a combination of engine+software tweaks+additives such as adblue. For bigger engines i.e 1.6 onwards upto 3 or 4 litres, there HAS to be a certain amount of diesel that has to be burnt in order for the car to move given its kerb-weight, the rest is dependent on how the software regulates the emission control system and if at all, additives such as adblue are used.

The Daimler Group has refused to comment about the issue, but the company has already issued a recall on the Mercedes Vito units for software updates of the vans’ emission control. It’s still unclear if the German marque will push through the recall of several C-Class and G-Class cars but if it does, it will certainly be huge one.

Emissions testing in Europe has been a headache for automakers due to stricter regulations. The adverse effects of the rigorous control include manufacturers deciding to stop selling some some of their cars. Peugeot paused 308 GTi production, while BMW announced halt to making 7 Series and M3. Audi also put a brake on SQ5 retail.

And the American story :

The German paper allegedly saw documents indicating that one software function on Daimler diesel vehicles turned off the car's emissions control system after driving just 26 km (16 miles). Another program apparently "allowed the emissions cleaning system to recognize whether the car was being tested based on speed or acceleration patterns," according to Reuters.

Software that turns an emissions control system on and off depending on whether the car is being tested in a lab or not is called a "defeat device," and unless the automaker gets explicit permission to have one, a defeat device's inclusion in an auto system is illegal in the US. In 2015, Volkswagen Group was discovered to have hidden defeat device software on its VW, Audi, and Porsche diesels. The automaker has since spent billions of dollars in buying back vehicles that were emitting up to 40 times the allowable amount of nitrogen oxide (NOx).

And coming to the topic of NOx, it is a natural side-effect of burning diesel, that and particulate emissions as well. Petrol/gasolene isn't nearly as bad when it comes to it and hence is a "cleaner" fuel. AdBlue a diesel exhaust fluid converts the NOx into harmless nitrogen and water.. given that shouldn't AdBlue be made compulsory for cars above a certain engine class?

My questions for KBA are :

1) What would the recall be for? For re-programming the software or to de-tune the engine?

2) Are emissions standards set for without AdBlue additive or with? If with, which class of engines should qualify compulsorily?

3) If Mercedes is financially penalized for the violation if found guilty, i.e a repeat of what happened in VW.. who wins really? Not the environment and certainly not the people.

4) Should the future tests be based purely on engine and tailpipe emissions after de-activating all software within the laboratory, given the scope of cheating possible in the software world.

5) Diesel is proven to be such a huge problem, why not outright increase environmental charges (taxes) on them instead of approving their sales based on simulation emission tests then harassing the buyers for the same by enforcing recalls?

Links :

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/02...magazine-says/

https://www.motor1.com/news/243202/m...class-g-class/

[GTO]

Reuters says that Germany has warned Mercedes of a staggering 30,000 crore rupee fine ($4.4 billion).

[R2D2]

I'd never thought MB would stoop so low. The very company that has been to me an "automobile engineering" idol since childhood turns out to have feet of clay. What the heck is wrong with these German auto giants?! Do they really believe someone won't discover their falsehoods some day?

[Ford5]

Hey, if MB is also caught with it's pants down, then am sure BMW and other diesel biggies like Isuzu and Toyota are doing some sort of a hocus focus to cheat on diesel emission tests.

Japan has even more stringent NOx levels for diesel engines to be adhered to, at par with USA.

[sgiitk]

iss hamam min sabhi nange hain.

Somehow I am unable to use the shift on my Mac to get the Shift Lock in Devanagri.