Figure 1. Exhaust pipe of a diesel vehicle. Source: Autopista.es
Since the dieselgate scandal occurred in September 2015 with Volkswagen, the list of carmakers affected has continued to grow. The issue is systematic across the automobile industry. Attempts to control the situation by authorities have aimed at playing down the importance of cases arisen while the world discovered in astonishment that the automobile industry had been manipulating emissions with full impunity. The case of Spain was even more embarrassing than any other, where the Government determination to investigate the issue is virtually non-existent. We must not forget that people are exposed to high atmospheric pollution levels owing to these failed policies. Therefore everyone is affected by the fraud.
We have witnessed the continuous increase of engine power and the parallel fuel consumption reduction in the automobile market. Anyone who drives might, nevertheless, have noticed that homologated fuel consumption does not match reality. Same applies to particle emissions. Did no one foresee what could happen? Whereas the tampered engines were meant to meet Euro 5 emmission standard, current engines are assumed to meet the even-more-restrictive Euro 6. If engineers breached the rules for the former specifications, does anyone believe the current one is fairly complied with?
The emission standards are beyond current technique capabilities. We cannot lead ourselves to self-deception aiming at violating the laws of thermodynamics. Unlike what is assumed for standard development, policymakers do not have the faintest idea how an engine works. They are rather moved by, on the one hand, greed of increasing profits and, on the other hand the need to pretend they care about us. Was not there any alternative to pretend to tighten the screws on the industry? Thus, the standardization system failed. Excessive pressure to achieve results finally lead to the easiest solution: cheating.
