Skip to main content

Volkswagen Apologizes for Unethical Diesel Study Conducted on its Behalf

Over the weekend, it was reported that German automakers funded research where monkeys were exposed to diesel exhaust fumes from an emissions-cheating VW Beetle. Volkswagen Group, Daimler, and BMW all condemned the study — saying they were appalled by the logistics employed for research they were funding.

On Monday, German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung expanded on EUGT’s unsavory research practices — claiming it not only exposed animals to exhaust gasses but people as well. The German government is up in arms over the revelation. “These tests on monkeys or even humans cannot be justified ethically in any way,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, on her behalf.

Social Democrat Stephan Weil, who is a VW supervisory board member, called the testing “absurd and abhorrent … Lobbying can be no excuse whatsoever for such testing.”

Unlike the exhaust testing on monkeys, specific details on the human experiment are quite a bit lighter. While subjects were exposed to the irritant gas nitrogen dioxide (which is prevalent in diesel fumes), exactly how remains unspecified. The 25 subjects are believed to all have been young adults in good health and were exposed to various concentrations of the gas for several hours at a time at a facility run by Aachen University.

Automakers are, once again, in the position of having to explain the matter. Daimler condemned the research, saying it had no say in establishing how EUGT conducted itself. “We are appalled by the extent of the studies and their implementation,” a spokesperson said. Daimler previously mentioned it would conduct an investigation into the group’s decisions.

Volkswagen has also distanced itself from the research, saying it will look into the situation. All three automakers have claimed to have limited knowledge of the group’s proceedings.

That’s not good enough for the growing number of outraged politicians. Many, like Stephan Weil, are demanding automakers immediately provide details on what the goals of these types of exhaust studies were.

“At the end of the day, the purpose of such experiments is the decisive factor. If for example, safety and health in the workplace were being tested, as Aachen University has suggested, and ethical standards were adhered to, it is defensible,” Weil told a news conference on Monday. “Where experiments served the purposes of marketing and sales, however, I cannot think of an acceptable justification for such an approach.”

A version of this article first appeared on thetruthaboutcars.com

The post Volkswagen Apologizes for Unethical Diesel Study Conducted on its Behalf appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2nlLmWf
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bugatti Chiron Won’t Get a Roadster Version

The all-new Bugatti Chiron hypercar will not get a convertible version like its Veyron predecessor did. Speaking to Autocar at the London grand opening of the sole Bugatti showroom in the U.K., marketing boss Stefan Brungs confirmed that the French automaker’s latest hypercar will only be sold in coupe format, with “no roadster or convertible” version in the plans. Brungs also said that the company is only planning on selling the allotted 500 Chirons as standard, so faster variants like a Super Sports version also aren’t likely. This is a very different strategy than the Veyron, which has targa top Grand Sport and Super Sports models, as well as a number of special edition models. The Chiron is set to try to break the world record for fastest car and attempt to beat the Veyron’s record of 268 mph. It is believed that the Chiron will be able to hit 288 mph. Powered by an 8.0-liter W16 engine with 1,500 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque, it shouldn’t ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...
2 comments
Read more