USA Plays Let's Make A Deal On Cheating...

looks similar to vdub's deal. difficult to compare one to the other, but the potential fines and ongoing criminal investigation sound just at this point anyway.

 

This (VW and sundry) makes me think of auto racing regulations, where there are certain mods that are off-limits, considered cheating, but the stakes are high and there's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game at play. Or the Olympics...

 

There's a gray, fuzzy line in there somewhere, between a cheat like VW did, and knowingly letting the engine emit more pollutants at heavy/full throttle in order to not damage anything. I'd imagine that more manufacturers are taking a look at where that line is in their own products.

 

In European law, that line is actually between those.

In US law, automakers are required to disclose when they're doing that, and get approval from the EPA beforehand - without doing that, it's treated as equivalent to what VW did. What's at issue is the fact that FCA did not do that.

 

Wow

There is such a thing as "undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices (AECDs)"

Used for emergency vehicles.

I remember in the 80's designing in a "battle short" in military avionics, and thought it strange.
A switch that bypasses all fuses and circuit breakers.
I guess if your plane is going down, and are about to die, you don't want it to be because of a fuse..

 

And tank crews remove the speed governors when getting deployed where actual combat might happen.

I don't know what exactly this AECD for emergency vehicles is, but many regions are letting these vehicles disable the limp home function in the event of being out of DEF. An ambulance or fire truck that can only do 40mph at most aren't going to be of much help.

 

So, undisclosed AECDs are defeat devices, end of story. (An AECD is simply anything that changes the emissions strategy, all of which must be disclosed to and approved by the EPA by law.)

There are some types of AECDs that the EPA would never approve for a normal vehicle, but will approve for emergency vehicles - largely ones to override limp home modes and forced shutdowns for emissions system failures - due to the risk to human life from the normal behavior.