1 00:00:00,258 --> 00:00:12,874 *33c3 preroll music* 2 00:00:13,271 --> 00:00:16,435 *applause* 3 00:00:16,834 --> 00:00:22,610 Herald: So, has anyone of you heard of Rolling Coal? It's a mostly American 4 00:00:22,610 --> 00:00:29,151 phenomenon of modifying your car in such a way as to maximize the emissions so they 5 00:00:29,151 --> 00:00:38,530 are visible as a big black cloud of smoke. Apparently I heard that VW cars are now 6 00:00:38,530 --> 00:00:45,580 very popular among the friends of Rolling Coal. But let's not joke so much and focus 7 00:00:45,580 --> 00:00:52,720 on the topic at hand. Daniel Lange has the mission to stop the omissions of emissions 8 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:58,777 at VW. He spoke to hundreds of people since... 9 00:00:58,933 --> 00:01:08,840 *laughter* *applause* 10 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:13,100 Last year he also gave a talk together with a colleague about the same topic and 11 00:01:13,100 --> 00:01:16,920 since then he has spoken to hundreds of people and has gained some new insides 12 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:21,450 that he will now share with us. I welcome you to Dieselgate—one year later. 13 00:01:21,450 --> 00:01:24,960 *applause* 14 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:33,170 Daniel Lange: Thanks very much. Can you hear me? Okay. Wonderful. Thank you very 15 00:01:33,170 --> 00:01:37,970 much. A very quick announcement: The talk will be about 40 minutes, so if you have 16 00:01:37,970 --> 00:01:42,860 to leave after 30 minutes because you have a dinner appointment or something like 17 00:01:42,860 --> 00:01:48,780 that, please do so quietly. I was really unable to reduce the slides down much 18 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:57,640 further without taking all the jokes away. So, my name is Daniel Lange. I have worked 19 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:02,060 on the Dieselgate stuff on and off over the last year because I worked with press, 20 00:02:02,060 --> 00:02:10,560 so I worked with litigation people. And last year I was here because I felt that 21 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:17,141 this Volkswagen notion of there being this “rogue group of engineers” was so 22 00:02:17,141 --> 00:02:20,980 utterly wrong, and everybody in the automotive industry actually knows this, 23 00:02:20,980 --> 00:02:26,530 that I just felt I had to speak up. And I don't know why, but they kind of keep 24 00:02:26,530 --> 00:02:30,969 motivating me to come back and point out their lies, so that's actually what I'm 25 00:02:30,969 --> 00:02:36,310 going to do. I myself have worked for 16 years in the automotive industry. 14 years 26 00:02:36,310 --> 00:02:41,810 of that at a Bavarian manufacturer that's not located in Ingolstadt. 27 00:02:41,810 --> 00:02:43,980 *laughter* 28 00:02:43,980 --> 00:02:48,599 And I run my own company, right, Faster IT here is a consultancy, but we 29 00:02:48,599 --> 00:02:52,370 don't work for the automotive industry, right, so that's why I can actually talk 30 00:02:52,370 --> 00:02:59,569 here and don't have much of an issue. Hello, next slide, okay, this was broken 31 00:02:59,569 --> 00:03:07,250 in the process, so I'm fixed here. I can't walk. So everybody basically cheated, 32 00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:13,250 right? The emissions thing is not a Volkswagen scandal. It's Dieselgate. It's 33 00:03:13,250 --> 00:03:20,579 something where nearly everybody basically has an issue. So this is why I'd actually 34 00:03:20,579 --> 00:03:27,719 like to show you this slide to just, you know, relieve my conscience. This is about 35 00:03:27,719 --> 00:03:32,450 the temperature window. This is kind of the second last finding that came out in 36 00:03:32,450 --> 00:03:38,870 the middle of this year, that basically everybody has a temperature window, where 37 00:03:38,870 --> 00:03:44,810 they reduce and at some point in time switch off the emissions treatment system. 38 00:03:44,810 --> 00:03:51,439 And if like at Opel, which Felix is going to talk about later a bit more, or Nissan 39 00:03:51,439 --> 00:03:57,669 or Audi for example, these kick in at 17°C, that kind of has a flavour to it, 40 00:03:57,669 --> 00:04:02,690 that has a taste to it, because the testing is being done at 20°C and there's 41 00:04:02,690 --> 00:04:09,980 a 2°C margin of error. So that means, testing can be at 18°C to 22°C and if 42 00:04:09,980 --> 00:04:13,629 you're starting to switch off your emissions treatment at 17°C, you just 43 00:04:13,629 --> 00:04:18,709 start to switch it off, like in most real-life situations in northern Europe or 44 00:04:18,709 --> 00:04:24,370 in the States, but you're sure it's available when the car has been properly 45 00:04:24,370 --> 00:04:31,590 set up for testing. So, sadly so that's the only slide I'm going to show, which is 46 00:04:31,590 --> 00:04:36,150 not on Volkswagen, so I'm also guilty of not putting enough focus on the others, 47 00:04:36,150 --> 00:04:40,919 but Volkswagen is just so entertaining that, you know, I can't make that up with 48 00:04:40,919 --> 00:04:47,360 anybody else. So, this is the money slide. This is kind of to update you in case you 49 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:52,530 have been living under a rock for the last, I don't know, six months. There's 50 00:04:52,530 --> 00:04:59,360 two class action suits. Class action suits are a legislation in the States which 51 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:06,580 allows to collect actions from individual people that have owned a Volkswagen and 52 00:05:06,580 --> 00:05:13,050 have been betrayed together and they have split the solution to these class action 53 00:05:13,050 --> 00:05:17,720 suits into two, because on the 2 liter it was rather easy—Volkswagen said: “Yes, 54 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:21,389 we cheated.”—, but on the 3 liter they maintained for quite a long time that they 55 00:05:21,389 --> 00:05:25,740 didn't cheat, so there were extended negotiations. And what you see here is 56 00:05:25,740 --> 00:05:31,530 basically a breakdown of the overall cost, which is currently estimated to be in the 57 00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:37,970 $ 12 billion range for settling these. For the 2.0 liters, Volkswagen basically has 58 00:05:37,970 --> 00:05:43,930 to buy them back. A bit more on this later. And for the 3.0s they have split 59 00:05:43,930 --> 00:05:49,229 them into a Generation 1, which they also buy back, and a Generation 2 and those 60 00:05:49,229 --> 00:05:54,409 vehicles will be getting a new catalyst, they will be getting up to three new 61 00:05:54,409 --> 00:05:59,960 sensors, they will get a turbine mixer for the injection of the Diesel emission 62 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:05,240 fluid, they will get a new Diesel emission fluid—Ad Blue is the brand name—dosing 63 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:12,210 valve. All of these have to be approved by the EPA and if it is approved, Volkswagen 64 00:06:12,210 --> 00:06:16,879 can retrofit it. If not, they also have to buy back the vehicles, so this is why it 65 00:06:16,879 --> 00:06:20,870 says “GOTO 1” there, right, because then they will be treated the same as 66 00:06:20,870 --> 00:06:24,259 Generation 1. Now if you compare that—I don't know whether you saw the talk last 67 00:06:24,259 --> 00:06:29,169 year—in Europe there is this plastic tube, this flow rectifier, a kind of, I 68 00:06:29,169 --> 00:06:35,090 don't know, 3 Euro part, which is put into your car and all is well, right? Now, 69 00:06:35,090 --> 00:06:40,080 okay, that's, you know? Honestly, 2 liter engines, 3 liter engines, they are 70 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,960 different. 4 cylinders, 6 cylinders, but, you know, I guess everybody, you don't 71 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,470 need to work in the automotive industry to understand that a plastic part for 3 Euro 72 00:06:47,470 --> 00:06:52,620 and some better flow calculations are not the same as investing substantially in 73 00:06:52,620 --> 00:06:59,069 each car to really equip it with what it should have been equipped with right from 74 00:06:59,069 --> 00:07:05,180 the beginning. So that's kind of the settlement there. The process is quite 75 00:07:05,180 --> 00:07:12,380 interesting. Volkswagen has to reach 85% of all customers bringing in their vehicle 76 00:07:12,380 --> 00:07:17,400 for fix or buying back those vehicles. If not, there will be additional penalties. 77 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:23,550 So that's the way that the US folks actually make sure that this is successful 78 00:07:23,550 --> 00:07:29,009 and somebody in the States gets like $ 10,000 to 20,000 on top of the value of 79 00:07:29,009 --> 00:07:35,879 their car. So that's kind of quite substantial. For the States themselves 80 00:07:35,879 --> 00:07:39,900 this is also quite interesting, because the last lines you're seeing there is 81 00:07:39,900 --> 00:07:46,620 $ 2.7 billion on the 2.0 settlement and another $ 225 million on the 3.0 liter 82 00:07:46,620 --> 00:07:52,580 settlement. They go into an environmental trust and this is then used to, you know, 83 00:07:52,580 --> 00:07:59,949 buy new bus fleets, build up forests, do infrastructure for zero emission vehicles 84 00:07:59,949 --> 00:08:04,979 and so on and so on. So there's a lot of money actually being available now to the 85 00:08:04,979 --> 00:08:10,570 government of the United States, and Canada has settled for a very similar 86 00:08:10,570 --> 00:08:14,819 thing, to actually do good for the environment and set off the damage that 87 00:08:14,819 --> 00:08:20,360 Volkswagen has done to the environment. There's an unofficial figure which I 88 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,789 didn't put on the slides, so the press people that only read the slides don't get 89 00:08:23,789 --> 00:08:29,870 it, so they really need to see the talk, Bosch seems to have settled for a $ 300 90 00:08:29,870 --> 00:08:36,558 million fine as well, so they will pay $ 300 million into the fund to offset their 91 00:08:36,558 --> 00:08:41,260 participation in the Dieselgate. I think you probably remember that we were 92 00:08:41,260 --> 00:08:46,610 discussing how much did Bosch know last year and we basically showed that it's not 93 00:08:46,610 --> 00:08:52,080 possible to do this type of cheating without a close cooperation between the 94 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:56,950 supplier of the electronic control unit, which is Bosch in this case, and the OEM, 95 00:08:56,950 --> 00:09:01,570 which is the Volkswagen group. The callback process itself is quite 96 00:09:01,570 --> 00:09:07,340 interesting as well. This is the form that you have to fill when you bring in your 97 00:09:07,340 --> 00:09:12,920 car and Volkswagen has hired more than 700 people in the States just to conduct this 98 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:18,460 process. So this is not only, you know, about $ 5 billion to the environment and 99 00:09:18,460 --> 00:09:23,211 to zero emission vehicles and building up the infrastructure, it is also really a 100 00:09:23,211 --> 00:09:27,540 job machine, because at every dealer's there is a dedicated person taking care of 101 00:09:27,540 --> 00:09:33,030 this process and there are 700 people that run it for Volkswagen central in the USA. 102 00:09:33,030 --> 00:09:38,830 I find this mildly funny here, because in the process they're actually making you 103 00:09:38,830 --> 00:09:46,540 fill that your car has gone the milage which is shown on the odometer, so about 104 00:09:46,540 --> 00:09:54,840 30%-40% of our old cars sold in Germany have falsified odometer readings. This is 105 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:59,260 really another scandal. This is something that is not being so widely reported on, 106 00:09:59,260 --> 00:10:04,030 but if you buy a used car, you have a chance of one in three, that it's actually 107 00:10:04,030 --> 00:10:10,010 a car that is not worth the money you're paying. And it's so easy to fix this 108 00:10:10,010 --> 00:10:16,530 problem, but the OEMs don't seem to have an interest to do it. And the outcome here 109 00:10:16,530 --> 00:10:21,340 is that actually Volkswagen tells you: “By law you are required to give an 110 00:10:21,340 --> 00:10:25,600 honest statement on how many miles does that car actually have”. You know, it's 111 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:29,140 quite funny that they actually are bitten by the same problem which they have 112 00:10:29,140 --> 00:10:38,700 ignored in the market for a long time. Okay. So, the thing is, the official 113 00:10:38,700 --> 00:10:46,200 narrative from Volkswagen is, they want to buy back transparency and trust to their 114 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:57,490 customers. This is from Mr. Müller, who is the CEO of Volkswagen group at this 115 00:10:57,490 --> 00:11:02,660 time: “From the very start I have pushed hard for the relentless and comprehensive 116 00:11:02,660 --> 00:11:08,040 clarification of events. We will stop at nothing and nobody. This is a painful 117 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:13,520 process, but it is our only alternative. For us, the only thing that counts is the 118 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:17,980 truth. This is the basis for the fundamental realignment that Volkswagen 119 00:11:17,980 --> 00:11:22,570 needs. The Board of Management of Volkswagen deeply regrets this situation 120 00:11:22,570 --> 00:11:27,050 and wishes to underscore its determination to systematically continue along the 121 00:11:27,050 --> 00:11:30,910 present path of clarification and transparency.” 122 00:11:30,910 --> 00:11:33,000 Can I have an applause for this please? 123 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:35,160 *applause* 124 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:39,700 Thank you very much. And, you know, because heads of states and ministers 125 00:11:39,700 --> 00:11:45,440 don't read press clippings, they actually write letters like these to every head of 126 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:50,120 state, to every minister in Europe, at least as much as I could verify, where 127 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:55,440 they personally update the ministers to, you know, give them the latest 128 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:01,101 claims—this is from May 2016, so it's, you know, half a year later and you can 129 00:12:01,101 --> 00:12:04,971 read it here, it's the same narrative as, you know, “we're doing well” and, you 130 00:12:04,971 --> 00:12:07,730 know, “we keep you informed” and, you know, “there's no need to listen to 131 00:12:07,730 --> 00:12:18,470 anybody else. We own the narrative. We are actually informing you”. So, let's check 132 00:12:18,470 --> 00:12:26,190 one thing. Hello? Thank you. Right when the Dieselgate scandal broke there were 133 00:12:26,190 --> 00:12:32,050 two things. There was the NOx issue, which has clarified that it's a real 134 00:12:32,050 --> 00:12:35,500 problem, that there are defeat devices in the engines. They are being fixed. And 135 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:39,600 there was the CO2 issue. The CO2 issue was pretty clear, because, you know, the 136 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:44,190 cars actually consume much more fuel than the sticker rating says, so there must be 137 00:12:44,190 --> 00:12:49,260 a problem there, right? There is a problem there, but Volkswagen called it off really 138 00:12:49,260 --> 00:12:55,750 quickly and this is my Maha moment, right? Martin Haase is here. If you read that 139 00:12:55,750 --> 00:13:00,200 line here: “No unlawful change to the stated fuel consumption and CO2 figures 140 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:07,060 found to date” right? So there is Volkswagen saying: “We didn't find 141 00:13:07,060 --> 00:13:11,731 anything to date.” Now that kind of, you know, that's a pointer, right? So, let's 142 00:13:11,731 --> 00:13:17,670 keep on looking. This is from November this year. This is a new class action suit 143 00:13:17,670 --> 00:13:23,690 and Audi in this case here is sued, because inside their gearbox, inside their 144 00:13:23,690 --> 00:13:28,291 automatic gearbox there is yet another defeat device. There is a defeat device 145 00:13:28,291 --> 00:13:34,000 that actually makes this car drive like a dog, so it shifts up really early, it 146 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,560 doesn't provide any torque, but that is sufficient to run through test cycles and 147 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:43,740 obviously, if the car doesn't have any power, it consumes very little fuel and 148 00:13:43,740 --> 00:13:50,120 thus you get very good sticker ratings and you get very good CO2 emissions. So, we 149 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:56,070 found it, right? Felix will give a bit more details on the technical side here, 150 00:13:56,070 --> 00:13:59,260 but this is a class action suit, so this is the same thing, which they have settled 151 00:13:59,260 --> 00:14:03,720 for with the engines now running for the gearbox and the module in the engines that 152 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:15,330 cooperates with those gearboxes here. Next fact check. Warranties. Volkswagen refuses 153 00:14:15,330 --> 00:14:21,400 to give warranties in Europe. So, you know, we're only getting those cheap 154 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:29,360 fixes, but then people like the ADAC, the German biggest car owners' club, asks: 155 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:34,100 “Couldn't you please kindly at least give us a warranty? Can't you warrant that 156 00:14:34,100 --> 00:14:39,970 it will not have a negative effect on the car?” And Volkswagen says: “No, we 157 00:14:39,970 --> 00:14:43,601 can't. We'll give you a certificate. We'll give you a paper, but it's not a 158 00:14:43,601 --> 00:14:49,350 warranty.” And this is 'juristische Feinheiten', so this is legal intricacies, 159 00:14:49,350 --> 00:14:55,431 right? We can't do this, It's very sorry, but you'll get a paper. Now if you look at 160 00:14:55,431 --> 00:15:01,420 the States, this is the settlement, which came out on 20th of December, so the 161 00:15:01,420 --> 00:15:06,751 second part of the settlement and the American customers get a 10 year warranty 162 00:15:06,751 --> 00:15:14,470 or 120,000 miles, which is about 200,000 kilometers and they get 4 years or 48,000 163 00:15:14,470 --> 00:15:20,840 miles after the fitting the new catalyst and all the other stuff insight the car. 164 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,070 So that means not only do they get a stash of money, not only do they get their cars 165 00:15:24,070 --> 00:15:28,720 properly fixed, they also get a warranty that the proper fix is proper and if not, 166 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:33,880 Volkswagen has to redo it. So, you see that it's possible, but there's a huge 167 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:38,840 discrepancy between the American legal system that forces a company to do this 168 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,980 and the European legal system that apparently does not have any scare factor 169 00:15:42,980 --> 00:15:49,160 or any lever to motivate them to give a warranty. And they're not giving it by 170 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:53,120 free will, right? They could. They could just be generous and say like: “Of 171 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:57,390 course. We fucked up. Sorry, we'll give a warranty.” But they've been asked over 172 00:15:57,390 --> 00:16:04,800 and over and over again and they've refused to do this. So, Jack Ewing from 173 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:09,810 the New York Times, one of the few really good journalists working on that topic put 174 00:16:09,810 --> 00:16:14,470 it well: “In the US, VW owners get cash. In Europe, they get plastic tubes.” 175 00:16:14,470 --> 00:16:23,080 *applause* 176 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:26,140 And there's another thing I want to point out to you. We ran this here in the 177 00:16:26,140 --> 00:16:33,530 Süddeutsche Zeitung a few days ago. Volkswagen says, it wants transparency, 178 00:16:33,530 --> 00:16:40,740 but what it does is, it actually goes and keeps as much information secret as 179 00:16:40,740 --> 00:16:49,470 possible. So in this case here, every time somebody sues Volkswagen, they settle and 180 00:16:49,470 --> 00:16:52,620 they used to be settling in court, which means, you could get the 181 00:16:52,620 --> 00:16:56,340 information, you know, what was the settlement value? Did they buy back the 182 00:16:56,340 --> 00:16:59,990 car? And now they've learned and they settle out of court, because then the 183 00:16:59,990 --> 00:17:06,108 court only records that the two parties have settled, you know, somebody pays the 184 00:17:06,108 --> 00:17:09,569 fee for the court, which is only a few hundred Euros and everything is fine. And 185 00:17:09,569 --> 00:17:13,608 you don't find out what the settlement is. So this is something which they're now 186 00:17:13,608 --> 00:17:20,319 doing quite on a big scale and the thing here is, we have a very odd situation. The 187 00:17:20,319 --> 00:17:25,949 Kraftfahrtbundesamt says: “You need to do the recall”, but legally they have 188 00:17:25,949 --> 00:17:31,451 not ordered the recall. So this is something that is voluntary. Well 189 00:17:31,451 --> 00:17:36,200 voluntary actually means, it's voluntary for both sides. Volkswagen voluntarily 190 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:41,410 fixes the car and you voluntarily agree to have the car fixed. If you don't want to 191 00:17:41,410 --> 00:17:46,240 have that voluntary agreement, you can sue. And we can't do this as a class 192 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:51,411 action suit. You can't do this like in the States so it's done once and for all. It 193 00:17:51,411 --> 00:17:54,880 has to be going through the regional courts and everywhere, but the pattern we 194 00:17:54,880 --> 00:18:01,640 are seeing as Volkswagen is afraid of getting actually judges to trial this and 195 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:06,820 actually get fines and have to buy back the cars, so they settle quite generously 196 00:18:06,820 --> 00:18:12,040 outside of court. The downside is, when people settle, they need to subscribe to a 197 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,920 non disclosure agreement, to keep everything silent, and they put really 198 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:21,670 hefty sums on this, so there's like five figure Euro sums that people have to pay. 199 00:18:21,670 --> 00:18:26,930 So they kind of get their car bought back for, you know, a few thousand Dollars or 200 00:18:26,930 --> 00:18:31,670 Euros on top and then, if they were talking about it, they would be having to 201 00:18:31,670 --> 00:18:38,100 pay hefty fines to Volkswagen. So that's the way they keep people quiet. Another 202 00:18:38,100 --> 00:18:44,660 way, which is quite interesting, is a court case which is running at the 203 00:18:44,660 --> 00:18:52,420 Landgericht Paderborn actually asked Mr. Winterkorn to come around and testify. And 204 00:18:52,420 --> 00:18:57,040 he's a witness, so, you know, courts can ask witnesses to show up. But Mr. 205 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:02,620 Winterkorn actually said: “No, sorry, sorry. I would like to have my right to 206 00:19:02,620 --> 00:19:10,860 remain silent on it.” Remaining silent is a legal privilege against self 207 00:19:10,860 --> 00:19:17,160 incrimination. So you cannot be forced to say something in court which will be later 208 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:22,430 causing a problem to yourself. But the issue here is, Volkswagen always said: 209 00:19:22,430 --> 00:19:26,411 “You know, he's not our boss anymore. We continue to pay him and he gets a hefty, 210 00:19:26,411 --> 00:19:31,010 hefty income still for sitting at home and, I don't know, watching TV or watching 211 00:19:31,010 --> 00:19:33,510 this talk.” Hi! 212 00:19:33,510 --> 00:19:34,980 *laughter* 213 00:19:34,980 --> 00:22:31,820 The thing is, if the narrative is true and he didn't know, he can go to court and he 214 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:50,340 can say: “I didn't know”. He may be on oath, so that means, he has to really be 215 00:19:50,340 --> 00:19:54,720 sure that he didn't know, but that's the only thing that could happen. But they're 216 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:59,840 fighting this really hard. So in this case here, that's an invitation for 20th of 217 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:05,400 January. On 20th of January the court will have a hearing only on the fact of Mr. 218 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:10,670 Winterkorn having to show up and testify, so the thing is another pattern which 219 00:20:10,670 --> 00:20:15,600 we're seeing here and that pattern is: Volkswagen is trying to delay everything 220 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,650 as much as they can. So in this case they're not saying: “Yeah, we'll bring 221 00:20:19,650 --> 00:20:23,410 him along and, you know, yes, there will be some press, but, you know, we fucked 222 00:20:23,410 --> 00:20:28,520 up, so, you know, that's fair.” They delay everything as much as they can. 223 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:34,250 We think, the legal issue behind this is, they granted an extension on the deadlines 224 00:20:34,250 --> 00:20:41,340 for cases to be brought against them until 31st of December next year. So we think, 225 00:20:41,340 --> 00:20:45,350 they kind of reconsidered and are now trying to drag everything out beyond that 226 00:20:45,350 --> 00:20:49,860 deadline. Because legally, because there's no class action suits here in Germany, 227 00:20:49,860 --> 00:20:55,160 that means the right to sue has voided because of the time when people bought the 228 00:20:55,160 --> 00:21:00,660 cars and, you know, there's warranties of two years and that's it. So that's kind 229 00:21:00,660 --> 00:21:04,680 of, you know, what's probably happening and that's probably the tactics, which is 230 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:11,710 behind that. Okay, one thing for the journalists: This is a list from Rogert & 231 00:21:11,710 --> 00:21:16,770 Ulbrich, who are lawyers working on the Volkswagen cases, of all the German court 232 00:21:16,770 --> 00:21:22,240 cases where Volkswagen was forced to buy back, compensate or terminate the leases. 233 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:26,390 So they are happening and the red ones here are Oberlandesgerichte. They're like 234 00:21:26,390 --> 00:21:32,740 higher level courts. But I guess, you, like me, have not really seen much press 235 00:21:32,740 --> 00:21:37,460 reporting on this. And that's one of the issues here. The Volkswagen people are 236 00:21:37,460 --> 00:21:42,350 very good at communicating to the press, doing regular press clippings, have all 237 00:21:42,350 --> 00:21:48,600 the good marketing and advertising running and journalists need to do tedious work. 238 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:53,550 They need to go to those courts and say, like, you know: “Can I please have the 239 00:21:53,550 --> 00:21:57,810 documentation?” And they need to write a piece on that and stuff like that. So, we 240 00:21:57,810 --> 00:22:02,020 really need to get the message over to the journalists that it would be really cool 241 00:22:02,020 --> 00:22:06,780 if they were reporting both sides of the picture, because then actually the people 242 00:22:06,780 --> 00:22:11,450 that read the magazines, that read the Internet and possibly newspapers, if 243 00:22:11,450 --> 00:22:17,050 people still do that, they will actually get a more fair picture, because this 244 00:22:17,050 --> 00:22:20,870 information here is out there. It's available for grabs, if you have all the 245 00:22:20,870 --> 00:22:27,850 Aktenzeichen here, so, please folks, pick it up and write some pieces on this. 246 00:22:27,850 --> 00:22:34,840 *applause* 247 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:42,300 One of the things I predicted in 2015 was accidental data loss, right? Because 248 00:22:42,300 --> 00:22:48,450 always when these big things happen and, in the States the thing is, you actually 249 00:22:48,450 --> 00:22:56,300 get the right to request the other party to produce data for you. So, it's 250 00:22:56,300 --> 00:23:02,400 different from the way it's here in Europe, and that's kind of a very big 251 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:08,670 tool. It's quite logical that it's very hard for the incriminated side to go and 252 00:23:08,670 --> 00:23:13,860 produce all the material that will actually proof that it has betrayed, that 253 00:23:13,860 --> 00:23:18,850 it has committed fraud and so on. So, it was a quite sure bet and here is the 254 00:23:18,850 --> 00:23:23,900 result. We have two incidents here: The one on the top is a gentleman called 255 00:23:23,900 --> 00:23:27,450 Daniel Donovan. He worked as an information manager at the general 256 00:23:27,450 --> 00:23:33,890 counsel's in the legal team of Volkswagen group of America and he said: “I 257 00:23:33,890 --> 00:23:39,090 questioned whether you are actually preserving evidence well.” And this is 258 00:23:39,090 --> 00:23:44,880 why he was fired. And then they settled. So, there is an agreement or a 259 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:51,650 communication here again by Jack Ewing reported, which is word by word the same 260 00:23:51,650 --> 00:23:56,070 between his legal team and the Volkswagen legal team and they agreed on very 261 00:23:56,070 --> 00:24:01,090 amicable terms. And it was settled out of court, so we don't know how much he was 262 00:24:01,090 --> 00:24:06,620 paid. And then there is another lawsuit. I didn't give the name here, because it's 263 00:24:06,620 --> 00:24:10,360 not publicly known. You can find it out if you know how to use Google, but it's not 264 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:15,260 very publicly known. There was a German law advisor at Volkswagen and he requested 265 00:24:15,260 --> 00:24:19,630 his colleagues to delete documents. So he basically wrote an email to his colleagues 266 00:24:19,630 --> 00:24:23,340 and said, like: “You know, we're getting under pressure. Please delete all 267 00:24:23,340 --> 00:24:27,120 incriminating stuff.” That's not a very cool thing to do if you're a company 268 00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:34,130 lawyer. And then we have the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, and they brought 269 00:24:34,130 --> 00:24:38,590 a lawsuit against Volkswagen because, read the first line here, they lost or 270 00:24:38,590 --> 00:24:46,930 accidentally erased 23 mobile phones. I don't know. These things just, you know, 271 00:24:46,930 --> 00:24:54,760 whoop, another one gone. I don't know. The other issue they had is, Volkswagen 272 00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:00,820 brought a witness and they said: “This witness was either unprepared or unable to 273 00:25:00,820 --> 00:25:06,290 provide information because 250 times he said: “I don't know” to all the 274 00:25:06,290 --> 00:25:11,020 questions. And the funny thing is, and here we have another Maha moment of 275 00:25:11,020 --> 00:25:15,520 over-communication, in the reply Volkswagen said: “Oh, he was very well 276 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:20,180 prepared. We spent 20 days with him, just preparing for that deposition.” 277 00:25:20,180 --> 00:25:29,840 *laughter + applause* 278 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:37,850 So it took Volkswagen 20 days to make one engineer say “I don't know” a 279 00:25:37,850 --> 00:25:45,940 sufficient amount of times. Okay, so why do we all have this problem in Europe, right? 280 00:25:45,940 --> 00:25:49,730 It seems to be working in the States somehow. Where does that come from? And 281 00:25:49,730 --> 00:25:54,610 the root cause here is actually copy and paste regulation, or regulation by Stack 282 00:25:54,610 --> 00:26:00,810 Overflow, or however you want to call it. The thing on the upper side is the 283 00:26:00,810 --> 00:26:05,270 American regulation. They define two things. And I'm sorry, you won't be able 284 00:26:05,270 --> 00:26:09,200 to read it all, but the slides are being made public and then you can dig into 285 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:14,050 this. But the basic idea here is, the Americans define Auxiliary Emission 286 00:26:14,050 --> 00:26:21,130 Control Devices, so things that actually modify some physical values which have an 287 00:26:21,130 --> 00:26:27,870 effect on emissions. And then there's a defeat device. A defeat device is an AECD 288 00:26:27,870 --> 00:26:31,480 which reduces the effectiveness of emission control, so it doesn't improve it 289 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:40,220 for example, and in many cases it is not disclosed, so you may have AECDs. You may 290 00:26:40,220 --> 00:26:43,930 even have AECDs that reduce the effectiveness of an emission control 291 00:26:43,930 --> 00:26:47,791 system and those are then called defects. And there's an amount of defects which 292 00:26:47,791 --> 00:26:51,640 you’re allowed to have. And the amount of defects decreases from year to year, so 293 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:56,250 that is a way to steer the automotive industry into compliance. A very clever 294 00:26:56,250 --> 00:27:01,550 system. Now whoever wrote the law for the European Union actually just copied and 295 00:27:01,550 --> 00:27:05,510 pasted, which you can see because you'll find all the same words there, and there's 296 00:27:05,510 --> 00:27:09,790 a second slide coming up and you'll find more of the definition here at the top, 297 00:27:09,790 --> 00:27:15,701 vehicle speed, engine RPM, transmission, manifold vacuum and so on. And, so, they 298 00:27:15,701 --> 00:27:20,080 just copied and pasted and thought like, “We don't need AECDs”, you know, they 299 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:24,590 just say: “A defeat device is an AECD, so, let's ditch the AECD.” It's like, 300 00:27:24,590 --> 00:27:29,270 you know, people that copy and paste or Debian working on the random number 301 00:27:29,270 --> 00:27:33,190 generator. It's like, you know, “I don't understand that code. It doesn't seem to 302 00:27:33,190 --> 00:27:37,130 be used. Let's ditch it.” And so they did “I don't understand AECDs. They 303 00:27:37,130 --> 00:27:40,450 don't really … necessary. Ditch it.” But the problem here is, this is 304 00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:44,570 why Volkswagen can actually say: “We don't have a defeat device.” And the way 305 00:27:44,570 --> 00:27:56,670 they say it is again very lovely. They say: “We have no unlawful defeat device 306 00:27:56,670 --> 00:27:59,370 under European law”, right? 307 00:27:59,370 --> 00:28:01,090 *laughter* 308 00:28:01,090 --> 00:28:05,570 So we have a defeat device, but it's not unlawful and not under European law. And 309 00:28:05,570 --> 00:28:10,140 they clarify this and say: “The efficiency of emissions cleanup systems 310 00:28:10,140 --> 00:28:14,910 will not be reduced in those vehicles, which however would be a prerequisite for 311 00:28:14,910 --> 00:28:21,350 the existence of an unlawful defeat device in the legal sense.” So that's a quote. 312 00:28:21,350 --> 00:28:25,640 So what that actually means is, they found the loophole and the loophole is there 313 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:31,710 because people have been doing bad copy and paste regulation. Okay, now, the other 314 00:28:31,710 --> 00:28:37,160 problem the European Union has, is that it's herding cats and the only tool it has 315 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,880 is this one very long stick, which is the EU Treaty infringement process, 316 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:50,410 Vertragsverletzungsverfahren in German. So, the thing here is, they actually would 317 00:28:50,410 --> 00:28:55,210 want to have proper emissions' regulations, but they can't, because it 318 00:28:55,210 --> 00:29:00,740 needs to be put into local laws and there are 3 countries that didn't put any 319 00:29:00,740 --> 00:29:06,960 sanctioning mechanisms in place over 7 years and there are 4 countries which 320 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:12,360 didn't use those sanctioning mechanisms. One of them is Germany, obviously. 321 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:17,840 Actually the UK will probably evade this because they can just sit it out. Brexit. 322 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:23,450 Okay, so this guy here, he was really really pissed because Fiat didn't show up 323 00:29:23,450 --> 00:29:27,809 when he said: “But you are actually emitting way to much. We caught you in our 324 00:29:27,809 --> 00:29:33,760 lovely report, which we made. So would you please show up and, you know, we'll really 325 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:39,420 tell you off.” And Fiat said: “You know, we're an Italian company. We are 326 00:29:39,420 --> 00:29:44,940 regulated in Italy. We will answer to the Italian people, but we don't really want 327 00:29:44,940 --> 00:29:48,780 to chat with you.” So he was really pissed. He made a press report, that was 328 00:29:48,780 --> 00:29:53,170 from the press report, and said like: “This uncooperative behavior from Fiat 329 00:29:53,170 --> 00:30:00,470 is completely not understandable.” All right? This is from Süddeutsche Zeitung 330 00:30:00,470 --> 00:30:07,610 and it basically says that his people went and took the report, which was already 331 00:30:07,610 --> 00:30:14,929 very amicable. We know the quote „Mit industriefreundlichen Grüßen“, right? 332 00:30:14,929 --> 00:30:20,030 I don't know whether you read newspapers. And they softened it down even more, 333 00:30:20,030 --> 00:30:29,240 right? I was at the IMIS commission of the European Union, which is the investigative 334 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:34,460 committee on Dieselgate and I just called that report a joke and I'll repeat that 335 00:30:34,460 --> 00:30:39,620 here. It's a joke and I wouldn't wan't to have my name on that, so any scientist 336 00:30:39,620 --> 00:30:45,090 that does, sorry, that's more kind of shameful. Perhaps take it out of your CV, 337 00:30:45,090 --> 00:30:50,850 so as to try and hide it. So, the funny thing is, here it is said, also in this 338 00:30:50,850 --> 00:30:55,620 press statement: “It cannot be that a European law is formulated in a way that 339 00:30:55,620 --> 00:31:00,500 manufacturers of underdeveloped engines can hide behind engine protection 340 00:31:00,500 --> 00:31:03,370 reasons.” Audience: Only German ones! 341 00:31:03,370 --> 00:31:08,880 D: Right. So, I'm sorry, this is German. But the car he meant was obviously the 342 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:14,419 Fiat 500X, which was measured in this report, but if you look at this engine 343 00:31:14,419 --> 00:31:18,740 here, which is from his own report, it's the Audi A3, the 3 liter, the one, which 344 00:31:18,740 --> 00:31:25,240 has just been settled in the States, and it is allowed to emit 180 mg, so in the 345 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:30,110 cold and in the warm it does this, but as soon as you go below 10°C, remember, 346 00:31:30,110 --> 00:31:35,600 there was this temperature window, right, it does 663 mg and when you do it on the 347 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:41,190 road and you actually move the steering wheel and it detects that, it does 868 mg. 348 00:31:41,190 --> 00:31:45,650 So underdeveloped engines are made in Germany and actually produced in Hungary, 349 00:31:45,650 --> 00:31:52,690 because that's where the engine comes from. I was in a cold retreat on an island 350 00:31:52,690 --> 00:31:56,320 in the mediterranean sea. I run my own company, so, you know, we can do great 351 00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:00,910 things for our employers and somebody brought this. And I don't read Bild 352 00:32:00,910 --> 00:32:03,809 Zeitung. I have to read Bild Zeitung because they are the only ones who have a 353 00:32:03,809 --> 00:32:08,150 leak and get some information out of Volkswagen and everybody copies them, it's 354 00:32:08,150 --> 00:32:11,980 really weird, right? Bild am Sonntag reports it first and then the Süddeutsche 355 00:32:11,980 --> 00:32:20,260 Zeitung writes an editorial on it. And in here I found a gem and the gem is the 356 00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:25,790 Kraftfahrtbundesamt doesn't actually have people who are able to analyze what Opel 357 00:32:25,790 --> 00:32:32,190 gives them, so they have tasked Felix Domke, the guy who is coming after me, and 358 00:32:32,190 --> 00:32:38,410 asked him to actually verify whether Opel has actually implemented a fix. So, you 359 00:32:38,410 --> 00:32:42,560 know, I'm very happy they support the hacker community, but I don't think that 360 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,850 is a very sustainable business model for authorities, right? 361 00:32:45,850 --> 00:32:47,700 *laughter* 362 00:32:47,700 --> 00:32:54,840 *applause* 363 00:32:54,840 --> 00:33:01,600 Okay, so, second to last point. Braunschweig. Braunschweig. The 364 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:07,740 Braunschweig general attorney's office are the ones that actually should be analyzing 365 00:33:07,740 --> 00:33:14,960 the case of all the Volkswagen senior management. They have now 28 people which 366 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,870 they are investigating against and that includes Mr. Hans Dieter Pötsch, who is 367 00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:25,640 the former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, and the current head of Volkswagen, the Volkswagen 368 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,730 brand, which is Herbert Dress, who came in from BMW. So that's great. That's 369 00:33:29,730 --> 00:33:33,700 great. They're actually doing something. The question is just, what are they doing? 370 00:33:33,700 --> 00:33:38,330 Because we never get any feedback. So, I don't know. I have no clue what 371 00:33:38,330 --> 00:33:41,900 they're doing. You know, I'm in good contact with nearly everybody, but they 372 00:33:41,900 --> 00:33:46,350 actually only rang me once and the only thing they asked was: “Do you have Felix 373 00:33:46,350 --> 00:33:49,220 Domke's phone number?” *laughter* 374 00:33:49,220 --> 00:33:52,930 Perhaps Felix knows more. Perhaps, he's able to tell us more about what they're 375 00:33:52,930 --> 00:33:56,890 doing. The good thing is other people are doing something. That's the court of Mayo, 376 00:33:56,890 --> 00:34:00,960 which is in Ireland, very nice place. You should go and visit it. And they have the 377 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:05,760 same legal mechanism as they have in the States. So they have the capability to 378 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:11,930 order somebody to produce documents to clarify the case, so in this case the 379 00:34:11,930 --> 00:34:18,460 judge, Ms. Devins, has ordered Volkswagen to produce documents. And they hate this. 380 00:34:18,460 --> 00:34:24,210 They were furious. So what happened, is, the next time they had a meeting, which 381 00:34:24,210 --> 00:34:29,668 was in September of this year, the legal representative told the court that this is 382 00:34:29,668 --> 00:34:36,279 completely inappropriate and unfair. “I did not bring anyone except for myself 383 00:34:36,279 --> 00:34:40,480 because we think you do not have jurisdiction in the case.” Now, it's an 384 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:45,349 Irish lady that has bought a Volkswagen from an Irish dealer, but Volkswagen is 385 00:34:45,349 --> 00:34:51,099 sure they don't have any legal beef in this, right? So, I don't know what they're 386 00:34:51,099 --> 00:34:58,189 thinking. And to actually add, you know, to this, they walked out of the court. So 387 00:34:58,189 --> 00:35:02,999 in protest, the representatives of Volkswagen, their lawyers walked out of 388 00:35:02,999 --> 00:35:09,619 the court. So, the thing is, the judge is a very cool lady and she said, she would 389 00:35:09,619 --> 00:35:17,029 continue “without Hamlet”, referring to the play, and said, the Volkswagen 390 00:35:17,029 --> 00:35:25,879 legal team had a spectacular walk-out. That has not happened to a court before. 391 00:35:25,879 --> 00:35:30,249 And the other thing is, so the Irish people are trying to help the case a bit 392 00:35:30,249 --> 00:35:34,739 and the States' people are trying the same. They have a gentleman called 393 00:35:34,739 --> 00:35:40,619 Mr. Liang who has worked long time for Volkswagen. First in Germany and then in 394 00:35:40,619 --> 00:35:45,679 the States. And he is now basically the principal witness. They made a deal with 395 00:35:45,679 --> 00:35:51,930 him and said, you know, “We will limit the cost you will have or the time even in 396 00:35:51,930 --> 00:35:57,779 jail that you have to do if you cooperate with us”. And the thing boxed here in 397 00:35:57,779 --> 00:36:01,690 red is: “Defendant shall cooperate fully with the government, and any other law 398 00:36:01,690 --> 00:36:05,549 enforcement agency, including but not limited to the Staatsanwaltschaft 399 00:36:05,549 --> 00:36:08,369 Braunschweig in Germany”, right? 400 00:36:08,369 --> 00:36:11,579 *applause* 401 00:36:11,579 --> 00:36:17,329 So, the Americans are actually bringing the witness to Braunschweig and I have not 402 00:36:17,329 --> 00:36:21,650 heard whether they even had a chat with him. At least there's nothing publicly 403 00:36:21,650 --> 00:36:30,970 known. All right. Bonus round for the last 5 minutes. Somebody on reddit actually 404 00:36:30,970 --> 00:36:38,029 managed to get his car bought back. Cool. Super. He received $21,000 for it. The 405 00:36:38,029 --> 00:36:42,999 thing is, the buyback terms say, it is okay if your car has damages... 406 00:36:42,999 --> 00:36:45,090 *laughter* 407 00:36:45,090 --> 00:36:49,880 ... because they actually want to make sure that somebody who has, you know, a 408 00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:53,749 scratch or so, it doesn't get so complicated, right? So the buyback process 409 00:36:53,749 --> 00:36:57,710 actually just goes on, like, what car is it, what did it cost initially and what 410 00:36:57,710 --> 00:37:01,979 is the milage, and, you know, we know about the milage now. So, this car 411 00:37:01,979 --> 00:37:06,199 apparently had some damage and the guy thought: “You know, it's damaged anyway. 412 00:37:06,199 --> 00:37:08,409 All the front parts... 413 00:37:08,409 --> 00:37:10,349 *laughter* 414 00:37:10,349 --> 00:37:16,789 *applause* 415 00:37:16,789 --> 00:37:20,940 All the front parts would be pretty good use for my friend who has a Volkswagen and 416 00:37:20,940 --> 00:37:25,279 wants to keep it. So, you know, I just removed them.” Now the interesting thing 417 00:37:25,279 --> 00:37:34,080 is, we have a company here, which has betrayed millions of its customers, more 418 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:39,070 than half a million in the States and … Oops, there's a slide missing. That's not 419 00:37:39,070 --> 00:37:45,619 good. Sorry. I hope this wasn't deleted by our friends who set up the video, which 420 00:37:45,619 --> 00:37:52,880 was a difficult thing at the beginning. Ohh no, it's deleted. That's not very 421 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:56,800 nice. Ohh, it's moved there. Okay, let's use this one. It actually shouldn't be 422 00:37:56,800 --> 00:38:08,890 there. It's the second to last slide. Yay. So this is from a meeting of this 423 00:38:08,890 --> 00:38:14,480 settlement class. I'm reading it. 424 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:16,670 *laughter* 425 00:38:16,670 --> 00:38:26,360 *applause* 426 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:31,880 “At least one owner went so far as to strip the car of almost every removable 427 00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:34,780 part, including seats, doors, a radio, and even the air bag.” 428 00:38:34,780 --> 00:38:36,489 *laughter* 429 00:38:36,489 --> 00:38:41,960 Now remember. That company has actually betrayed half a million people in the 430 00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:47,220 States, a few million worldwide. They've made people pay way more for a car which 431 00:38:47,220 --> 00:38:52,829 is dirty, because they believed it was clean, and now there's five people who 432 00:38:52,829 --> 00:39:01,400 stripped parts of their cars and they complain to the judge. Okay, that's it. 433 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:08,619 *applause* 434 00:39:08,619 --> 00:39:16,519 Takeaway points. I just wanted… The takeaway points here: Everybody's 435 00:39:16,519 --> 00:39:20,089 cheating. I only did one slide, but please don't forget this, right? There 436 00:39:20,089 --> 00:39:26,210 will be much more coming out from others. Volkswagen promises, but their actions 437 00:39:26,210 --> 00:39:30,780 are completely different, so please look beyond the spin doctoring. Don't buy 438 00:39:30,780 --> 00:39:34,119 the Volkswagen narrative. And the other thing is, we don't have a functional 439 00:39:34,119 --> 00:39:38,079 regulation in the EU. I hope, Julia Reda and the others are able to fix it, but 440 00:39:38,079 --> 00:39:41,220 this will be a really tough task. Okay. Thank you very much. 441 00:39:41,220 --> 00:39:45,270 *applause* 442 00:39:45,340 --> 00:40:08,680 *postroll music*