Volkswagen Defeat Device - ThinkReliability

Cheating on Diesel Emissions Cause Map

Volkswagen admits to use of a 'defeat device'

The automotive industry was recently rocked by Volkswagen's acknowledgement that the company knowingly cheated on emissions testing of several models of 4-cylinder diesel cars starting in 2009. The diesel cars in question include software "defeat devices" that turn on full emissions control only during emission testing. Full emissions control is not activated during normal driving conditions and the cars have been shown to emit as much as 40 times the allowable pollution.

2 Analysis

Effect

Solution: Cause Evidence:

Environmental Goal Impacted

Production/ Schedule Goal

Impacted

Sale of impacted cars halted

Safety Goal Impacted

Public health impacts of increased emissions

Cars' emissions above limits

Cars passed emissions tests

AND

Labor/ Time Goal Impacted

Large recall likely

1 Problem Outline

What

Problem(s)

When

Date Different, unusual, unique

Where

Facility, site Unit, area, equipment

Task being performed

Impact to the Goals

Safety

Environmental

Customer Service

Regulatory

Production/ Schedule Economic Labor/ Time

Volkswagen cars equipped with emissions test "defeat device", Volkswagen cars emitting more pollution than allowed 2009 - present Cars run on diesel Volkswagen manufacturing plants 4-cylinder diesel cars sold by Volkswagen Emissions testing

Public health impacts of increased emissions Cars' emissions above limits Negative publicity for company Large fines likely Possible criminal prosecution Sale of impacted cars halted Large drop in stock price Large recall likely

Customer Service Goal

Impacted

Cars' emissions higher under normal driving

Negative publicity for

company

Regulatory Goal Impacted

Large fines likely

Evidence: Fines could be more than $18 billion dollars.

Regulatory Goal Impacted

Possible criminal prosecution

Economic Goal Impacted

Large drop in stock price

Evidence: Volkswagen's stock price dropped by more than 20% on 9/21/2015.

Cars equipped with "defeat device"

AND

Assumed design won't be found?

AND

Difficult to meet standards?

"This is several steps beyond the violations that we've seen from other auto companies. They appear to have designed a system with the intention to mislead consumers and the government. If that's proven true, it's remarkable and outrageous. It would merit a heck of a lot more than just a recall and a fine. We would see criminal prosecution."

-Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen

Detects when emissions are

performed

Designed to only be used during

testing

"Defeat device" turned on

Evidence: The "defeat device" software appears to have monitored the steering column and wheels to sense when the conditions indicated an emissions test was occurring. When the wheels turned without corresponding steering wheel motion, it signaled the software to turn the catalytic scrubber up to full power.

AND

Turns on during emissions tests

"Defeat device" turned off while

driving

Improved customer experience?

AND

Designed to limit emissions during emissions tests

AND

Cars would not pass emissions

tests without

Improved fuel economy?

AND

Improved driving performance?

Cars' emissions above limits

See same cause

Cars equipped Cwaristhe"qdueifpepaet d

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See same cause

Cause Mapping is a Root Cause Analysis method that captures basic cause-and-effect relationships supported with evidence.

Cause Mapping

Problem Solving ? Incident Investigation ? Root Cause Analysis

Step 1.1

Problem

What's the Problem?

Step 2.2

Analysis

Why did it happen?

Step 3.3 Solutions

What will be done?

For a free copy of our Root Cause Analysis Template in Microsoft Excel, used to create this page, visit our web site.

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