Volkswagen! The big story of 2015

As the year closes, and as we look back over 2015, the biggest automotive story without a doubt is Volkswagen because such a shining brand name showed us that even they are not beyond doing something deliberate and deceptive. I once owned a Scirroco, which was my pride and joy. You might have thought that I built it myself, so proud was I. The company built the Beetle in what was Nazi Germany at the time, and the whole world were crazy for this simple and reliable car.

Germany has worked hard to earn its reputation for fine engineering. Germany is the country that gave the world, among other brands, Mercedes Benz and Audi, and of course Volkswagen.

The good thing about the VW scandal is that the company has admitted that it "screwed up." It is now working to correct the wrong in a very public manner. Many people have chosen to sue the company, probably on the grounds that what they were sold and bought was superior performance and gas-per-kilometre which will be taken away when the fix goes in, which it must otherwise the vehicle will not pass the true emmissions test.

Volkswagen should have declared bankruptcy to simply protect itself, especially from the outcome of so many lawsuits. However, having a scandal is bad enough, the only thing that is worse is the stain of bankruptcy. I think that the company is making a huge bet, based on the fact that they do make such excellent vehicles, that the public will continue to buy their gasoline engines to such an extent that they will be able to survive in the end. It's not that Volkswagen are too big to fail, they are simply too good, so the public will continue to support them. In reality what VW did was not designed to directly harm the client. They provided a vehicle that gave wonderful performance for excellent gas mileage which made the owners happy. The harm they allegedly caused is through the environment, and from that standpoint so many of our products that we love cause harm to the

world around us, either is the production or the use.

Volkswagen is a wonderful company with products that are in demand. The shame and embarrassment that people suffered when the bad news broke by driving around showing the VW badge seems to have abated. VW will fix the problems and it will survive.

Good luck to them!

Copyright (c) 2015

Eugene Carmichael 

Driving over Christmas and the New Year

From the position of travel along the motorways, driving over the coming holidays is about as dangerous a proposition as there is, because it mixes family with alcohol in a moving platform towards almost certain extinction. I wish it were not so, especially as to lose a family member at this time of the year is a pain that can never lessen with time. Every Christmas or New Year's celebrations, while everybody else is having a good time, the subject family has to relive the tragedy all over again.

For all drivers an  especially heavy burden is placed upon our shoulders when driving the family, at a time when everyone else are allowed to drink and eat to excess, we have to remain sober, and to eat lightly so as to stay alert when behind the wheel.

If we can look back at the conclusion of the season and our family remain safe, that is more than enough reward and satisfaction that we did our part in keeping them safe and sound. Irresponsability on our part can lead to harming our own family, and also to bringing harm to others.

As we set out with our families to visit other family members and friends, let us keep uppermost in our minds that we are the driver designate and it is our responsability to get us there and back safely.

I wish readers a Happy and Safe holiday period, and Safe Driving throughout 2016, combined with the very best of good Health!

Eugene Carmichael

Copyright (c) 2015

Moral choices for the Driverless car

Someone brought up certain problems that they thought would come along with the driverless car. Most had to do with matters concering the routing of getting from one place to another. The question that caught my attention has to do with moral, ethical or value driven decisions we make as drivers all the time.

With real quality engineering I accept that the car could be capable of making better choices than a human. That, of course is the very basis of the concept of taking the control from humans.

One of the hard choices that humans make is to avoid swerving around an animal that might lead to a head-on crash with an oncoming car occupied with a family. Would the driverless car (the d.r) simply recognize the animal as a living creature but the other car as something inanimate, thereby ignoring its cargo?

Could the d.r. recognize the lesser of two evils if it was presented with such a choice. It might indeed be better to run over one person than a group. How would it know the difference? Could it decide to run into the old man, who is at the end of his life,  rather than to run into the child whose life is in its ascendency.

I have never had to make any of the decisions outlined above, but I have had many decisions to make that have avoided accidents. These are decisions that come from anticipation. One of the most outstanding that I have never forgotten was the time when I drove up from behind a mother and her daughter. We were in a one way street. The mother was peddling her bike on ahead of her very young daughter. She had crossed the road from left side to right side and was completely ignoring her daughter. My decision was to hang back until the daughter followed suit. Sure enough, the daughter made her move without looking to see if it were safe, at about the time I would have been overtaking her. A calamity was avoided because of my decision to be cautious.

With so many cyclists using our roads we humans need a lot of help in making better decisions for overtaking whole groups of bikers.

The d.r. will automatically eliminate a lot of stupid, but deadly human errors, but others may be created. Only time, and a lot of thought will tell.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael