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As I've cycled around Cambridge, UK for the last 17 years, I've noticed now diesel cars that seemed OK when new (ie no noticeable soot or smell from the exhaust
by abainbridge 10y ago
As I've cycled around Cambridge, UK for the last 17 years, I've noticed now diesel cars that seemed OK when new (ie no noticeable soot or smell from the exhaust) become problematic about half way through their life - presumably due to wear or poor maintenance.
Are there any studies of emissions from vehicles in the second half of their useful life? Let's say the average car in the UK will have done about 120,000 miles by the time is it scrapped. I want to know what typical cars are like in the 60 to 120 thousand mile range of their life. I guess this is the dominant source of pollution on UK roads. If so, there'd be a case for more thorough testing of emissions in the MOT.
- rogerbinns 10y agoHere in California I find the emissions testing bizarre. Instead of actually measuring the emissions, they just plug a computer into the OBD port and use whatever the car itself reports!
- DiabloD3 10y agoWhich circles back to where VW Dieselgate was a fucking disaster and a lot of people at a lot of levels of government on multiple continents are just as at fault as VW is. First rule of computer security: do not trust humans. First rule of not trusting humans: computers lie when ordered to by computers, and cannot be trusted, and results should be checked as often and as completely as possible.
- woobar 10y agoThis could be more reliable than measuring emissions at the tailpipe. In my state vehicle registration is not renewed until the car computer sends a report to the centralized DMV database. Before that, cheating the emission test was much more easier, because the test was not linked to a particular car.