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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Joker@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world

According to records filed in the case, Achtemeier conspired with mechanics in garages and operators of truck fleets to disable the anti-pollution software installed on diesel trucks.

Coconspirators who wanted to disable their trucks’ pollution control hardware system—a process commonly known as “deleting”—sought Achtemeier’s help to trick the truck’s software into believing the emissions control systems were still functional, a process known as “tuning.”

Monitoring software on a deleted truck will detect that the pollution control hardware is not functioning and will prevent the truck from running. Achtemeier disabled the monitoring software on his client’s trucks by connecting to laptops he had provided to various coconspirators. Some of the coconspirators would pass the laptop on to others seeking to have the anti-pollution software disabled on their trucks. Once the laptop was hooked up to the truck’s onboard computer, Achtemeier could access it from his computer and tune the software designed to slow the truck if the pollution control device was missing or malfunctioning. Achtemeier could “tune” trucks remotely, which enabled him to maximize his environmental impact and personal profit.

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[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 94 points 1 week ago

Sounds like an awful lot of work for... some reason.

[-] clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago

Money. It’s always money.

From the article:

Achtemeier charged as much at $4,500 per truck for work that often took him two hours or less. Achtemeier advertised his services on social media nationwide, doing business as Voided Warranty Tuning (VWT) or Optimized Ag. Between 2019 and 2022 his company took in more than $4.3 million in gross profits.

[-] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

When you run out of DEF or the DPF is clogged, you can't run your truck for more than a brief while. You get half output in a limp-mode to go refill your DEF or have the DPF serviced. DEF is the reactant for the exhaust that makes diesel burn cleaner, but means modern trucks have 2 tanks now. Users hate it, but it cuts emissions massively. Also adds a few grand to the vehicle exhaust system in hardware and sensors and control units. Anyways:

Time = money.

For a commercial or even semi private vehicle if you bypass even one indicent of downtime by doing this is paid for itself.

That said, the DPF is a filter, and can physically clog and cause an exhaust fire if there is no monitoring software. I hope at least this guy had it wait till it was almost critical and then stop, not entirely disable the stop signal. Otherwise there is a serious risk to the vehicle and passengers.

[-] Free_Opinions@feddit.uk 10 points 6 days ago

These systems often cause issues and it may be quite expensive to repair but if you bypass it, it doesn't affect the performance of the vehicle.

[-] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

Removing the pollution control equipment and disabling the software results in trucks polluting at 30 to 1,200 times the level of a truck with pollution control systems.

Fuck these people.

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Reduced running costs, ease of maintenance, engine efficiency.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 27 points 1 week ago

Yeah, someone is going to have to explain to me how $4500 worth of emissions control deletion is worth the money.

[-] Cornpop@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

It usually comes with substantially more power, and you don’t have to maintain the def system anymore either.

[-] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Easily. Read my other comment, but this would pay for itself in a single afternoon if you didn't maintain your vehicle and would otherwise get shutdown due to an exhaust failure.

Or if you drive a truck in stop and go traffic, and the filters clogged up early, causing you to delay and let the exhaist system do a cleaning cycle (take 1hr, requires engine running and high throttle.) Etc etc.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

It refunds itself the second you have to replace any of the emission components and if done early you refund it by getting better MPG and not having to spend money on diesel exhaust fluid.

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 33 points 1 week ago

It sounds like it's just spite-modding with no benefits.

[-] Cornpop@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

You will get a very large HP boost and can get better MPG as well. Also don’t have to add def fluid anymore or maintain the def system.

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

According to this dumbass "journalist" and his editor, this is "TuNInG"

There's a much easier and accurate way to write this article.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 15 points 1 week ago

Nah, there's no way long haul truck owners are going to spend money just to be assholes. There's got to be profit in it somehow.

[-] StrawberryPigtails 25 points 6 days ago

The EGR and DPF systems used in diesel trucks cause (or caused, it’s been a while since I last looked it up) a big reduction in fuel mileage. I think it was a 2 or 3 MPG reduction.Doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up when you are running 200,000+ miles a year per truck. With the system running I believe the average fuel mileage for the trucks in our company is around 6 to 8 MPG depending on the route.

Additionally the systems are expensive as all get out to repair and maintain. When the DPF and DEF systems on my truck went out, the truck was down for 3 months waiting on parts, and from what I heard from our mechanic, the final repair bill was around $15,000USD.

That said, the fines for bypassing the emission systems are big enough that it’s really not worth it, but some owner operators don’t realize it as many don’t run their trucks like the businesses they are. They just know this is expensive as hell and they can reduce the cost by bypassing them.

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

It's almost like we should've stuck with electric trains for long haul freight and left OTR hauling for last-mile. Almost like that would've seriously helped the CAA rather than a bunch of half-fixed like this.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

The EGR and DPF systems used in diesel trucks cause (or caused, it’s been a while since I last looked it up) a big reduction in fuel mileage. I think it was a 2 or 3 MPG reduction.Doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up when you are running 200,000+ miles a year per truck. With the system running I believe the average fuel mileage for the trucks in our company is around 6 to 8 MPG depending on the route.

I think it's worth noting that this is an environmental benefit, not only an economic one. In other words, it's not that people defeating the emissions control devices are making their trucks purely worse for the environment for their own selfish benefit; it's that they're making a trade off between increased 'regular' (for lack of a better term) pollutant emissions like NO~x~/SO~x~/particulates, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions (CO~2~).

I'm not saying they're altruistic -- obviously they do it to save money (at least until they get caught and fined) -- but I am saying that we can't just assume it's bad without first doing the math and making a value judgement about what sorts of emissions we care about.

Geeking out about an edge case where not having the fancy emissions controls is better: using biodiesel


There are also more complicated considerations, such as how getting rid of these emissions controls and retuning the engine may also allow it to run on higher percentages of biodiesel. The trade-offs associated with that are not only the fact that the fuel becomes carbon-neutral (net CO~2~ emissions go to zero, at least for the percentage of the fuel that is bio- instead of dino-), but also that biodiesel naturally has zero sulfur in it (which means zero SO~x~) and burns cleaner (fewer particulates) and hotter (more NO~x~) than dino-diesel. On top of that, more NO~x~ could be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on whether you're driving in a NO~x~-limited or VOC-limited regime.

In other words, using 100% biodiesel in an urban environment (VOC-limited) is IMO enough to actually justify preferring not to have the fancy emissions controls for legit environmentalist reasons: the better efficiency in general (as the parent comment mentioned), zero net greenhouse gas emissions, zero SO~x~, irrelevant NO~x~, and all at the cost of only moderate particulates (more than would be emitted from a vehicle with a DPF, but less than would be emitted if the same car were burning dino-diesel).

Of course, none of those benefits occur unless you actually seek out B100 (or at least, significantly higher percentages than the B5 that normal diesel can be blended up to), and that's a motivation much more associated with the hippie types that drive VW TDIs and old Mercs, not truckers.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago

I genuinely would like to know if the increase in CO2 emissions is worth the decrease in NOx emissions, but acid rain is a now problem and climate change isn't.

[-] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago

Climate change is absolutely a now problem, it's affecting far more people right now than acid rain ever has or ever will, it's costing trillions and you're already paying for it in taxes, insurance, and other ways. The fact that people don't understand it or appreciate how significant it is doesn't mean it's not a "now" problem, it just means it's not a problem that's ever going to get fixed because people like you don't and won't ever consider it a "now" problem. Enjoy the challenge of struggling your way through the increasingly impossible economy, it's not going to get better.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

You're preaching to the choir. I referring to the mindsets of the law makers who wrote those laws.

[-] StrawberryPigtails 4 points 6 days ago

Don’t quote me on it, but I believe that the emissions tech is efficient enough that even with the increased fuel consumption there is an overall reduction in emissions across the board. That was my understanding when the tech was first being fazed in back in the mid to late ‘00’s. Whether that was true or just propaganda, don’t know. I just knew that full compliance was required to run in California and a few other states.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If it lowers MPG, it increases CO2 per work done. There's no getting around that.

I always thought that the way auto manufactures went about meeting emissions by adding more parts(that will break and need replacing, $$$) and lowering fuel economy(I wonder who benefits from that?) to be at best, lazy and at worse, suspicious. I recently learned about a Swedish engine manufacture called Scania that's managed to meet emissions without DEF. I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on that company.

For now, I'm just gonna keep making biodiesel for my farm and burning scrap wood for heat. The emissions tech they're piling on to diesels actually precludes running biodiesel in them, so it's not exactly like I'd ever be getting any new. Not like I'd want to buy a one ton piece of spyware anyway.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 6 days ago

My understanding from past reading is that there's a history of diesel trucks pulling off emissions control hardware to increase their MPG somewhat, so they save money on fuel. First ran into it when reading about the practice in Europe, but also happens here in North America.

I don't know whether it's possible to tweak the computer-controlled system to achieve a similar effect, but it'd make sense.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

It's more than just reprogramming, the delete process also includes removing the hardware itself.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Ah, that'd do it then. Thanks.

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Im with you. I'd love to know why.

[-] Pirky@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[-] Nougat@fedia.io 12 points 1 week ago

I'm doing some reading here, too. Seems like the additional maintenance expense caused by the exhaust recirculation can be expensive over the life of the vehicle. This isn't just maintaining/reparing the EGR system, but also maintaining/replacing other engine components that have a shorter lifespan due to the emissions controls. This makes sense to me.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago

It sounds like a pretty poor solution, but then we haven't meaningfully innovated on the internal combustion engine for how many years?

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

For semi-trucks at least, my cousin (who drives a truck) told me it costs him a lot of money to have the DEF systems on his truck and operate them, and it costs him money he would otherwise be making on his deliveries.

I thought he was an idiot, and hes risking his and everybody else's health around him with his attempts to defeat those systems. (Don't think he was ever successful at it)

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

He might be an asshole but he's right that DEF costs money and that emissions systems on diesels are a pain in the ass.

[-] Freefall@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Gas costs money and repairs/maintenance are a pain. It is cost of operation...

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 1 points 6 days ago

Yes and lots of people like to reduce costs...?

this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
396 points (99.7% liked)

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