Put any VW fines to work on productive research

Columnist Dick Trail, who writes about his love of aviation on this page today as he does on many Tuesdays, has probably heard of the advice one flight instructor supposedly gave his student about what to do in case of an engine failure at night:

As the powerless plane glides toward the earth, turn on the landing lights. If you don't like what you see, shut them off.

That's sort of the tactic Volkswagen took when it came to meeting emission standards, only worse.

VW didn't just ignore indications that its diesel engines might not meet EPA standards, it installed software to make sure the engines DID meet the standards, but only when their computers knew they were being tested.

The U.S. regulator announced Friday that VW had surreptitiously equipped its diesel vehicles with the deceptive software, which recognizes when the vehicle is being tested on a dynamometer and operates all emissions controls at their maximum, meeting even the toughest California emissions standards.

Once the vehicle is back on the road, however, the vehicle switched back to a different mode, which allowed emissions as much as 40 times higher.

VW might have to recall at least 11 million vehicles worldwide, has set aside more than $7.2 billion to cover the costs of the scandal and will reportedly have to find a new CEO.

Not surprisingly, VW stock tanked with the news, and the company could be fined up to $37,500 for each vehicle not in compliance with emissions regulation.

What VW did was dishonest, and was an unfair way to compete with other companies that complied with government regulations, not to mention being harmful to the environment and human health.

Some Internet commentators even defended the German automaker, saying its actions met the letter of the law, if not the spirit.

But rather than paying massive fines to governments from Korea to Europe to the United States and California, it would be much more productive to require Volkswagen to commit a like amount to research into cleaner vehicles to be shared with the rest of the automotive industry.

Toyota recently made its fuel cell patents free for any company to use, and Tesla made a similar move with some of its electric car patents.

Investing billions of dollars into automotive research would be much more productive than pouring the money into the dark night of some governmental black hole.