uReport: VW Knew About Fuel Efficiency Discrepancies A Year Agor

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  Earlier this month, Volkswagen announced that an internal investigation into the carmaker’s use of “defeat devices” to evade emission standards in nearly 11 million vehicles worldwide uncovered a second issue: nearly 800,000 cars included understated levels of carbon monoxide emissions and rule usage. But a new report puts the timing of the finding into question, with some sources claiming executives with the car manufacturer knew of the problem more than a year ago. 

  Reuters, citing German Publication Bild am Sonntag, reports that VW executives were previously made aware that many of its vehicles were less fuel-efficient than marketed.

  Investigators for VW initially said on Nov. 3, that an internal probe meant to clear up the ongoing diesel emissions scandal found that CO2 levels and fuel consumption figures for some models were set too low during the carbon certification process.

  “Based on present knowledge around 800,000 vehicles from the Volkswagen Group could be affected,” the company said in a statement. “An initial estimate puts the economic risks at approximately two billion euros (about $2.19 billion).”

  While VW declined to comment on whether or not the company had knowledge of the overstated fuel efficiency numbers a year ago, Bild am Sonntag reports that former chief executive Martin Winterkorn decided in the spring to pull one model off the market related to the discrepancy.

  That car, not sold in the U.S., was the Polo TDI BlueMotion. Reuters reports that VW said at the time – and reiterated on Sunday – that the car was pulled because of low sales figures.

  “The offering of the Blue Motion TDI Polo was suspended in all markets due to subdued demand,” a VW spokesperson tells Reuters. “We are currently testing all models built from 2012 for differences in CO2 levels from the listed values.”

  In other VW news on Monday, Bloomberg reports the carmaker has submitted fixes for the defeat devices in all three of its diesel motor types in Germany.

  While the plans, if approved, for a fix in Germany will likely cover all 8.5 million vehicles affected in Europe, that doesn’t mean U.S. regulators will give the proposals the go-ahead.

  On Nov. 20, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board – the agencies that first brought the emissions scandal to light – announced that VW had submitted its initial proposal for addressing the issue in its 2.0-liter diesel vehicles.

  It’s unclear for now what the proposed fixes – both in the U.S. and Europe – entail.

  VW knew fuel usage in some cars was too high a year ago: report [Reuters]
  VW Proposes Fixes for All Three Dirty Diesel Motors in Germany [Bloomberg]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uOnline Retail Passes In-Store Shopping For Black Friday Weekendr

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  Going online for your Black Friday sales fix is now just as popular as trudging out to the mall to shop, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation.

  According to the survey results [PDF], more Americans did their shopping online than in stores each day of the holiday weekend.

  This includes Black Friday, the most-hyped in-store shopping day of the year. The survey says that 72.8% of respondents did in-store shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, a hair shy of the 73.1% who shopped online.

  That was by far the narrowest margin between the two shopping methods. Online also beat out bricks-and-mortar on Thanksgiving (39.8% vs. 34%), and on Saturday (49% vs. 45.9%) and Sunday (32.9% vs. 19.1%).

  The huge disparity on Sunday’s numbers seems to indicate that consumers get exhausted with the physical process of shopping — driving, parking, browsing, waiting in line — but they still want to look for good deals while they’re available.

  According to the survey, slightly more than half of the in-store shoppers said they couldn’t pass up the savings. This seems to indicate that price is the key factor in their decision. Meanwhile, only 31.2% said they hit the stores because it’s a tradition. Those people will continue to show up every year, but you can expect online shopping to only grow more popular as the savings-oriented consumers realize they can get most, if not all, the in-store deals from the comfort of their home.

  The NRF survey does give credence to some retailers’ insistence on opening their doors Thanksgiving evening. When breaking down the hourly in-store visits on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the single biggest time for shopping was not Black Friday morning, but 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving — the hour when several major retailers opened for business.

  More than 13% of people who shopped in stores this weekend showed up at that time, significantly more than other popular hours like midnight (4%) and 6 a.m. (5%), or 9 a.m. (7.8%) on Friday.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAmazon Shows Off Latest Prime Air Delivery Drone Prototype In New Videor

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  Two years after Amazon debuted its delivery drone to the masses, the e-commerce giant is back with a new demo video showing the company’s latest prototype for its Prime Air unmanned aerial vehicle.

  Amazon enlisted British broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson — known for his former gig co-hosting TV show Top Gear — to narrate a scene depicting the company’s vision of the delivery future: when your “naughty, naughty” bulldog eats your daughter’s soccer cleat before the big game, Prime Air could come in handy by bringing a replacement set of footwear through the air from a warehouse and setting it down in the family yard. All in 30 minutes or less, Amazon says.

  “In time there will be a whole family of Amazon drones, different designs for different environments,” Clarkson says in the footage, while the drone coasts over a suburban landscape. “This one can fly for 15 miles,” he says. “And it knows what’s happening around it. It uses ‘sense and avoid’ technology to, well, sense and then avoid obstacles on the ground and in the air.”

  Compared to Amazon’s first delivery drone video, released in December 2013, the new version of the aircraft appears to fly higher and seems more stable.

  “Amazon Prime Air is a future service that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones,” Amazon says on its Prime Air site.”Flying under 400 feet and weighing less than 55 pounds, Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated ‘sense and avoid’ technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more.”

  There are a few intentional things in that statement: an early draft of the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules for drones required drones to stay within a user’s line of sight, but with this video, Amazon is perhaps trying to show that the vehicles can be flown safely at farther distances.

  Mentioning the weight of less than 55 pounds is also in response to the FAA, which is currently working on its rules for registering drones that weigh — you guessed it! — less than 55 pounds.

  “Putting Prime Air into service will take some time,” Amazon said. “We will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.”

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uIt’s Cyber Monday, But Don’t Get Fired For Shopping Too Much At Workr

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  So many people do their holiday shopping online that the idea of “Cyber Monday” seems like a relic of an era when online retail was a novelty in search of legitimacy. Still, the name — and the sales — persist, but shopping on the job today could land you in a heap of trouble with the boss.

  The Cleveland Plain Dealer reminds us all that many companies have policies about non-work uses for the computers and smartphones they provide to employees. And with more than 40% of U.S. workers saying they plan to spend at least one hour of work time going online to do their Christmas shopping, some businesses might be getting a bit peeved that these usage policies are being violated.

  The paper points to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, which found that while 13% of employers are willing to look the other way when it comes to holiday shopping during work hours (so long as employees’ work still gets done on time), 32% say they have a no-tolerance policy for online shopping.

  Yet another survey claims that more bosses have fired people for online shopping — up from 8% to 12% in a single year. This matches up with other stats showing increased monitoring of employees’ online browsing. More than a quarter of employers in the survey say they have fired a worker for using the Internet for non-work purposes.

  You’re probably going to shop online at work regardless — and you’re likely reading this on your work time, possibly in violation of company policy — but just be mindful that your boss may be keeping tabs on those who spend the most amount of time doing something other than the jobs they’re being paid to do.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHack Of Toy Maker VTech Exposes Data For Millions Of Parents, Kidsr

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• Let’s kick off the holiday shopping season with news of a data breach that may involve some toys you’ll be wrapping in the coming weeks. Popular children’s electric toy maker VTech has announced that customer information fell into the wrong hands earlier this month. 

  VTech announced Friday that on Nov. 14, an “unauthorized party” accessed customer data housed in its Learning Lodge app store, which allows customers to download apps, games, e-books and other content for VTech products.

  

  While the company assured users that the Learning Lodge does not store credit card information or Social Security numbers, the database does include data like names, e-mail addresses, encrypted passwords, IP addresses, mailing addresses, download histories, and answers to password-retrieval questions.

  “Upon discovering the unauthorized access we immediately conducted a thorough investigation, which involved a comprehensive check of the affected site and implementation of measures to defend against any further attacks,” VTech said in a statement.

  The company didn’t specify how many users may have been affected by the breach, but it currently provides services to people in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Latin America, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

  Motherboard reports that the compromised information may include data for nearly 5 million adults who have purchased VTech products and the first names, genders, and birthdays of more than 200,000 children.

  “The investigation continues as we look at additional ways to strengthen our Learning Lodge database security,” said VTech. “We are committed to protecting our customer information and their privacy, to ensure against any such incidents in the future. Our Privacy Statement can be found on our website here.”

  [via Motherboard]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uBe Thankful That No One At Your Thanksgiving Is Lighting A Cigarette After Every Courser

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• No matter where you celebrate Thanksgiving and what you’re eating, take a moment to be thankful that this suggested tradition from the mind of a marketer never caught on: lighting up a Camel cigarette after every course of your meal. No, not after dinner, after every course.

  This ad is a Consumerist tradition, since it reminds us how terrible the past really was. Even if future generations might judge us for having cups of soda with every course of our holiday meals today.

  It appeared in LIFE magazine on November 23, 1936.

  

  “The best meal I ever ate would be a disappointment if I couldn’t enjoy Camels,” the man in the hat at lower left is quoted saying. He may have some low culinary standards.

  Fortunately, there are fewer Americans than ever smoking cigarettes of all brands between courses on Thanksgiving, and on every other day of the year.

  Happy Thanksgiving, American Consumerists!

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uNutty Nuggets And Panburger Partner: The Best Store-Brand Products You Submittedr

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• At the beginning of this week, we took inspiration from reader Tom’s photo of a margarine tub, and asked our readers to send in your favorite funny store-brand product names. They could be fanciful or funny in their descriptive bluntness: they just had to be funny. You submitted plenty: let’s unload this grocery cart of amusement.

  From Canada, Daniel sent along his favorite store-brand lemon-lime sodas: President’s Choice Spritz Up, and IGA’s Choose Up.

  

  

  Hy-Top’s Panburger Partner is perfect, somehow inventing the perfect name for ground hamburger and pasta in a pan.

  

  Spooki sent along Price Chopper’s Nutty Nuggets, which are store-brand Grape Nuts.

  

  Michael found versions of Chex at Market Basket that are quite descriptive.

  

  

  

  Another submission from up Ty north: this IGA version of Froot Loops is called “Fruity Hoops” in English and “Fruits Rigolos” (Funny Fruits) in French, leaving us to wonder what the French word for “Froot” is.

  

  Another unhealthy cereal choice over at Aldi is Cocoa Peanut Butter Spheres, which is a classic right up there with Crispy Hexagons.

  There’s something about creating generic alternatives for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter that bring out the best and worst in marketers.

  Melissa sent along two, Fareway’s “Could it be Butter?”

  Making your product’s name a question invites people to say “no,” which may not be what they intended. Isn’t the point here to not be butter?

  She also points out Hy-Vee’s version, Best Thing Since Butter, which is a spread that contains some dairy.

  All of the good names must have been trademarked by the time Acme got in the game. Robin sent this picture along:

  

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist