Skip to main content

Volkswagen manipulated France sales figures: report

German car maker Volkswagen (VW) reportedly manipulated sales figures in France, as some cars were not registered until months or years after they had supposedly been handed over to customers © Provided by AFP German car maker Volkswagen (VW) reportedly manipulated sales figures in France, as some cars were not registered until months or years after they had supposedly been handed over to customers

German car giant Volkswagen's French subsidiary manipulated sales figures for years to present an unrealistically positive picture to central management, news weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday.

From 2010 onwards, around 800,000 cars from the Volkswagen brand as well as its Audi, Seat, Skoda and commercial vehicles subsidiaries were listed as having been delivered before they were even registered to drive on French roads, an auditors' report seen by the magazine recorded.

Some cars were not registered until months or years after they had been supposedly been handed over to customers.

Since receiving the results of the internal investigation in April, VW chief Matthias Mueller has accepted the resignation of France head Jacques Rivoal -- although the group put his departure down to "differences of opinion" at the time.

A Volkswagen spokeswoman refused to comment on "internal documents" when contacted by AFP.

As the world's most prolific carmaker with some 12 brands, VW is the biggest importer of new privately-owned cars into France, with a 13-percent market share in 2016 or around 260,000 registrations.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

R. Tiglao Exposed LTO Records Showing Aquino Never Bought or Sold a Porsche

Veteran columnist Rigoberto Tiglao exposed the Land Transportation Office (LTO) records of former President Benigno Aquino III showing that he never bought or sold an expensive Porsche car. The LTO records proved that the former President did not sold his Porsche 911 Carrera car which he claimed he bought for P5 million. The controversial Porsche car of the former President made headlines just months into his presidency but he explained that he bought the luxury car with the proceeds he got when he sold his BMW. Because of the furor from such display of opulence, Pres. Aquino claimed to have sold it six months later for exactly the same price. According to Tiglao during that time he asked through his column the LTO to release the car's deed of sale and registration to prove that it was not a gift from a Chinese-Filipino tycoon as rumored by some individuals critical to the President. The only possible way to discover whether the Porsche luxury was indeed sold was through ...
Read more

You can pay at a restaurant by smiling at a camera

© Provided by Engadget As easy as it is to make purchases in the era of tap-to-pay services , it's about to get easier still. Alipay (which handles purchases for Chinese shopping giant Alibaba) has launched what it says is the first payment system that uses facial recognition to complete the sale. If you visit one of KFC's KPRO restaurants in Hangzhou, China, you can pay for your panini or salad by smiling at a camera-equipped kiosk -- you need to verify the purchase on your phone, but you don't have to punch in digits or bring your phone up to an NFC reader. The system (Smile to Pay) is purportedly resistant to spoofing with photos and other tricks. It relies on both depth-sensing cameras and a "likeness detection algorithm" to make sure it's really you. Reportedly, the technology is good enough that it can accurately identify people even when they're disguising themselves through makeup or wigs. You shouldn't have to worry about someone buying ...
Read more

Tesla cloud account hacked to mine cryptocurrency

© Provided by The Hill An unidentified outside hacker infiltrated Tesla's Amazon cloud account and used its systems to quietly mine for cryptocurrencies, a cybersecurity firm announced Tuesday. The hack also potentially exposed the electric car company's data. Researchers for RedLock found that Tesla's credentials on an IT administrative console were not password protected. They made the discovery while trying to track down which organizations had left their Amazon Web Services (AWS) credentials openly exposed on the internet last month. The hackers quietly hijacked the console and began running scripts to generate virtual currency like bitcoin, the latest in a series of "cryptojacking" attacks. The researchers also found the hackers used "sophisticated evasion measures" to go undetected. A spokesperson for Tesla said the company learned about the breach in a company-sanctioned bug bounty program that pays outside hackers to discover vulnerabilitie...
Read more