BMW & Mercedes Fire Executives Who Led Diesel Research on Monkeys
It’s recently come to light that an organization that both BMW and Mercedes fund led diesel research on monkeys. The effort was intended to influence the public perception of diesel fumes being unsafe. Since the VW dieselgate the public in Europe has grown increasingly anti diesel, striking fear in automakers who have invested billions in the power plants and expected them to remain popular for another decade as they transition into electrification.
Perhaps no other scandal around diesel has so quickly affected public opinions online. As BMW and Mercedes pick up the pieces look for a PR offensive of some kind.
<p>What I posted in the diesel section of bimmerfest.com was they should have used the executives to do the testing. Inhumane. What’s wrong with just doing a chemical analysis of the exhaust system. There is enough data on harmful effects of various gases to make a correlation without live subjects as guinea pigs. I’d be more than happy to lend my 328d for them to do testing with the execs.</p>
<p>VW dieselgate is covered in episode 1 of a new Nextflix series called Dirty Money. They cover the monkey “research” at the end showing them being put in plexiglass boxes connected to the exhaust pipes of a Beetle Diesel and an old Ford F250 diesel. The idea was to compare old dirty Diesels to VW “Clean” Diesels. It’s not easy to watch. Disgusting. A complete loss of moral compass.</p>
<p>At least these were “just” monkeys this time… It’s not as if they (Germans) didn’t have a history of this same type of “testing” back in the 1940s – on humanes no less. I am sure, the moral compass was lost back then as well. All in the name of science I suppose. I wonder what the Japanese are up to… There, I said it.</p>