If the same pattern proves to have played out at Volkswagen, then the scandal may well have begun with a few lines of engine-tuning software.
The company owns gas stations and fuel storage depots and manufactures its own line of engine oils.
General Motors said today that it would spend about $160 million to build a new line of aluminum engine blocks at an Ohio plant as the company, the world's largest automaker, turns to lighter, more efficient engines.
Measures to reduce radar cross-section include airframe shaping such as planform alignment of edges, fixed-geometry serpentine inlets that prevent line-of-sight of the engine faces from any exterior view, use of radar-absorbent material (RAM), and attention to detail such as hinges and pilot helmets that could provide a radar return.
Audi is displaying a new line of diesel engines that employ what the company said was the "cleanest diesel technology in the world".
But with more manufacturers – even American ones – stepping up to the diesel plate, VW is ratcheting up its game with a new line of diesel engines.
Ford was the first automaker to bring to market a hybrid version of an S.U.V., the Ford Escape, and it is introducing a new line of Ecoboost engines next year that will cut fuel consumption by up to 20percentt.
In order to provide the line of-sight blockage of the engine face for an advanced Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle UCAV), a highly curved serpentine inlet is proposed and experimentally studied.
It requires a bit of new plumbing and a few extra lines of code for the engine's control computer.
This was due to the possibility that one of the fuel lines in the engine compartment may have a rub condition with a fuel vapour hose clip, possibly causing a fuel smell to become evident.
Ironically, most of the march was spent crawling between snaking lines of traffic, around idling engines spewing extra carbon into the atmosphere.
