[HN Gopher] Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: ...
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Volkswagen will not change name of U.S. operations: sources
Author : 43920
Score : 89 points
Date : 2021-03-30 20:23 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| chairmanwow1 wrote:
| I thought the new name was funny. Apparently I'm in the minority
| because of the incredible amounts of vitriol present ITT.
| adrianb wrote:
| If anything, this is an amazing insight onto how the media will
| report anything from a press release without a minimum of
| investigation. The name change was essentially breaking news
| everywhere.
|
| - they're changing the almost 100 years old name with... a pun on
| that name? Even a teenager would see it as a joke.
|
| - the announcement comes out 2 days before April 1st and is
| deleted from the website shortly after publishing?
|
| - the media packages it as an amazing "leak" and spins it into VW
| attempting to distance themselves from the diesel scandal?!
|
| I'm worried if we trust a press that can be so easily and
| obviously misled.
| justaguy88 wrote:
| I certainly didn't think it was a joke, it's seemed a perfectly
| reasonable thing to do
|
| * They got in trouble for diesel
|
| * They're pivoting to electric
|
| * The name sounds really similar, within the bounds of accent
| changes between cultures
|
| * The logo (VW) wouldn't have to change
|
| If it was a joke, then it failed because it was too realistic
| r00fus wrote:
| http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
| medicineman wrote:
| >I'm worried if we trust a press that can be so easily and
| obviously misled.
|
| I'm embracing the fact tat you only came to this conclusion now
| when it is already too late. Press is dunzo.
| asimjalis wrote:
| Volts going on here?
| Ericson2314 wrote:
| Lying as a stunt? That poor untrusted news media repeating the
| duplicitous press release...
| geuis wrote:
| Seems like since their 4/1 joke got leaked yesterday, they're
| trying to lean into it. And rather being received as a punchline
| that missed the timing, news outlets are discrediting it and
| generally the intended audience is going more negative.
| tedunangst wrote:
| Seems like my decision to wait until tomorrow to formulate a
| strong opinion on the name change will pay off.
| [deleted]
| beefman wrote:
| Now I'm not sure what to call their nonexistent electric cars!
| breitling wrote:
| They really are learning from Elon
| zeckalpha wrote:
| Surprised this thread hasn't Godwin's lawed yet...
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkisch_movement
| SahAssar wrote:
| So https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html says voltswagen and
| https://www.vw.com/en/models/atlas.html says volkswagen. Seems
| like it might stay around as a marketing name for the electrics.
| rburhum wrote:
| This "marketing stunt" raised their stock price by 8.95% today
| because people ran to buy stock since it signaled a changed in
| strategy. It is not "market manipulation", but I hope somebody
| gets slapped in the wrist for this.
| jonplackett wrote:
| This does not do much to restore my trust in VW
| Sudophysics wrote:
| Can't wait for cryptogate when we find out that all cars are
| mining Voltcoin/Bitcoin and depositing back into VWs bank
| accounts as a type of carbon payback loop "well, unless you can
| prove your energy is 100% renewable we're going to assume your
| city is powered by natural gas/coal" while 100% profiting from
| it e.g..
| buu700 wrote:
| That's an interesting idea. I could see car companies
| offering discounts for ad- and/or cryptomining-supported
| models (similar to Amazon's model with Kindle hardware).
| abledon wrote:
| I don't like the name but it begs the question...
|
| Is April fools the 'marketing dept' version of 'Staging' in a
| CI/CD pipeline? (or maybe blue/green deployment is better analogy
| !)
|
| Like, if the tests fail (the public is enraged at your tweak ex.
| 'volt'swagen) , rollback the change under the guise of 'April
| fools'
| adrianb wrote:
| Obituaries are prematurely published all the time. I'm
| surprised April's Fools aren't published early more often.
| ggregoire wrote:
| I wonder if it was really just a joke or if they backpedaled
| because the public thought the name was ridiculous.
|
| In both cases, what a weird episode.
| jumelles wrote:
| No press is bad press.
| nostromo wrote:
| Pretty sure they'd rather have not had all that press about
| their emissions scandal.
| _trampeltier wrote:
| Maybe it should have been an joke for april 1st.
| runnr_az wrote:
| I keep seeing this being described as a "lie" when it's really
| just an April Fools joke. I mean, I get that it's not super
| funny, but man... when did we get so grumpy?
| live4everjones wrote:
| Sometime around March 2020
| mikestew wrote:
| You want grumpy? Gonna be some real grumpy if companies start
| treating April 1st like Christmas:
|
| "Oh, lighten up, it's an April Fools joke."
|
| "It's fucking January."
| [deleted]
| colpabar wrote:
| There was this one time where VW got caught lying about
| emissions to regulatory agencies on a massive scale. Given
| that, I find this "joke" to be in bad taste. It'd be like if
| facebook's april fool's joke was that they weren't going to
| collect non-facebook users data anymore. Hahaha, what a silly
| prank that would be!
| throwaway94792 wrote:
| It's the 30th of March
| [deleted]
| ls612 wrote:
| It's the wrong day for April Fools, even in Europe
| Black101 wrote:
| Maybe they can get the true fools on this day
| samuell wrote:
| Someone must have pressed the wrong button ... or the right
| button too early ...
| PurpleFoxy wrote:
| Or it was all a marketing stunt.
| mypalmike wrote:
| And here I thought it was some difference between metric months
| and imperial months.
| berkut wrote:
| Even in NZ! Still a day to go.
| ldbooth wrote:
| That's a lame self serving joke, it's more like they are trolling
| the internet and news addicted.
| mkl95 wrote:
| Easily the best example ever of why you should add /s at the end
| when you are talking to an American audience.
| gyutrfhjj wrote:
| They registered the Voltswagen Twitter in 2019. Looks legit. And
| the Volts name is pretty brilliant.
|
| https://twitter.com/Voltswagen
| cryptoz wrote:
| If those 3 sources are to be believed, is this potentially an
| illegal action? Can a corporation lie to gain media attention? Is
| it assumed the market would 'resolve' this kind of thing by not
| trusting the company any more, or is it codified into law that
| corporations cannot lie for media coverage?
| sn_master wrote:
| So it was another Pasta Hut moment?
| cmckn wrote:
| Long live IHOB.
| meiraleal wrote:
| German humour. But I bet it will be the name of a subsidiary.
| softwaredoug wrote:
| It is quite interesting from a branding perspective how hard it
| may be for traditional car companies to convince you to buy their
| electric car. Is a company like VW really investing, in the long
| run, in electric cars in the way Tesla is? Should I _really_
| trust their one-off electric car they build to dip their toe in?
|
| You wonder what it WOULD take for VW, Chevy, Ford, Toyota etc to
| convince you their product and commitment was on par with Tesla
| tyingq wrote:
| I do see what you mean from a focus standpoint, but I do feel
| like the traditional carmakers will likely always do better at
| quality, safety, and longevity for traditional stuff. Panel
| gaps, paint, proper automotive grade components, and so on.
| anyfoo wrote:
| Me too, cars are just much more than their engines and
| drivetrains.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| They are, and even so, these companies still know far more
| about the engineering principles that go into both.
|
| Tesla certainly has heaps of special knowledge that these
| companies will need to catch up on or innovate themselves,
| but I suspect in the scheme of things, even lower end car
| manufactures are better-rounded across the design/build
| process.
| bradstewart wrote:
| Ford putting the Mustang brand on an EV is a pretty big
| indicator to me.
| softwaredoug wrote:
| Feels a bit like Nokia getting serious about smartphones a
| year after the iPhone has come out.
| kaczordon wrote:
| Nah if anything Ford is more like Microsoft.
| kaczordon wrote:
| This, Ford's new CEO seems like he's putting the company full
| steam ahead on electric. Plus outwardly admires Tesla, he's a
| real car geek.
| mikestew wrote:
| _You wonder what it WOULD take for VW, Chevy, Ford, Toyota etc
| to convince you their product and commitment was on par with
| Tesla_
|
| That they've been making production electric cars longer than
| Tesla, like Nissan has?
|
| (Though my singular Nissan dealer experience kinda put me off
| Nissans for a while.)
| matsemann wrote:
| Volvo's commitment has convinced me, at least. But does it
| matter if the brand is all electric or not? I'd base my
| decision on the specific model.
| jackTheMan wrote:
| I fear the other way, that Elon will jump on the next thing
| before Tesla becomes more than a rounding error.
| UnFleshedOne wrote:
| Toyota actually made a plugin hybrid with a reasonable electric
| only range (68km or so), which is a great way to gradually
| switch people to electric. That seems to be a sweet spot range-
| wise -- to the point that they say to run on gasoline
| occasionally otherwise it can go bad in a year and corrode fuel
| system.
| ReptileMan wrote:
| I think that Skoda CityGo and the VW 1UP second gen are
| probably the best town cars there are (in EU sense).
| dublin wrote:
| Because lying is press releases two days before April 1 is such a
| good look. The most reasonable conclusion now is that no, this
| wasn't a joke, but it fell flat, and so they're pretending it
| was. That might have gone off better had they waited a day or
| two. Anyway, it seems to have worked about as well as their cars,
| which manage to cram the sky-high maintenance and repair costs of
| an Audi or BMW into a car that's _supposed to be_ affordable...
| tgaj wrote:
| How ever could anyone believed in VOLTSWAGEN?
| airhead969 wrote:
| Qwikster.
|
| War of the Worlds.
| Rerarom wrote:
| I thought it plausible since a lot of people pronounce the k as
| a t (I used to when I was a kid) and this would just formalize
| it.
| kgwgk wrote:
| Even more notable is the change in the v. Volt and volk are
| pronounced differently in German (not just in the t/k part).
| jsight wrote:
| Ohm my, Watt is going on here?
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(page generated 2021-03-30 23:00 UTC)