The need for testing is the problem, and the realisation that car makers - all of them - are working on the test score over everything else, and that the test scores (which should represent emissions and air quality) have been getting "better" to the extent that that they are increasingly diverging from the real world.
I suspect that in a few decades time this will be regarded as a heavy blow to the internal combustion engine - or at least against Diesel. It is an inflection point at which a scandal pushes into public conciousness and mass media the mounting evidence against Diesel engines and the health effects of smog, and the insufficient actual progress fixing it. Meanwhile electric cars are gaining fast.
The politicians are in "something must be done" mode, which is the usual reaction to a problem that has been ignored for a while and now is in the news.
I suspect that in a few decades time this will be regarded as a heavy blow to the internal combustion engine - or at least against Diesel. It is an inflection point at which a scandal pushes into public conciousness and mass media the mounting evidence against Diesel engines and the health effects of smog, and the insufficient actual progress fixing it. Meanwhile electric cars are gaining fast.
The politicians are in "something must be done" mode, which is the usual reaction to a problem that has been ignored for a while and now is in the news.
e.g.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/france-consider-phasing-diesel-tax...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/03/uk-volkswagen-emiss...
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/01/uk-governmen...