Audi Allegedly Developed VW's Emissions Fixing Software Way Back In 1999
It wasn’t until around 2009 that VW started using emissions rigging software in its cars, but according to a report in German newspaper Handelsblatt, the software had already been around for 10 years at that point. Citing company and industry sources, the paper reports that Audi engineers created software which could turn off “certain engine functions” way back in 1999, but the company itself never used it.
Instead, parent firm VW used the software to cheat emissions tests by altering the way its cars ran when under test conditions. In the end, it emerged 11 million cars had been subject to emissions fiddling. VW and Audi have so far declined to comment on Handelsblatt’s report due to the ongoing investigation into the scandal.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi has admitted that it has also dabbled in emissions test rigging, with 625,000 cars affected. The announcement has wiped $1.2 billion off the company’s value.
Source: Handelsblatt Via Reuters
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
It’s that clever. Which then took us 16 years to find out about it.
I guess it wasn’t… emmisionized.
Vorsprung durch cheating
Haha…Volkswagen has been pulling on Audi’s strings since the 60s when they bought them. This doesn’t, rather shouldn’t, alleviate anything off of VW for a dirty move like that.
And do we care? No.
Funny coincidence about these emission-related posts, both of them are posted on 4/20.
Oh well, instead of smoking diesel, I’d rather…http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.27108284.6783/sticker,375x360.u2.png
These car companies are faker than most girls make up
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But the didn’t use it, it was first VW who used it
I do hope the one positive thing to come out of all this is a significant change to the European (and indeed, worldwide) emissions tests, as surely these major manufacturers wouldn’t need to bother spending likely absurd amounts of money to create devices such as these if the tests were more accurate?