A German newspaper “Bild am Sonntag” reported on Sunday that the Californian Air Resources Board (CARB) had discovered tampering with the software function in Audi.
The carmaker has since suspended several engineers in connection with the matter, the newspaper reported.
It has been a year since German car manufacturer Volkswagen was hit with near bankruptsy, following the discovery of an illegal software function intentionally programmed for turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing.
The programming caused the vehicle output to meet US standards during regulatory testing but emitted much more pollution than indicated. Investigators found that the cars exceeded the legal limit of nitrogen oxide by a factor of 40.
But diesel cars by Fiat, Suzuki and Renault emitt up to fifteen times the European standard for nitrogen oxide, not to mention Land Rover, Nissan, Opel/Vauxhall, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz for the worst NOx emissions. Yet Volkswagen had to recall almost 500,000 cars in 2015.
Nitrogen oxide can lead to respiratory problems.
The German newspaper said the device, different from the one which triggered last year’s diesel emissions scandal at Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, was also used in Europe’s gasoline and diesel-powered engines.
The illegal software deactivated pollution controls on more than 11 million diesel vehicles sold worldwide, giving rise to a business crisis in the German car industry.
But VW earlier this week, denied that the use of the very nifty software “constituted an unauthorized shutdown device under European law”.
According to “Bild am Sonntag” the recently discovered software was installed on some Audi models with a particular automatic transmission.
A steering wheel not turning indicated laboratory testing conditions in the software set-up after which a gear shifting program producing less carbon dioxide was activated.
By turning the steering wheel more than 15 degrees, however, the “warm-up strategy” deactivated, “Bild am Sonntag” explained.
Audi reportedly stopped using the software in May 2016, just before CARB discovered the manipulation in an older model.
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