As if Volkswagen AG and Audi weren’t already deep in Dieselgate issues…
What’s going on?
The problems of Volkswagen AG and Audi with its diesel passenger cars have recently put the company under close scrutiny after the launch of its emission control software. This ultimately led to the Dieselgate scandal that haunted your car headlines (and top ones) over the past year.
Just as we all thought that the dust was starting to settle with agreements between the governing bodies and Volkswagen and Audi themselves, AutomotiveNews reports that some US CARB regulators allegedly discovered some new cheat software on some Audi models.
Uh oh…again…? What’d they find meow?
According to a recent report, the German branch of Bild am Sonntag claims that the detected software helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions under certain test conditions, affecting the transmission function.
Even worse, it is claimed that the installed software is completely separate from the original problematic emission control software. This means that Audi is responsible not only for one, but also for two methods of checking for carbon dioxide emissions.
So how does the emissions cheating work this second time around?
As mentioned above, Bild am Sonntag says that a special program in the transmission software has changed the way the box works in laboratory tests. For example, the exhaust power of an engine depends on its speed. The faster the engine speed, the more exhaust gas it pumps out. To counter this, the affected Audi will change programs during testing, similar to the original emission control software, which primarily places Volkswagen and Audi in deep waters.
The program will perceive the test procedure, forcing the gearbox to shift to higher gear earlier than usual to maintain low revs, producing less CO2 than under normal driving conditions. But for some reason, if the steering had been turned 15 degrees or more, the software would have won.
It is reported that Audi stopped using special software in May this year. But CARB allegedly found the program in an older Audi model.
-Jack Wilson