Volkswagen 'Dieselgate' Software Developed At Audi In 1999, Says Report (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader cites a report on Reuters: German carmaker Audi created so-called defeat devices which cut emissions in 1999, years before parent company Volkswagen used them to cheat diesel emissions tests, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday. VW, Europe's largest automaker, admitted in September it had manipulated the engines of around 11 million diesel cars, including its VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat brands. Engineers at Audi developed software capable of turning off certain engine functions in 1999, but it was never used by the VW luxury division, the newspaper said in an advance release of an article due to be published on Wednesday, which cited industry and company sources. Six years later, when VW engineers at the firm's Wolfsburg headquarters were unable to bring nitrogen oxide emissions below legal thresholds, they started to install the software developed by Audi, Handelsblatt said.

Comments

Test mode

[bluefoxlucid]

Looks like they made a software to put the engine into test mode to test a low-emissions operating mode, then later said, "Hey, here's a firmware version that runs lower emissions!" Hilarity ensues when nobody asks what "Test Mode" means and someone just decides the API label must mean it's designed for emissions tests.

Practical impact is still just a bunch of whining. "He chewed gum in class!" and what happened? "He's not allowed to!"

Re:Test mode

[Ol Olsoc]

"Fixing" the problem reduces the fuel economy

I recall how in the eary 70's emmissions standard were going to destroy the automobile with engines getting terrible gas mileage, and no power.

And yet, here I am with a 4 cylinder Jeep that gets around 30 miles per gallon, and has enough ponies to keep up with traffic better than many old school V8's. And it's clean. Which by the way, is a lot better gas milage and power than a similar engine from before that time. Somehow the deadly predictions didn't come true.

then again, what are ya gonna do - there are still people pissed off about them removing lead from gasoline.