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VW Admits Audi Automatic Transmission Software Can Change Test Behavior (cnet.com)
In response to a report via Bild am Sonntag last week, which found a new type of defeat device hidden inside an Audi automatic transmission, Volkswagen finally came around to admitting the findings. "Adaptive shift programs can lead to incorrect and non-reproducible results" in emissions tests, VW told Reuters on Sunday. CNET reports: Software in the AL 551 automatic transmission may detect testing conditions and shift in a way that minimizes emissions, only to act "normally" out on the road. Much like Dieselgate's defeat device, that leads to higher-than-imagined pollution, which could be in excess of legal limits. Audi's AL 551 can be found in both gas and diesel vehicles, including the A6, A8 and Q5. Volkswagen isn't going full mea culpa here, though. The automaker also told Reuters that its adaptive transmission software is meant to change shift points in order to improve on-road performance. Many automatic transmissions these days learn from driver input and tailor shifting to match a driver's style, which leads to a smoother drive. VW Group did not immediately return a request for comment.
That's a very good point. The issue with all of these "shocking discoveries" is that they in fact PASSED the various prescribed tests. There is nothing in the law that says it has to perform the same in actual driving rather than the EPA load cycle. The specific EPA load cycle is what is in the test, there IS NO SPECIFICATION for what it does on the road, period.
Note that everybody with any concept of the way diesels work know that the various performance/emissions "breakthroughs" touted (now, apparently, falsely) by the European car makers were false. This was demonstrated by the back of "clean diesels" turning black in short order on US roads, and most of the cities of Europe turning gray from accumulated diesel soot.
They are more-or-less scuzzy, but they haven't broken the law.