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.

Comments

no end to the cheating

[supernova87a]

This just keeps on getting better and better. VW Group have simply not owned up to the depth of their cheating and been forthright with their cooperation.

Our regulators should slap increasing penalties on each successive cheat they find, to penalize for the hiding of evidence over and above the violation itself.

Re:no end to the cheating

[jrumney]

It won't matter soon, because President Trump told us he will get rid of pesky regulatory bodies like the EPA.

Re:no end to the cheating

[msauve]

Not quite. It blows more air into the exhaust pre-catalyst. The engine also runs a bit rich deliberately. Both happen for a short time after a cold start, and the net effect is to put fuel and oxygen into the catalytic converter, which heats it up and gets it working faster, which reduces emissions.

It does not, as you say, merely dilute emissions.

Re:no end to the cheating

[eth1]

This just keeps on getting better and better. VW Group have simply not owned up to the depth of their cheating and been forthright with their cooperation.

Our regulators should slap increasing penalties on each successive cheat they find, to penalize for the hiding of evidence over and above the violation itself.

I'm not sure this is nearly as bad as you make it sound. I have an Audi S5, and it has several shift programs you can choose. One is "Auto," where it looks at your driving style, and adjusts shift points and throttle response accordingly. If you're driving gently, it goes towards comfort/eco mode, which uses less fuel. If you drive aggressively, it goes toward sports mode, which keeps revs higher and uses more fuel. So, no shit, if you use that mode (which I think might be the default), and the test is gentle (or explicitly put it in Comfort mode), it's going to be more efficient, no funny business involved.

I couldn't find anywhere in TFAs that said Audi was intentionally looking for test conditions and modifying the program, only that the shift program was adapting to test conditions. This might just be a case of automotive tech outpacing the testing methods.

re transmission

[freddieb]

This is BS. There are so many variables in emission testing that almost anything will affect the results. I's sure altitude, humidity, gas octane, maybe even oil could affect things to name a few. Give it up!!

teaching to the test

[srw]

The only question I want answered is "did it pass the test as written by the government?". If yes, what's the problem. If you don't like the results, fix the test.

Re:teaching to the test

[Brett Buck]

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.

Re:teaching to the test

[Anonymous Coward]

The specific EPA load cycle is what is in the test, there IS NO SPECIFICATION for what it does on the road, period.

There is a specification that you not intentionally do something different during the test though.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/40/86.1809-10
"The manufacturer must show to the satisfaction of the Administrator that the vehicle design does not incorporate strategies that unnecessarily reduce emission control effectiveness exhibited during the Federal Test Procedure or Supplemental Federal Test Procedure (FTP or SFTP) when the vehicle is operated under conditions that may reasonably be expected to be encountered in normal operation and use."

It doesn't count as passing if you cheat.

Re:teaching to the test

[thegarbz]

The problem with that approach is that it's like bringing the person who wrote the test into the room to help you answer questions. You can rewrite the test 100s of times, the result will be the same if the device under test cheats.

Re:teaching to the test

[MadKeithV]

And it also prohibits the use of "defeat devices" that reduce emission control effectiveness during normal operation and use: "(f) Defeat devices. You may not equip your locomotives with a defeat device. A defeat device is an auxiliary emission control device (AECD) that reduces the effectiveness of emission controls under conditions that the locomotive may reasonably be expected to encounter during normal operation and use."

Re:teaching to the test

[AmiMoJo]

Actually, the law quite specifically says "no defeat devices" in the EU, and I'd be amazed if the US law didn't have a similar clause that you aren't allow to run the car in a special low emission mode designed purely to game the test.

Or maybe VW's lawyers are so incompetent they didn't think of that and cost it billions of dollars.