This software function is able to recognize when the auto is undergoing an emissions test and activates pollution-control equipment to make it look like nitrogen oxide output is withing acceptable safe limits.
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Volkswagen AG’s diesel-emissions scandal just got bigger.
This engine was developed by Audi and is used in U.S. Audi models A6, A7, A8, Q5, and Q7 from model year 2009 onwards.
The automaker now plans to submit new applications to the EPA and California’s Air Resources Board, as well as implement the fix itself via software in the affected cars.
The German automaker met a late Friday deadline in offering a plan to fix the 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the USA that it acknowledges were outfitted with devices to cheat pollution tests.
VW faces investigations around the world, including from the U.S. Justice Department – and could face up to $18 billion in U.S. fines.
VW and Audi officials responded to those concerns and told EPA and CARB that the issues raised in the In-Use Compliance letter extend to all 3.0 liter diesel engines from model years 2009 through 2016.
“We are operating in uncertain and volatile times and are responding to this”, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said in a statement. Additional VW and Porsche models weren’t available Friday afternoon, but initially the EPA said it also was on the 2014 VW Touareg and 2015 Porsche Cayenne. The devices further violate the air-quality laws of US. Specifically, this is the software for the temperature conditioning of the exhaust-gas cleaning system.
The carmaker said three “auxiliary emission control devices” it had installed were not declared in line with United States approvals. The bad news is that Volkswagen Group still needs a solution for the bulk of their millions of emissions-cheating vehicles.
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He says “we’re driving cautiously over the coming months, but we know where we want to go and we want to ensure that the Volkswagen company comes out of the current situation strengthened”. Stertz said the company wanted to reprogram the software “so that the regulators see it, understand it and approve it and feel comfortable with the way it’s performing”, AP reported.
