U.S. Regulator Finds Another Cheat Device In Audi Car

A U.S. regulator has found a software used in some Audi vehicles that lowered their carbon dioxide emissions if it detected they were being used under test conditions, a German paper Bild am Sonntag reported.

Reuters says that German weekly newspaper reported without citing any sources that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) discovered the software in an automatic transmission Audi last summer.

The paper however said the device was not the same as the one which triggered last year's diesel emissions scandal at Audi parent Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) who admitted to have installed a software that deactivated pollution controls on more than 11 million diesel vehicles sold worldwide. Audi, the main contributor to VW group profit, has also admitted its 3.0 liter V6 diesel engine was fitted with emissions-control software. 

Bild am Sonntag said the software discovered by CARB, which was installed in vehicles with certain automatic transmissions, detected whether a car's steering wheel was turned. If it was not, indicating laboratory testing conditions, the software turned on a gear-shifting program which produced less carbon dioxide than in normal road driving. If the wheel was turned in any direction by more than 15 degrees, the program was switched off, the paper said.

Audi stopped using the software in May 2016, just before CARB discovered the manipulation in an older model, the paper said, adding that the carmaker had suspended several engineers in connection with the matter.

CARB and Audi declined to comment on Sunday's Bild am Sonntag report.

Source: Reuters/Bild am Sonntag