New information obtained by investigators probing the VW diesel emissions scandal shows that the software used to manipulate emissions wasn’t developed by VW. The original ideas came from the luxury auto subsidiary Audi — and date back to 1999.
But the illegal plan was never implemented at Audi. It wasn’t until years later that the software attracted new interest — in Wolfsburg, home to VW.
In 2005, when VW engineers working on the infamous EA 189 engine failed to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxide below the legal limit, they began installing the manipulation software devised by engineers at Audi. This software recognizes when a vehicle is on the test stand and reduces emissions. VW’s developers even adopted the terms coined by Audi, “acoustic mode” and “acoustic function,” the internal investigators found out.