Report says that some Audis may have had another emissions cheat device [Breaking News]

2014 audi q7 tdi

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that U.S. regulators found an emissions cheat device in Audi diesel and gasoline engines that would change emissions based on whether the vehicle was being tested in a lab.

The report, which didn’t cite any sources, said that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) found the cheat software last summer in an Audi equipped with an automatic transmission.

The Bild report said that the software, which is on cars with automatic transmissions, changes the shift program so that it produces less carbon dioxide than if the car was driven normally. It does this by checking whether or not the steering wheel is turned. If the wheel stays straight, the software assumes it’s being tested in a laboratory. If the wheel moves more than 15 degrees, the program shuts off and returns to normal operations.

The report said that Audi stopped using the software in May 2016 and that engineers were suspended in connection with the software.

If this is true, it’s another step back for Volkswagen as it tries to cope with the aftermath of its diesel emissions scandal, which will cost the company in the billions of dollars. Volkswagen has already reached a settlement on the matter in the U.S. and is looking to move past the scandal by changing its focus to electric vehicles over diesels.

Reuters broke the Bild am Sonntag report earlier today. The German paper also said that Audi and CARB declined to comment on the report.

Stay tuned to TFLcar for more updates as this story unfolds.

Check out this TFLcar video of a Volkswagen Jetta TDI affected by the cheat software hitting the dyno: