abs are only named after $100.00 tickets. you're watching news live from berlin coming up next how car makers already committed one of the biggest economic scandals in germany's history that's on our documentary out e-file in the meantime i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour thanks want to. follow the adventures of the famous naturalist and explorer. truce in the racial politics on the frontline world's 250th birthday we're embarking on a voyage of discovery. expedition voyage on t.w. .

it's january 22nd 2008 at the audi development center an echo it's one for 2 years already technicians have been trying to make a diesel engine run clean this is the day they realize that their plan may fail. at 7 42 pm one of the chief engineers sends a desperate e-mail to his boss. we are not going to manage it without a bit of cheating. on. his own clothes and it's unbelievable that a vehicle which is 18 times over the nitrogen oxide emissions limit is even allowed on the road. hundreds of thousands of disappointed customers and billions of euros worth of damages previously secret documents show that audi manipulated its software more systematically than previously suspected deep dives it is a huge scale. the fraud in the number of people who are involved is pretty shocking

it's. just plain a confidence yes it was a combination of corporate culture greed and arrogance. under the rug rats. up until january 28th body was selling cars with manipulated exhaust software on board. it wasn't a case of now we better come clean it was more a case of no one will ever find out. the public has yet to be informed by the authorities or politicians of the scale of the emissions manipulations or do you remain silent on the matter. given the enormous dimension of the scandal you would expect a company like audit to at least at mit wrongdoing or that the manipulation figure is this is this really is one of the biggest business scandals in german history.

for college from franconia the diesel scandal started only recently. has diesel car was produced in 2016 a year after the emissions scandal broke. back then body assert its customers that vehicles with larger engines in the year 06 emission standard had not been affected he assumed everything was fine with this car. is why as soon as that is all of everything was fine when we bought the car in october 2016 for the princely sum of 58000 euro i thought the diesel scandal was over by that. but a few months ago he got a letter from audi the company was recalling its q 5. boys concert i was surprised

the car needed a software update. in the letter from audi the product recalls sounded quite innocuous there were irregularities in the engine control software. a previously unpublished directive was sent by germany's federal motor transport authority to audi and december of 2017 their instruction that audi recalled the car sounds rather different with the authority demanding that cars like to have this q 5 model. all impermissible defeat devices must be removed. the federal authorities also found 4 different strategies by which audi had manipulated the diesel exhaust system. such directives from the authorities are rarely seen by customers. we showed this want to do a few. what were you expecting. to the usual and you can do so. when the well says i thought they'd just do one software update and that

would be that these are the year people going off but i'm reading here that 4 different points have to be rectified. this is my aslaug and it's like a slap in the face being let along like that but this indeed then in the end the government is forced to intervene. when they can. cheat their customers like that it's fraud in my opinion. it's all. we've obtained several internal recall instructions for diesel cars sold by audi up to january 28th. each one pertains to strategies that audi used to interfere with exhaust emissions. insiders passed on controversial documents to the bio shock one form and hundreds blocked confidential minutes of meetings internal correspondence and secret presentations tens of thousands of pages that shed a completely new light on the audi diesel scandal.

they depict how the manipulations came about and who was involved the role played by the authorities and politics also emerges in a new light. let's go back to the year 2007 the dawning of a new era for audi. audiophiles its new environmentally friendly diesel technology at the detroit motor show hoping to use it to conquer the u.s. market. on a. visit to teach us we are profoundly convinced that this diesel technology one of the most modern available on the market today is a great leap forward for us. to problem diesel engines and large quantities of harmful nitrogen oxides even back in 2007 the usa limits on such emissions were pretty stringent. however the harmful nitrogen oxides

can be rendered harmless with a fluid called at blue a simple chemical mixture of artificial euro and water. the adler chemical mixture was already being used to neutralize diesel emissions from trucks in 2004 they just needed to carry a large extra tank on board. audi opted to use this technology to clean up missions from diesel cars to. they also needed to fit an additional tank to contain the your real mixture. add blue is injected into the hot exhaust fumes and converts toxic nitrogen oxide into harmless substances in a special catalytic converter around 90 percent of the nitrogen oxides are thus rendered harmless back then this was the state of the art.

in the autumn of 2007 audi presented the allegedly cleanest diesel car in the world in germany to announcing the 2008 launch of 2 models with the new emissions technology available not only in the usa but also in europe. however in their labs and workshops developers were struggling with huge problems the new exhaust system needs to use more at blue than expected. an internal report from october 16th 2007 criticizes this. objection your real consumption is too high. in a further document developers warned that the legace jeopardizing the start of production. deadline situation very critical approval at risk only a small series possible. why was there such a panic what was the problem we had to search long and hard to find an independent

emissions expert who was prepared to explain what the audit technicians did next. in the end we traveled to switzerland. to do. at the swiss materials testing institute e.m.p. a we made punny your system up with us he's been researching out blue injections for years his lab test system works like a large. catalytic converter so he can measure exactly how much of the your next has to be injected. precise dosing is crucial for the system to work. and you must adjust the dose of as though an exact relation to the nitrogen oxides being emitted from the end. if an engine is a meeting a lot of nitrogen oxide more add blue has to be injected to neutralize the exhaust fumes. that audi developers demanded the larger rhea tanks require but since they take up

a lot of space a high ranking manager blocked it. in an email he wrote. to be consistently clean in europe we need 30 leaders which currently cannot be stored in any of the vehicles. with an incline and if they had a smaller tank the customer would need to refill it more often which could be a nuisance for them. particularly in the usa your real mixture was supposed to last for 16000 kilometers until the next service was due on the vehicle if the ad was empty the vehicle wouldn't start. the sales team in the usa warned that this would be unacceptable. this would be a disaster for the whole clean diesel strategy in north america.

we mean the correspondent for the new york times in germany jack ewing has been following the emission scam intensively especially the strategies of b.w. and audi on the us market. as so in course i think the v.w. managers were very irritated that the company had become so insignificant in the us and go forward and they were in the same league as mazda or subaru just to name. it was an untenable position for the world's biggest automobile company and does for their tribe barford he crossed the aisle to a new name and developed. a plan to conquer the u.s. market with clean diesel vehicles simply could not be allowed to fail. we have contact with people who are involved at the time staff and those who know the firm they report on the enormous pressure within the company. one of them is prepared to talk to us in an interview we meet him somewhere in germany he does not wish to be recognized.

failure is not an option but if it happens everyone make sure that it wasn't their fault because they know what the personal consequences are. anyone who is under suspicion certainly didn't stay in the company much longer. in early 2008 just a short time until the start of production of the new diesel model the pressure on the developers must have been enormous. then they came up with an idea what if the cars were only clean in the test phase. on january 23rd 2008 a leading developer sent a presentation one possible solution introduced to operating modes. a clean efficiency mode for the test drive. and an economy mode for the open road. in a condom the mode the cars would use less add blue referred to as quantity restriction

in the presentation. then man. if you're almost always in economy mode on the open road then it's highly likely that too much nitrogen oxide is a mid into the atmosphere on down hard london if you have the efficiency mode that only complies with emissions limits during a test it's hardly a great solution. to ensure that the car is only clean when it's being tested the developers interfere with the engine control and manipulate the software. as soon as a vehicle recognizes that a so-called test cycle is running its software switches into efficiency mode sufficient add blue is injected into the catalytic converter and the car is clear. once the car is on the open road the software switches back into the dirty economy mode emitting more pollutants. and.

thus cheating on emissions values. in the test cycle in the industry they call it cycle beating developers express their misgivings in a presentation. of a cycle beating approach highly critical in the us a. cycle beating it does is the christus cycle beating is a term known to everyone in the automobile industry side you don't have to be an engineer to know that it's evidently illegal there's no legal cycle beating very clearly against the law in both europe and the usa when this clearly shows that they knew exactly what they were doing was to see a marked up according to our research it's not the 1st case of manipulation and audi's development of diesel engines among a sheaf of secret papers we come across an unusual document from 2003 a poem written by a software developer. based on go to earl king the developer describes how audi

intends to dupe the authorities with a defeat device. defeat device come hither. i'll play lovely games with you. i have lots of tricks up my sleeve. and the hysteresis loop so no one can see. deepest and shown does they were aware that they were committing a crime good thing that they could go to prison if they were caught. sight feel i think that shows us the risks they were willing to take the code you provide for. the war if it means that the ones who had to do the dirty work were fully aware of the high risk of being found out of. those most. obviously of the fear of being caught wasn't that great

a so-called defeat device described in the poem was put into use from 2003. but she does say in westphalia audi fans regularly meet to show off their dream cars some of which are older diesel models and emissions category your role for. the roar of the engine is unmistakable. this is a stupid this is the classic engine sound from the injection jabs this tacking sound this opening that's what makes it rattle like that. audi developed special software the so-called acoustic function allegedly in an attempt to muffle the sound. but in fact body use the software to rickets emissions tests on the euro for diesel cars from 2003 to 2010. a previously secret memo from the federal motor transport authority is testimony to this.

the authorities certified the acoustics function in july 28th noting that the function. knowledge is being used as an un permitted defeat device. to succeed so alice's of it looks like they came up with the idea of using the software to solve the emissions problem and it all started with audi does. it by september this year there have been no recall of the euro for vehicles we made inquiries in the ministry for transport but we received no reply. we also sent questions to audi regarding the acoustic function the company informed us that they could not comment during current investigation. it's 2008 shortly before the launch of the new diesel technology with ad blue in the usa this is an audi manager advertises the cleanest diesel in the world in the

american media. because. radicals can really become the good. yet he must know that the cars are in no way clean because they conceal how much add blue needs to be consumed on the road. this is shown in a presentation code written by this manager saying current software functionality restricts the use of bad bluetooth what are the legal implications of the statement . we have an appointment here and i'm stuck with a lawyer martin through. he was the expert in the investigation committee for the admission scandal in the german bunds talk show on the documents detailing how adi restricts the use of abu is this not a legal. system course it's a defeat device because it reduces the cleaning of the emissions unnecessarily

threatening at. so it's an illegal defeat device. trade and. adil launches its allegedly clean diesel on the u.s. market in 2009. but the car manufacturer deceives both american licensing authorities and unsuspecting customers. in new york state. in the small university town many people want to actively do their part to protect the environment. including anthony hamilton 2 in 2010 he bought an audi diesel advertised as clean the car was an important decision when i when i found out about the other clean diesel technology that was an important consideration. that they could come up with a diesel engine that that burned clean and was very fuel efficient so those are 2 big considerations when i bought that car. millions were spent on advertising

and t.v. commercials running at prime time anthony remembers one particularly convincing commercial during the super bowl 2010 the biggest thing about plastic bottles now the water setting is that. the green police arrest all kinds of environmental polluters but the clean audi diesel cars allowed to drive on. here and. that's michael. carrick i think it's exactly the vehicle and part of the reason we we believe that or i believe that you know germans make good vehicles. really no no no complaint there but also if you believe the engineering behind it engineers do wonderful things i mean engineers put people on the move. you would think that they could make a diesel engine bird cleanly that wouldn't be such a big deal. but many cars that have come off of audi's production line for the european market since 2009 are even dirtier than those for the u.s.

market. even less add blue is used in the european diesel cars to neutralize emissions. those. responsible make light of the fact that the vehicles do not comply with legal requirements they say that a mission's cleaning only needs to be maintained at test levels on the new european driving cycle for any d.c. . high d. knocks efficiency only necessary on any d.c. . one c.e.o. is often quoted as saying there are laws and there is volkswagen the company makes its own laws that describes their mentality to a t. . where does this mentality come from 3 men characterize the v.w. group with its subsidiary none more than the recently deceased fair didn't. the grandson of the v.w. founder fair to dodge porsche was the 1st head of development at adi and later its c.e.o. . the engineer landed some spectacular success of p.s.

develop audi's 4 wheel drive the legendary quatro unjustified audi's image as an innovative brand he was also the man who led v.w. out of its serious crisis in 1903 with ambition and a tough management style. whenever there's a war there are always fewer left at the end understood you always have winners and losers. the upsy. it is my intention. to gather with the w.'s worldwide partners. to be the winner the secrets of. the mentality of a warrior insiders report that this is how we influence the corporate culture of b.w. and already. there was a culture of fear in our firm. everyone just wanted to survive.

and that means not spreading any bad news. the successor to ph martin even took on roast of the top 1st as the head of audi and then as c.e.o. of the entire group his staff say that he won't tolerate disagreement and pursues a system of command and obedience. one of his favorite phrases was make it go away meaning a problem you don't want has to simply be eliminated. the 3rd man in the group as. he became the c.e.o. of audi in 2007 staying until his arrest and 2018. the admission scandal audi happened under his watch what exactly wished i'd listen when it all. one example is from 2010 when the e.u. commission was planning to test emissions on road tests as well as in the test lab with so-called r d test drives. audi's dirty tricks were in danger of being discovered and

the head of diesel department was alarmed. he wrote to his staff. it doesn't look good regards. still audi pressed on. in 2012 the so-called product strategy committee headed by audi c.e.o. she decided on a flexibility scenario for a new series. at 1st. just a small amount of bad lou should be injected not neutralizing the emissions completely. one employee summarized the strategy to us. on april 24th it was decided to run the cars dirty at 1st as part of the clean diesel strategy if this was later spotted on road tests the emissions would be cleaned up accordingly.

and if your strategy this timing strategy makes it clear that it 1st cars were knowingly sold that did not meet the legal requirement. and this is clearly amounts to selling something under false pretenses. and if payment exchanges hands whether in cash or otherwise and it amounts to fraud as this stuff is between. both refused to comment. who knew about the manipulations the documents offer a surprisingly deep inside the circle of those in the know kept on expanding. one example in 2009 a technician discovered that the unlawful interventions could also get his department into trouble he sent out a warning if this gets out we're dead too. in the end

it's not only the engines developers from specialist for and mission control who are involved in the manipulations software experts and so-called licensors are in on the 2. plus the managers and members of the board who must have known. in 2013 licensors carry out a risk assessment for the us market which is seen by several their superiors. the chief risk is the potential discovery of software measures which carry out unpermitted interventions in the missions control system. the risk of being busted in the usa is openly discussed. this was like a red alert flashing at full frequency blinked and still nothing was done. in the autumn of 2013 around the same time developers sent a paper clean diesel yesterday today tomorrow to

a member of the board with an unequivocal warning but the cars were not neutralizing their emissions enough. this psyched us here it shows that they were relying on something which could be extremely critical and very dicey should people have reacted had them and they should have it should have been discussed. there is no sense of wrongdoing within the company or if so it's very slight. so when did c.e.o. who pushed the become aware of the issue. on september 18th 2015 the admissions fraud was discovered in the usa at 1st only involving the parent company. c.e.o. of into korn resigns washtub stays in office audi protests its innocence and. was clearly in the picture much earlier a few days after the v.w. scandal hit the headlines an email was sent to his office on september 24th 2015

notifying him of a defeat device an audi models with 6 and 8 cylinders. still in a press release maintains that everything is fine at audi. audi also supplied its engines to sister company as v.w. and porsche one vehicle with the audi technology stood out in the tests with emissions that were much too high. it was the federal motor transport authority who spotted it in december 25th audi and porsche managers were called into the authority and friends book to explain the poor test result. the highly confidential minutes of the meeting taken by a member of porsche staff show that in spite of the authorities seemed many technical points critically they were satisfied with the superficial explanations given by the managers. of relieved audio reports to his colleagues on the same day . hi guys we got away with

a slap to wrist from the federal motor transport authority. yes is it for us of us has to be criticised and if they are a federal authority bound by laws then justice citizen's rights have to override the interests of one company names. in the end the federal motor transport authority is satisfied with the voluntary software updates the government grants another free. passed out. in april 26th alexandre doubles and the transport minister at the time announces that no other german car manufacturers other than v.w. have committed fraud. the situation is different in the usa where the powerful environmental protection agency is turning up the pressure. audi managers are summoned to appear several times in the usa. after 9 months in the summer of 2016 audi finally admits that they have installed 3 defeat devices in

diesel cars with larger engines. former audi fan tony hamilton from ithaca now drives a car made by a japanese manufacturer he's not sure he can ever trust audi again 'd. now when it comes to diesel diesels the exception right now. yeah the diesel i would give give a 2nd thought to the mileage was what what i bought that car for. funny bought back his car for a good price. after a court settlement all of the audi customers affected received an offer from the firm of a modification or a buy back option. yes i didn't have to get my own water it was just handled entirely you know through class action lawsuits and the federal government and that that since i really just stood by and watched as a whole process of. cars that the company has brought back are stored on enormous

parking lots the diesel scandal cost the v.w. group around 25000000000 euros in the usa. and in germany audi has had a cleaner potations here for a long time. march 15th 2017 at the financial press conference. presents excellent figures once more audi has a record turnover and 3000000000 euros in profit in spite of the diesel crisis but a raid soon follows the public prosecutor's office in munich searches the audi headquarters the audi boss is taken by surprise. d. those who know some type that i will not comment at this time of his arrest and does please understand that due to pending investigations we are not able to comment the money is yours and can. the raid is carried out due to suspected fraud on the american market as for europe criminal investigators are still in the dark.

but after the raid the pressure on adi mounts. which. we need oxygen and emissions expert in berlin. he tested an audi a 8 on the open road in may 2017 officially the vehicle complies with the mission's norms for the year 06 class but the outcome of his measurements as shocking. as well it was the dirtiest car we've ever measured in the year 06 class with extremely high emissions almost 18 times over the limit probation. it's unbelievable that such a high priced car should have such high emissions in this your own. freedom and the client who commissioned the test the german environmental group. are publicly attacked for spreading dirty diesel rumors. get audio still not made a statement regarding these results although internal tests reach the same outcome

. internal analysis and r.d. measurements confirm the results of the doj was investigation. almost 2 years after the diesel scandal began the federal motor transport authority only now started to scrutinize a range of cars with technology and only now did audi provide detailed information to the authority leading to the recall of the 8 shortly afterwards. we show our police the public letter that the federal motor transport authority sent to audi in october of 2017 mentioning several defeat devices to. get control of a scandal like this concealing all this information from us it concerns all of us the car customers why is it all such a secret and my view is completely unacceptable it's a clear case of fraud to discuss capital. in the following weeks the federal motor

transport authority sense further directives to audi demanding that they remove all on permitted defeat devices. in january 28th seen after a 2 year cover up operation goes public. it turns out that audi was also involved in the emissions manipulation of diesel cars and category year 06 but even now the public does not get to hear the whole truth. the government is only talking about one defeat device. it is you know is talking about here is an engine warning function which only kicks in during the ne d.c. tests but does not reduce the nitrogen oxide pollutants in real traffic conditions . which means that when the car starts driving on the road the catalytic converter isn't warmed up contrary to the test phase the add blue fluid cannot purify the fumes which are emitted unfiltered into the air. in the previous secret letters to algae however for so-called strategies or mention alphabetically listed as a b. c.

and d. . and d. documented so my interpretation of the document is that the authorities assume that all 4 strategies relate to a defeat device there is no doubt of that on this date kind. undisputed of there is also no doubt that they were not necessary to protect the engine otherwise they couldn't have been removed in the last name for defeat devices in one car one of them is particularly harmful so called strategy see if the car is going too slowly to catalytic converter cools down and doesn't work it needs to be warmed up but the software manipulation overrides this function in the fumes are not cleaned. were lots of pedestrians are standing or walking that's where the speed is very low

these are the spots where people are exposed to high pollution that. documents show that the federal motor transport authority does not check this particular strategy for themselves instead trusting audi's figures. the authorities give the company the leeway to decide for itself what is rated as a defeat device. all that the federal motor transport authority ascertains is that . audi has declared its willingness to voluntarily dispense with strategies b. c. and d. and to remove these from its software. the federal motor transport authority does not crack down apparently satisfied with voluntary software updates on 3 of the 4 day. i says. the assessment of the authority is clearly expressed. but then they fail to follow through and issue an official directive. last question. how does this benefit the firm in question.

to name things are easier for the company because it has clearly been stated that there are in fact counts of illegal behavior not only one and this looks more favorable before civil courts. or in simulation kids to go to. why don't the federal motor transport authority and the federal ministry for transport clarify the extent to which cheated on its admissions figures. there is no answer forthcoming to our concrete questions. adi drivers like. have to pay the price at the end of 2016 he bought an audi diesel 458000 euros but now he knows that 4 defeat devices have been built into his car to this interest if you leave. the best option for me would be if they take back the car minus the usual depreciation and that would be that.

definite wants to know from his audi dealership what he can do now it's not possible to give the car back instead he should get a software update on. what is this must mean. if i don't do it my car won't pass its next roadworthiness test. which is. just a flat refuse of the update nonetheless the businessman fears damage to the engine . according to an evaluation his car's only worth half of its original price with the help of a berlin lawyer he wants to sue audi for the compensation. unlike in the usa aggrieved parties in germany have to sue for their rights in court in the case of audie this is no mean feat. to get one although it is strategy is 1st to defend itself against all valid claims and then to fight the case hiring all

of the leading legal for this because the cons line documents and it's like david against goliath small claimants have to go up against the huge. view and. we show the lawyer the previously secret letter from the federal motor transport authority about the diesel model driven by our client car. understood solicitor who is the supports out claim and shows the ignorance of the company striving for profit at the expense of human health and environmental protection. because we hired went in on their suits and for. us to straighten us. in the lawyers opinion already has to show goodwill towards the customer. man if i don't feel that my demand to the company would be that they offer a solution to all of the car buyers concerned and not only for the ones who are willing and able to go to court everyone should be given the chance to become inflated for the damage that audi a g.

has caused have had. in the arctic ace over 200000 euro 60 course with larger engines are affected by the recall in germany a lot of. customers feel let down also because the authorities in the government have been letting audi off the hook. the reluctance of the federal motor transport authority to intervene has even called the munich public prosecutors to action they are threatening to investigate the authorities for attempted attraction of justice. the public prosecutor's crackdown and already in june 28th. is temporarily detail. and accused of defrauding audi customers years after the emissions scandal was revealed.

at the end of july the prosecutors filed charges against them and 3 more managers for fraud false certification and false advertising. dutchman succeeds as audi c.e.o. taking over a beleaguered company. these are excellent phones it feels like we have lost an arm and its arms a lot of people didn't think that audi would survive without initial. capacity at bodies the largest plant in english shows the gravity of the situation insiders tell us that only $450000.00 vehicles we built in english but this year 16 percent less than 2 years ago. after a long wait we finally get an interview with audi but the firm sends a member of staff who is only permitted to talk to us about corporate culture. equipped with the changing their corporate culture it doesn't happen overnight it's

a process that takes decades what builds a good foundation in a whole company so we've developed objectives and clear guidelines to aim for. if we're going to talk. but objectives and good intentions are clearly not enough as we can see in the case of the 8 the federal motor transport authority ordered a recall of the dirty luxury car in 2017 yet even 2 years later body has failed to deliver a software update. they say is local it's unbelievable there are cars with such high emissions attained through fraudulent manipulation and nobody is doing anything about it as. we receive no explanation neither from audi nor from the federal motor transport authority. even the transport ministry is keeping quiet. audi's dirty diesel tricks one of the biggest business scandals in the history of the federal republic of germany now it is up to the courts to resolve the case.

from the point of strong opinions clear positions international perspectives put country witnessing often violent protests in countless countries around the world people talking about a new global political awakening the words of the protesters have in common as well will be angry uprisings mean to us find out who the point shortly. in 90 minutes on w. . shows hello halflings this is your new ball speaking welcome

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this is t w news coming to you live from berlin a 2nd death amid hong kong's turmoil a 70 year old street cleaner coughing clashes between pro-democracy activists and police will be live in hong kong also coming up italy declares a state of emergency after catastrophic flooding in bed is the highest tides in half a century ago.