and also german has for i'm dr thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being here i'm reading. more news at the top of the hour if you're out to. stand for. language courses. video. anytime anywhere.

it's january 22nd 2008 at the audi development center and it's one for 2 years audie 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. because 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. bribes or does a huge scale of the. fraud in the number of people who are involved is pretty

shocking. as fine a call but it's 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'd 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. and i'm confident given the enormous dimension of the scandal you would expect a company like audit to at least admit wrongdoing or that the manipulation of the thing is this is this really is one of the biggest business scandals in german history.

for college british tough love from franconia the diesel scandal started only recently. his diesel car was produced in 2016 a year after the emissions scandal broke. back then body assured its customers that vehicles with larger engines in the euro 6 emissions standard had not been affected he assumed everything was fine with his car. is why a suit us that is all and everything was fine when we bought the car in october 2016 or the princely sum of 58000 euro. i thought the diesel scandal was over by that is. but a few months ago he got a letter from audi the company was recalling its q 5. boys guns and i was surprised

the car needed a software update. in the letter from oddy the product recalls something 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 a previously unpublished directive was sent by germany's federal motor transport authority to audi and december 2017 their instruction that audi recalled the car sounds rather different with the authority demanding that cars like go for 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 it for. what were you expecting. you know just all the usual you can make use of. it all from the well as i thought they'd just do

one software update and that would be that it's least that's the year to be going to last but i'm reading here that 4 different points have to be rectified. this is a minus logons it's like a slap in the face being let along like that focus on this in the then in the end the government is forced to intervene. when they can't cheat their customers like that it's fraud in my opinion. but in mine it always does because. we have tamed 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 bike to show 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. visits to teach students 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 emit large quantities of harm. 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 add blue a simple chemical mixture of artificial euro and water. the adult chemical mixture was already being used to neutralize diesel emissions from trucks in 2004 they just needed to carry a large extra tank onboard. body 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 body 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 add 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. deadlines situation very critical approval at risk only a small series possible. by. it was there such a panic was the problem we had to search long and hard to find an independent emissions expert who was prepared to explain what the body technicians did next. in

the end we traveled to switzerland. to do. at the swiss materials testing institute we need to your system up with us he's been researching abu injections for years his lab test system works like a large catalytic converter so he can measure exactly how much of the year real mix has to be injected. precise dosing is crucial for the system to work. and with the other you must adjust the dose of and soon exact relation to the nitrogen oxides being emitted from the engine. if an engine is admitting a lot of nitrogen oxide more add blue has to be injected to neutralize the exhaust fumes. that developers demand that the larger real 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 the your real mixture was supposed to last for 16000 kilometers until the next service was due on the vehicle if the absolute tank 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 meet the correspondent for the new york times in germany jack ewing he's been

following the emissions scam intensively especially the strategies of v.w. and audi on the u.s. market. as some cross i think the b.w. managers were very irritated that the company had become so insignificant in the u.s. and void and they were in the same league as mazda or subaru just a niche market that was an untenable position for the world's biggest automobile company and goes for their truck bar for the cruise to all to a new name and developed. the 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 center presentation one possible solution introduced to operating modes. a clean efficiency mode for the test drive. and an economy mode for the open. in a condo me mode the cars would use less add blue referred to as quantity

restriction in the presentation. then money. if you're almost always in economy mode on the open road and it's highly likely that too much nitrogen oxide is a mid into the atmosphere on down hot munden if you have the efficiency mode that only complies with emissions and limits during a test pits hardly a great solution is this kind of work. to ensure that the car is only clean when it's being tested for developers interfere with the engine control to 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 clean. once the car is on the open road the software switches back into the dirty economy mode emitting more pollutants.

thus cheating on emissions values. in the test cycle in the industry they call it cycle beating developers express their misgivings in a presentation. cycle beating approach highly critical in the usa. cycle beating. 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 adi

intends to dupe the authorities with a defeat device. defeat device come hither. play lovely games with you. i have lots of tricks up my sleeve . and the hysteresis loop so no one can see. the post and shown to us they were aware that they were committing a crime and good thing that they could go to prison if they were caught. like the law i think that shows us the risks they were willing to take the code people write far as. i would 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. most. obviously of the fear of being caught wasn't that great the so-called defeat device

described in the poem was put into use from 2003. but she does say in westphalia audie fans regularly meet to show off their dream cars some of which are older diesel models and emissions category you're all for. the roar of the engine is on mistake of all. the stupid this is the classic engine sound from the injection jabs the stacking sound is opening that's what makes it rattle like that and on the flip of the. audi developed special software the so-called acoustic function allegedly in an attempt to muffle the sound. but in fact already 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 functionality was being used as an on permitted defeat device. to see if so also as 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 that had been no recall of the year 04 vehicles. questions to audi regarding the acoustic function the company informed us that they could not comment during current investigation. journey where its 2008 shortly before the launch of the new diesel technology with at bloom in the usa this is an audi manager advertises the cleanest diesel in the world in

the american media. because. if you are. very close to really come the good. yet he must know that the cars are in no way clean because they conceal how much ad blew 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 loops what are the legal implications of the statement. we have an appointment here and i'm stuck with a lawyer martin. he was the expert in the investigation committee for the admission scandal in the german blunder stock we show in the documents detailing how adi restricts the use of add blue is this not illegal. it's just introduced us of course it's a defeat device because it reduces the cleaning of the emissions unnecessarily.

so it's an illegal defeat device. should and must. 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 come on. in 2010 he bought an audi diesel advertised as clean the car was an important decision that when i when i found out about you know the 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 and putting him on remembers one particularly convincing commercial during the super bowl 2010 the biggest thing about plastic bottles now the order setting is that. the green police arrest all kinds of environmental polluters but the clean diesel cars allowed to drive on. it. that's michael. carrick i think it's exactly the fearful 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 you believe the engineering behind it engineers do wonderful things i mean engineers put people on the moon. you would think that they could make a diesel engine bird plainly that wouldn't be such a big deal. but many cars that have come off of audi's production lines for the european market since 2009 are even dirtier than those for the u.s.

market. even less at 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 emissions cleaning only needs to be maintained at test levels on the new european driving cycle for any d.c. . high de nox 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 ferritin and. the grandson of the v.w. founder fair to non-proportional was the 1st head of development at adi and later its c.e.o. . the engineer landed some spectacular successes ph developed audi's 4 wheel drive

the legendary quatro and justified 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. in the venice 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 b.w.'s worldwide partners. to be the winner see. the mentality of a warrior insiders report that this is how we influence the corporate culture at v.w. and audi. 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 rose to 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. and 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 in 2018. the emissions scandal at audi happened under his watch what exactly which douglas role in 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 e test drives. audi's dirty diesel tricks were in danger of being discovered and

the head of diesel department was alarmed. he wrote to his staff. hi it doesn't look good regards. the still body pressed on. in 2012 the so-called product strategy committee headed by audi c.e.o. decided on a flexibility scenario for a new series. but 1st just a small amount of bad lou should be injected not neutralizing the emissions completely. one employee summarized the strategy thoughts. 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. used.

to this timing strategy makes it clear that it 1st cars were knowingly sold that did not meet the legal requirement. and this clearly amounts to selling something under false pretenses. and if payment exchanges hands whether in cash or otherwise and get it amounts to fraud is this stuff done just 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. on the 2. plus the managers and members of the board who must have known to. 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 an permitted interventions in their 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 that the cars were not neutralizing their emissions enough. this psyched us munge here it shows that they were relying on something which could be extremely critical and very dicey should people have reacted and then 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 become aware of the issue. at september 18th 2015 the emissions fraud was discovered in the usa at 1st only involving the parent company. c.e.o. of into court resigns washed up last days in office audi protests its innocence. 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 companies 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 many technical points critically they were satisfied with the superficial explanations given by the managers. of relieved audio ploy reports to his colleagues on the same day.

hi guys we got away with a slapped wrist from the federal motor transport authority. to us is it for us of us this has to be criticised and if they are a federal authority bound by laws then justice citizen's rights have to override the interest of one company names. in the end the federal motor transport authority is satisfied with the voluntary software updates the government grants and other free. passed. in april 26th alexander 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. on the managers or 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. now when it comes to diesel diesels the exception right now. so yeah the diesel i would give give a 2nd thought to the mileage was what i bought that car for thought he 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. i didn't have to get my own lawyer it was just handled entirely you know through class action lawsuits and the federal government and that so in that sense i'd really just stood by and watched as the 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 clean your petition 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 efficient this 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 mouths. 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 emissions norms for the year 06 class but the outcome has measurements as shocking. as what it was the dirtiest car we've ever measured in the year 06 class with extremely high emissions almost 18 times over the limit of probation. it's unbelievable that such a high priced car should have such high emissions in the. freedom and the client who commissioned the test the german environmental group who for publicly attacked for spreading dirty diesel rumors. get audio still not made a statement regarding these results although internal tests reached the same

outcome. internal analysis and r.d. measurements confirmed the results of the if is investigation. almost 2 years after the diesel scandal began the federal motor transport authority only now started to scrutinise a range of cars without technology and only now would audi provide detailed information to the authorities leading to the recall of the 8 shortly afterwards. we show our fleet grace the public letter that the federal motor transport authority sent to audi in october of 2017 mentioning several defeat devices. a scandal like this concealing all this information from us it concerns all of us the car customers why is it also just secretly thought in my view it's 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 after 2 your 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. good to see you know it's going to be talking about here is an engine warning function which only kicks in during the any 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 are mentioned alphabetically listed as a b.

c. and d. . is a new document is my interpretation of the documents is that the authorities assume that all 4 strategies relate to a defeat device is there is no doubt of that. kind 5. there is also no doubt that they were not necessary to protect the engine otherwise they could have been removed in the last name for defeat devices and one car one of them is particularly harmful so called strategy see if the car is going too slowly the catalytic converter cools down 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 suggestions are standing or walking that's where the speed is very low

these are the spots where people are exposed to high pollution that. get 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. devices. the assessment of the authorities is clearly expressed. but then they fail to follow through and issue an official directive. the last question is how does this benefit the firm in question.

to name things are easier for the company because it hasn't clearly been stated that there are in fact 4 counts of illegal behavior not only one 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 audi cheated on its emissions figures. there is no answer forthcoming to our concrete questions. how do you drivers like colorfully have to pay the price at the end of 2016 he bought an audi diesel 458000 euros but now he knows that for defeat devices have been built into his car to this interesting thing with. the best option for me would be if they'd take back the car minus the usual depreciation and that would be that.

this. definite wants to know from his audi dealership what he can do now that it's not possible to give the car back instead he should get a software update on. what is the must just tell me. 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 compensation. unlike in the usa aggrieved parties in germany have to sue for their rights in court in the case of audi this is no mean feat. given although it is strategy is 1st to defend itself against all valid claims and then to fight the case hiring all

of the leading golf. course and consigned options and it's like david against goliath small claimants have to go up against the huge. and. we showed the lawyer the previously secret letter from the federal motor transport authority about the diesel model driven by your client car. understood it was the truth 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 on to all the experts and for. us to straighten us. in the lawyers opinion already has to show goodwill towards the customer. well if i don't feel that my demand to the company would be that they offer a solution to all of the guy is 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 at least so that. in the audi case over 200000 euro 60 course with larger engines are affected by the current 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 28000. is temporarily detail. accused of defrauding audi customers years after the emissions scandal was revealed. at the end of july the prosecutors filed charges against and 3 more managers for

fraud false certification and false advertising. dutchmen but i'm short succeed as audi c.e.o. taking over of the leader company. felix schoen phones it feels like we have lost an arm and its arms a lot of people didn't think that audi would survive it out in east. capacity at bodies largest plant in english that shows the gravity of the situation insiders tell us that only $450000.00 vehicles we've 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. changing a corporate culture doesn't happen overnight it's

a process that takes decades what builds a good foundation in a whole company we've developed objectives and clear guidelines to aim for. and keep the top. 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 get even 2 years later body has failed to deliver a software update. basis 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 outing 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 public in germany now it is up to the courts to resolve the case.

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this is deja news coming to you live from berlin a highly charged standoff in hong kong between police and protesters dissolves into chaos after a night of violence demonstrators leave a university under lockdown police use force to arrest those trying to escape we'll go live to our correspondent on the ground force a coming up at least 3 people die in violent demonstrations in iran and protesters could be facing a crackdown as the government resists.