Transcripts For DW DocFilm 20240713

Software more systematically than previously suspected. But i did this is a huge scale of the fraud in the number of people who are involved it is pretty shocking. Use on national t. V. And its just plain a comment its yes it was a combination of Corporate Culture greed and arrogance. When i wrote gods. Up until january 28th body was selling cars with manipulated exhaust software on board. It wasnt a case of now wed 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 already remain silent on the matter. Sometimes 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 really is one of the biggest business scandals in german history. For cars quickly stuff 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 Emission Standard had not been affected he assumed everything was fine with his car. This 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 euros 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 guns and i was surprised the car needed a Software Update. And in the letter from audi the product recalled sounded quite innocuous there were irregularities in the engine control software. A previously unpublished directive was sent by germanys federal Motor Transport Authority to audi and december of 2017 their instruction that audi recalled the car sounds rather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 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 one to college. What were you expecting. You know just all the usual you can beat him. And he is off to up it all comes on the well as i thought theyd just do one Software Update and that would be that its least thats the year to be going to last but im reading here that 4 different points have to be rectified. This is a minus like its 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 so its what use was so that even they cant cheat their customers like that its fraud in my opinion. But in mine and always just because. Weve 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 buyer to show one form and hundreds blood 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 and. 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. Lets 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. Within certificates 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 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 uriah and water. The add blue 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 a. Body opted to use this technology to clean up emissions from diesel cars too. They also need 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 legs jeopardizing the start of production. Deadlines situation very critical approval at risk only a small series possible. By. 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 audit technicians did next. In the end we traveled to switzerland. To do. That. At the swiss Materials Testing institute we meet punny your system up with us hes been researching blue injections for years his lab test system works like a large catalytic converter so he can measure exactly how much of the your 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 the an exact relation to the nitrogen oxide 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 audi Developers Demand that the larger rhea takes required but since they take up a lot of space the 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 admin was empty the vehicle wouldnt 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 hes been following the mission 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 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 worlds biggest Automobile Company and does for their tribe barford he crossed the aisle to under a 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 wasnt their fault because they know what the personal consequences are. Anyone who is under suspicion certainly didnt 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. Youre almost always in economy mode on the open road and its highly likely that too much nitrogen oxide is amid into the atmosphere or dont happen and then if you have the efficiency mode that only complies with the missions and limits during a test its hardly a great solution. To ensure that the car is only clean when its being tested the developers interfere with the engine control to manipulate the software. As soon as a vehicle recognizes that a socalled 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. 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 the cycle beating approach highly critical in the usa. Cycle beating it does as cycle beating is a term known to everyone in the Automobile Industry you dont have to be an engineer to know that its evidently illegal theres 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 most of us see the top according to our research its not the 1st case of manipulation and audis 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. Dorothys with a defeat device. Defeat device come hither. Ill play lovely games with you. I have lots of tricks up my sleeve. And the hysteresis loop so no one can see. The list and shown does they were aware that they were committing a crime and if they knew that they could go to prison if they were caught. Like feel i think that shows us the risks they were willing to take deeper right far as he 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. The list and obviously the fear of being caught wasnt that great the socalled 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 an emissions category youre all for. The roar of the engine is unmistakable. Things to preserve this is the classic engine sound from the injection jabs the stacking sound this opening thats what makes it rattle like that couple of the. Audi developed special software the socalled acoustic function allegedly in an attempt to muffle the sound. But in fact to 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 sort. Fight the acoustics function in july 28th noting that the functionality is being used as an un permitted defeat device. To see if so else as of it looks like they came up with the idea of using the software to solve the emissions problem. It all started with audi does. It by september this year there have been no recall of the euro ford vehicles. Questions to audi regarding the acoustic function the company informed us that they could not comment during the current investigation. Its 2008 shortly before the launch of the new Diesel Technology with at blue in the usa this is an audi manager advertises the cleanest diesel in the world and the american media. To prove it to takes a victory i mean obviously. Very close to. 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 im stuck with the lawyer martin crew. He was the expert in the Investigation Committee for the admission scandal in the german blunder stock we showed on the documents detailing how adi restricts the use of add blue is this not a legal. System of course its a defeat device because it reduces the cleaning of the emissions unnecessarily thing at or near does. So its an illegal defeat device. That anders. Audio 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 athenaeum onto a 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 order setting is that. The green Police Arrest all kinds of environmental polluters but the clean audi diesel cars allowed to drive on. The thing. Thats my car. Care because i think its 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 moon. You would think that they could make a Diesel Engine bird plainly that wouldnt be such a big deal. But many cars that have come off of audis production line for the European Market since 2009 are even dirtier than those for the u. S. Market. Even less. 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 pierre. The grandson of the v. W. Founder ferdinand caution was the 1st head of development at audi and later its c. E. O. The engineer landed some spectacular successes ph developed bodies 4 wheel drive the legendary quatro unjustified audis image as an innovative brand he was also the man who led v. W. Out of it serious crisis in 1993 with ambition and a tough management style. Given this whenever theres a war there are always fewer left at the end honestly you always have winners and losers. It is my intention. To gather with b. W. s worldwide partners. To be the winner the see. 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 of into corn rose to the top 1st as the head of audi and then a c. E. O. Of the entire group his staff say that he wont tolerate disagreement and pursues a system of command and obedience. One of his favorite phrases was make it go away meaning a problem you dont 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 admission scandal already happened under his watch what exactly what role and. 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 socalled r d e test drives. Audis dirty diesel trucks were in danger of being discovered and the head of Diesel Department was alarmed. He wrote to his staff. It doesnt look good regards. The still audi pressed on. In 2012 the socalled Product Strategy Committee headed by audi c. E. O. She 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 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. If your strategy this time. Timing strategy makes it clear that 1st cars were knowingly sold that did not meet the legal requirements. And this clearly amounts to selling something under false pretenses. And in a payment exchanges hands whether in cash or otherwise and get it amounts to fraud as this stuff has gotten difficult. 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 were dead too. In the end its not only the engines developers and specialist for emission control who are involved in the many people ations Software Experts and socalled licensors are in 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 unpermitted interventions in the missions control system. The risk of being busted in the usa is openly discussed this is working as. A list was like a red alert flashing at full frequency blinked and still nothing was done. In the autumn of 2013 around the same time developer 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 money. 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 its very slight. So went to the c. E. O. Who pushed become aware of the issue. On september 18th 2015 the emissions 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. Yet she 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 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 ploy reports to his colleagues on the same day. Hi guys we got away with a slap from the federal Motor Transport Authority. To us is it for us of us this has to be criticised and they are a federal authority bound by laws and justice Citizens 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. Percent the transport minister at the time announces that know whether 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 hammond from ithaca now drives a car made by a japanese manufacturer hes 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 what i bought that car for. Audi 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 didnt have to get my own lawyer it was just handled entirely you know through class action lawsuits in the federal government and that that since i 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. Present excellent figures once more adi has a record turnover and 3000000000 euros in profit in spite of the visa crisis but a raid soon follows the Public Prosecutors 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 on it was in canon. 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 mountains. We need acts of creating an 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 that dirtiest car weve ever measured in the year 06 class with extremely high emissions almost 18 times over the limit its 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 groups. Are publicly attacked for spreading dirty diesel rumors. Adia 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 if its investigation. Almost 2 years after the Diesel Scandal began the federal Motor Transport Authority only now started to scrutinise a range of cars without the technology and only now would it audi provide detailed information. Into the authority leading to the recall of the 8 shortly afterwards. This was a show acts of 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 in my view its completely unacceptable its 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 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 is 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 isnt 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 already however for socalled strategies are mentioned alphabetically listed as a b. C. And d. The document is my interpretation of the document is that the authorities assume that all 4 strategies relate to a defeat device is there is no doubt of that. Kind. There is also. No doubt that they were not necessary to protect the engine otherwise they couldnt 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 catalytic converter cools down doesnt work it needs to be warmed up but the Software Manipulation overrides this function and the fumes are not cleaned. Were lots of the desk trains are standing or walking thats where the speed is very low these are the spots where people are exposed to high pollution which. Documents show that the federal Motor Transport Authority does not check this particular strategy for themselves instead trusting audis 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 different devices. I mentioned so the assessment of the authority 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. Does to name things are easier for the company because it hasnt clearly been stated that there are in fact 4 counts of illegal behavior not only one thing is handed this looks more favorable before civil courts months and its put in simulation kids to go to. Why dont the federal Motor Transport Authority and the federal ministry for transport clarify the extent to which audi cheated on its admissions figures. There is no answer forthcoming to our concrete questions. Audio drivers like car free dish to fly 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 needs to be. The best option for me would be if they take back the car minus the usual depreciation and that would be that its. All done on the bus theres. Definite wants to know from his audi dealership what he can do now its not possible to give the car back instead he should get a Software Update on. It is this must be on thats the just tell me. If i dont do it my car wont pass its next roadworthiness test. Which is. Just a flat refuses the update nonetheless the businessman fears damage to the engine. According to an evaluation his cars 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. To give 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. Its like david against goliath the small claimants have to go up against the huge. We show the lawyer the previously secret letter from the federal Motor Transport Authority about the diesel model driven by our client. Understood solicitor who is the supports our claim and shows the ignorance of the company striving for profit at the expense of. Im a health and Environmental Protection. Because im tired i want to know thats what im for. His district. In the lawyers opinion already has to show goodwill towards the customer. Man if i dont feel that my demands of the company would be that they offer a solution to all of the guys 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 already 80 has caused have had. In the audi case over 200000 euro 60 calls with larger engines are affected by the current recall in germany alone. 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 and even called the munich public prosecutors to action they are threatening to investigate the authorities for attempted attraction of justice. The public prosecutors crackdown and already in june 28th. Is temporarily detained accused of defrauding adi 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 bob short succeed as audi c. E. O. Taking over of the leader company. These election phones it feels like we have lost an arm and arms of lot of people didnt 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 weve 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 their Corporate Culture doesnt happen overnight if the process that takes decades what builds a Good Foundation is the whole company weve developed objectives and clear guidelines to aim for. Thank you tom 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 a dirty luxury car in 2017 get even 2 years later body has failed to deliver a Software Update. Is local its unbelievable there are cars with such high emissions attained through fraudulent manipulation and nobody is doing anything about it. We received no explanation neither from already nor from the federal Motor Transport Authority. Even the transport ministry is keeping quiet. Audis 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. And we. Enter the conflict with sebastian with time running out for brussels on monday to get a back seat. Who is planning to keep the blame on the bridge before we go she ations fact our guest this week here in prague is the czech foreign minister tomas patricia he has surprisingly clear differences with a government who so so why doesnt he resign sophia in 30 minutes douglas. Coupland. Loco to the girl next new to china. Goodbye no stories. With exclusive insights. And a must see concerning parts culture to ensure a. Place to be for curious minds. Do it yourself networkers. Some subscribers and dont miss out. On some of the adventures of the famous naturalist and explorer. Simulation clicks on the phone while its 250th birthday were embarking on a voyage of discovery. Expedition was on t. W. A. Plane. Tut. Tut. This is d. W. News live from berlin violent protests on the streets of paris demonstrations in the capital and other friends that is marked the anniversary of big yellow best new bands Police Respond with water cannon. Anteroom past also coming up germanys high flying green party of real life the leadership duo that has seen the greens garner unprecedented support in the country. And in soccer a day of destiny for germany the injury to its mens soccer