‘Dieselgate’ continues as German prosecutors raid Audi offices, factories

By Stephen Edelstein Published March 16, 2017

The Volkswagen Group is getting closer to resolving criminal charges in the United States related to its use of illegal “defeat device” software in diesel cars, but the situation is only beginning to heat up in Europe.

Audi offices and factories were raided by German prosecutors Wednesday in connection with parent VW’s diesel scandal, reports Automotive News Europe (subscription required). The raids were the first on Audi facilities since the diesel scandal broke 18 months ago.

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The raids focused on the 83,000 Audi, Porsche, and VW models with 3.0-liter V6 engines found to have “defeat device” software that allowed them to cheat U.S. emissions tests. Munich prosecutors said European-market cars were outside the scope of the investigation. The Volkswagen Group has agreed to buy back some affected cars, and modify others to meet emissions standards, at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters was searched, along with Audi factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, and six other unspecified facilities. The raids coincided with a press conference held by Audi CEO Rupert Stadler to announced the automaker’s annual earnings, creating a bit of embarrassment. Officials reportedly searched the offices and private apartments of some Audi executives, although Stadler said his home was not raided.

The raids come shortly after a round of personnel changes at Audi related to the diesel scandal. Last month, the carmaker said it fired four engineers from its diesel division for “gross breach of duty.” Audi’s previous R&D boss, Stefan Knirsch, also left in connection with the diesel scandal. He’ll be replaced by Peter Mertens, an executive from Volvo.

Last week, Volkswagen pleaded guilty on three felony counts in a U.S. District Court for its diesel cheating. In addition to its guilty plea, the company has agreed to pay $2.8 billion in criminal fines, and $1.45 billion in civil fines. Administration of those penalties is on hold while the judge overseeing the case looks into a complaint by an attorney representing some of the affected VW diesel owners.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs

2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time. The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Cars

Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting

Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

Cars

Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure

Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.