Article · Conspiracies
The Volkswagen diesel cheat: what the US case confirmed and what remains unproven
Yes, Volkswagen diesel cars carried software that recognised an emissions test and switched on full emissions control only during it. In 2014 independent measurements showed the cars polluting far more on the road than the standard allows, and the company initially put this down to a software problem. In September 2015 Volkswagen admitted it, and on 11 January 2017 it agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in a US court. Whether the then chief executive knew has not been decided by any court.
This piece is not about whether all carmakers "cheat the tests". It is about one narrow claim: that Volkswagen diesel cars carried software that recognised an official test and ran clean only then. At first this was only a gap in measurements, which the company explained by other causes. Later the claim was confirmed by the company itself and by US regulators, and in 2017 the company agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in a US federal court.