Bosch agrees to pay $327 million for helping VW cheat on emissions
Publicists for Bosch have been working overtime for more than a year. The German supplier has been聽聽in the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, and yesterday, it agreed聽聽for its role in rigging hundreds of thousands of Audi, Porsche, and VW diesels to cheat on U.S. emissions tests.听
Unlike Volkswagen's聽聽with the federal government, Bosch's agreement doesn't require the company to admit wrongdoing. However, it's clear that Bosch was instrumental in developing the software that was ultimately installed on 11 million 2.0-liter diesels worldwide, as well as some 85,000 3.0-liter Audi, Porsche, and VW diesels in the U.S.听
Not that it was Bosch's idea. By all accounts, Audi developed an early defeat device way聽. Bosch became embroiled later, in 2006, after tougher emissions guidelines were imposed by the U.S. As聽Volkswagen's board chair Hans Dieter Poetsch explained in聽, Volkswagen's engineers "could not find a way" to meet those regulations, and so, they decided to create a "workaround".
That workaround required Bosch's involvement, because Volkswagen staff didn't know how to write the necessary code.听聽that Bosch was initially reluctant to take on the project unless Volkswagen could聽聽if/when the cheat (code name:聽akustikfunktion) was discovered. However, money eventually won out, and Bosch did the deed, as requested. The whole story is聽--we hope Leonardo DiCaprio includes it in the聽.听
Yesterday's settlement with聽U.S.听vehicle owners and officials still has to be approved by a judge. And of course, Bosch continues to fend off lawsuits and investigations in Europe. Stay tuned.听
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