Defeat Devices in Cars

Excerpt

Many legal cases concerning the issue of so-called defeat devices that act on mechanisms to reduce emissions from cars are still underway. The existence of these devices was first revealed during the diesel scandal and they were initially intended to shut down or reduce the impact of systems for exhaust gas recirculation or for dispensing SCR additives which aimed to lower emission levels. They were not designed to combat one specific emission-reduction technology. Their primary purpose was to detect an emission measurement process taking place (cycle beating) and to reduce the use of these technologies or completely disable them, with the result that emission levels were much higher in real-life operation. In this case it is relatively easy to identify that these measures are illegal and even fraudulent. The fact that a defeat device of this kind, which includes cycle beating, is against the law is no longer under discussion, because this was established by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) as long ago as 2015 and does not need to be considered further here. …