[nisa]

> What's wrong with just making those tests the actual regulatory ones?

Nothing. But Germany has a strong position in the EU and to a large degree does what VW/BMW/Mercedes want and they wanted to avoid stronger or better tests. This topic is quite often in the news here and it's clear that there is no political will to establish real word tests.

There are also a lot of other cheats in this firmware:

- Below 14°C? Just blast the emissions out. It's not like these cars are driven in the winter.

- Autobahn? Go blast out the emissions!

- and so on...

This should be a far bigger scandal than it is now.

[nisa]

Extensive PDF from the Umwaltbundesamt (comparable to the EPA - it's an independent agency) - http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/254...

[majewsky]

> Below 14°C? [...] in the winter

It doesn't take winter for temperatures to drop below 14 °C (57.2 °F). The morning commute takes place between 6 and 9 AM. Even in the summer, temperatures are probably below 14 °C more often than above it at these times.

[nisa]

Indeed the Umweltbundesamt PDF (see my other comment) states that it's at least 50% of the time the case! 50%!