Almost half a million Volkswagen cars, including recent diesel models of Jettas, Beetles, Audi A3s, Golfs, and Passats, may be recalled in an enormous crackdown on the German carmaker's alleged blatant circumvention of smog standards, The New York Times reports. The Environmental Protection Agency has demanded that the cars be recalled, and specifically accused Volkswagen of installing software, called a "defeat device," in their cars that basically just lies about what a car's emissions are during tests:
The device is programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and to only turn on full emissions control systems during that testing. Those controls are turned off during normal driving situations, when the vehicles pollute far more heavily than reported by the manufacturer, the E.P.A. said. [The New York Times]
Car emissions contain nitrogen oxide, which creates smog, as well as pollutants that cause asthma.
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