> The question is, if this was a well known problem and they knew the way to test their existence (and given there were millions of cars on the street with thes

> The question is, if this was a well known problem and they knew the way to test their existence (and given there were millions of cars on the street with these systems), why start the big scandal precisely now? From what I understand the scandal was started after Europe funded research at an American university (since they were developing systems to measure emissions during normal driving that didn't rely on the car's computer output). The results were published a few years ago, which got reported to the US and European authorities, and it is big news right now simply because the fine/punishment phase is in motion (nobody cares about dry research results). Up until recently (last three-ish years) the technology to measure emissions from the tailpipe during driving weren't readily available. They trusted the computer.