You'd think that Volkswagen engineers only came up with a way to beat diesel emission standards a few years ago. Well, it was a few years ago, just somewhat longer than anyone initially thought. According to a report from The Guardian and German newspaper Handelsblatt, Audi engineers first created those emissions fooling defeat devices way back in 1999. Do the math: that's 17 years ago. The report further claims that, although the software coding was created, it was never used by Audi.

However, some six years later, VW engineers hit a stumbling block when they were "unable to figure out to how bring nitrogen oxide emissions below legal thresholds." The cheating software was their solution. As of right now, neither VW nor Audi has commented on this report, claiming the Dieselgate investigation itself is still ongoing. It won't be able to remain silent on this claim for long because it's due to release a "substantial report" on its findings into the scandal by the end of this month. No doubt it'll be a very interesting read.