Looks like VW were not the only one’s fiddling around with so-called defeat software to enable them to pass/cheat emissions testing and therefore get clearance from regulators to sell vehicles with lower than claimed levels of emissions. Investigators in the US have found evidence that Mercedes could have employed illegal software algorithms to enable their cars to pass strict US emissions tests. These investigations have discovered a software function relating to the engine management setup. “Slipguard” is so-called because it is able to detect when the vehicle is undergoing laboratory testing, say multiple sources. “Bit 15” is another codenamed discovered that turns off emissions cleaning after 16 miles of driving. It is believed this deceptive software is able to hide the true count of emissions released by a Mercedes vehicle, which could be ten times higher than regulations permit. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes Benz is currently co-operating with U.S. and German authorities and is facing on-going investigations that could lead to severe fines, penalties and recalls. V.W. triggered the current investigations after they admitted to developing defeat software for the purposes of deceiving emissions tests. In reality, VW sold 580k cars that were effectively 40 times over the legally permitted levels.