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Head of dieselgate clean up set to leave Volkswagen after a year on the job

After just over a year on the job, Volkswagen's compliance chief Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt is set to leave the automaker by the end of the month. In an announcement, Volkswagen confirmed the departure, saying the separation was due to a difference of opinions regarding the role and duties of the compliance chief. Automotive News Europe reports that there were frequent clashes between Hohmann-Dennhardt and senior Volkswagen employees. Hohmann-Dennhardt was brought in on last year to help manage the cleanup in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal. She came over to Volkswagen from Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Before that, she served as a judge in Germany's constitutional court. Volkswagen hasn't announced a replacement. Related Video: News Source: Automotive News EuropeImage Credit: Getty Green Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Audi Volkswagen Emissions Diesel Vehicles dieselgate diesel emissions volkswagen diesel

HERE's Real-Time Traffic pools live data from Audi, BMW Mercedes cars

Remember last week's news that German automakers were being accused of collusion? Here's a case where working together might pay off for drivers. Mapping expert HERE is launching a Real-Time Traffic service that pulls aggregated data from sensors in Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles that are actually out driving the road, making it the first commercial traffic service of its kind that collects real-time information from vehicles from competing carmakers, according to HERE. The car companies involved are actually all part-owners of HERE, however, after the mapping business was spun out of Nokia in 2015 and sold to the competing automakers as a joint venture. The HERE Real-Time Service is available to any customers across any industry, however, and boasts big improvements in features including traffic flow data, with a reach that extends to over 60 countries. In over 30 of the countries on that list, HERE also offers Traffic Safety Warning information, which will identify incidents on the road, as measured by hard-braking data. This allows real-time notifications to vehicles that could potentially prevent the worsening of these accidents. HERE is also in the process of adding more commercial vehicles as data sources for the Real-Time Traffic function, with "millions" of active vehicles in terms of consumer Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles on the road already. Clients for the service could include autonomous car technology companies, but also current Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) as well as ride-hailing companies, urban transit authorities, city planners and logistics providers, to name a few.Written by Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch.Related Video:

Audi teases 700-hp Quattro Sport E-Tron concept for Frankfurt

Audi's trump card for the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show has just been unveiled, sort of. It's called the Quattro Sport E-Tron Concept. Set to debut in a few weeks, sketches have been uncovered that show a few of the car's details, albeit in rough form. The news of a big-name Audi concept at Frankfurt has been swirling since June, when we first reported on it.
From the sketches, we see a car that has the same basic shape as the Quattro Concept from the 2010 Paris Motor Show, only with subtle tweaks and evolutions to a few features. The news isn't so much about the looks, though. It's the reports coming from Auto Zeitung and Audi enthusiast site Fourtitude.
Horsepower on the concept is expected to be in the neighborhood of 700 ponies - about 50 more than we initially thought - and will be split between a gas engine and an electric motor. Yup, that "E-Tron" name isn't just there for show. While it's not clear what the exact split will be between gas and electric power, we do know the same twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 found in the RS6 and RS7 will be sitting under the Quattro's hood, and that the bulk of the power will likely come from here. We may not have power figures on the hybrid system, but we do know this concept is capable of running for 21.7 miles on electric power alone.