If you had been to identify somebody furtively stuffing bottles of ammonia, massive blocks of Swiss cheese, and an embalmed marmot into a big duffel bag whereas trying round nervously, you’d most likely assume that one thing was up. You wouldn’t actually have any thought what, precisely, was up, however it positive as hell looks like some sort of fuckery is happening. That’s the identical feeling I get when I read about Audi building thousands of cars with the same Vehicle Identification Number.
The German enterprise journal Handelsblatt wrote that, whereas state prosecutors had been investigating Audi’s company information for Dieselgate-related paperwork, additionally they found proof that, “thousands of Audis exported to China, Korea or Japan may have the same vehicle identification number.”
As you realize, a automotive’s VIN is meant to be a novel 17-digit quantity, a quantity that stays with the automotive all through its life, and, by regulation, should stay unduplicated for not less than 30 years.
Clearly, producing 1000’s of automobiles with equivalent VINs just isn’t usually finished.
If a handful of automobiles had been constructed with the identical VIN you may probably attribute that to some kind of organizational or mechanical error. But 1000’s of automobiles, all with the identical quantity? An error of that magnitude can be extraordinarily inconceivable.
The actual query right here just isn’t the way it occurred, however why? If we assume that the duplication of all these VINs was intentional, what doable function may that serve? Since these automobiles had been all despatched to Asian markets, may it’s some unusual technique to get round import restrictions? If you need to listing the VINs for each automotive despatched to a given area, however one VIN may confer with 1000’s of automobiles as an alternative of 1, that’d be a fairly nifty hack, I suppose.
Could it’s one thing to confuse doable future remembers? What the hell is happening? What’s your angle, Audi?
The specialists are baffled as properly, with Handelsblatt reporting that:
Investigators admitted that they’re mystified about what function can be served by producing autos with the identical VIN quantity.
Audi, in fact, is taking part in dumb, with a spokesperson saying:
We aren’t conscious of the actual fact the VIN numbers have been issued greater than as soon as.
Because, in fact they’re not. I reached out to Audi as properly, and can replace the story if and after I get a response again.
In the meantime, we could as properly guess about what the hell Audi may very well be as much as. My present principle is that, in partnership with the Large Hadron Collider, Audi has found out the right way to construct automobiles within the Multiverse, and are simply constructing a automotive as soon as, however throughout 1000’s of parallel universes, after which taking these automobiles and promoting all of them right here, at a large manufacturing value financial savings.
The downside is that, since they’re all the identical automotive from parallel universes, all of them have the identical VIN. And possibly one or two use blood for oil, or one thing.
Anyway, guess away! We have as a lot probability as determining what the fuck these guys are as much as as anybody!