Report: Many Volkswagen Managers Knew About 'Defeat Device'
Many staffers and managers within Volkswagen’s engine-development department knew about Volkswagen’s illegal emissions-cheating “defeat device,” including a whistleblower who told other executives, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported ( via Reuters).
The report said that there was a “desperation” among engineers tasked with creating a U.S.-emissions compliant diesel engine. Rather than going to the executive board with a failed engine, workers developed the cheat system to avoid repercussions from higher-ups.
The report also indicates that Volkswagen alone — not alongside auto supplier Bosch — created the defeat device.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited a source within Volkswagen who helped manipulate software to evade emissions tests, but said the source alerted another senior executive outside the department who said nothing.
According to Reuters, Volkswagen in Germany didn’t comment on the report.
The German newspaper said the department took a “Schweigegelübde,” or “vow of silence” to protect themselves during the investigation because that’s just a nightmare for Volkswagen.
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I don't get this morbid fascination in the press -- German and American -- with who knew what when. Whether the company is cheating from the top down or whether cheating occurs because the top sets unrealistic expectations and then doesn't realize when the engineers cheat -- it comes to the same thing. VW management owns the whole thing and will have to see it through either way. This isn't eight grade. What impresses me is how long this information was kept from leaking out. German engineers are a breed apart, it would seem. I can't see this sort of thing staying secret at Ford or GM for three months.
I've said this in other threads, but it bears repeating here: this is a classic example of a corporate culture that does not provide space for healthy, reasonable questioning and pushback on the executive team on the part of the people doing the work. As I tell my team on a regular basis: I never have a problem with you giving me a solid, rational argument why something cannot be accomplished on the schedule and budget assigned; but we will have major issues if you obfuscate, outright lie, or lie through omission. The classic story of Piech's demands for 3mm panel gaps (as told by Bob Lutz) and how he accomplished said goal in the '90s is really all you need to know. And while I agree that this all reeks of a classic example of how German corporations operate, the stories of both the shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 carry similar lessons, as well as stories about how large investment banks and mortgage brokers were run in the lead up to the financial crisis in late 2007-2008. Not unique to Volkswagen, but the case studies that will be written in the coming years will be pretty darned interesting reads, no doubt.
This link makes for some very interesting reading with some startling claims. I wonder if the US motor vehicle industry is any better than the EU? Especially with some pollutant emissions that would not pass a 1993 emissions test. Have a read. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35363264
Give VW execs credit for consistency. They aren't afraid to keep lying.