Aa 189 Diesel

For instance, if a person were to ask me if his car was nice but I thought it was junk, Kant would disregard his feelings because telling him the truth is more important. Therefore, it is okay to perform illegal or unethical actions because morality and loyalty are more important. The problem would then arise: “What if everyone did this? What if everyone acted on impulse and did whatever they wanted? There would be no need for moral choices and

Firstly, from the view of company, Volkswagen scandal is result from the misuse of CSR that the company regarded it as a marketing tool. Although Volkswagen promised to persuade CSR as their corporation culture, the reality turns out to be opposite. Volkswagen equipped defeat devices on cars deliberately to pass environmental tasks and actually the defeat device emitted nitrogen oxide approximately 40 times of standard (Dans, 2015). This behaviour can be explained as "green-washing", which means the real performance is different from the test results (Eric, 2015). The motivation of deception largely depends on corporation’s aggressive goal called “Strategy 2018” , which aim to increase annual sales to ten million cars by 2018 (Volkswagen, 2014). Therefore, Volkswagen needs to lower the price to be competitive to its competitors and one task is to reduce cost of production. Volkswagen used CSR concept to cover unethical actions. It demonstrates that Volkswagen focused on persuading the short-term target rather than its customers, long-term reputation and environment (Bansal, King & Seijts,

One of the several topics covered in Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals is the issued of two shopkeepers. One shopkeeper is honest with his customers in order to maintain a positive reputation and improve profits. The second one is honest because he thinks it is right and exercises his respect for the moral law. The first shopkeeper is motivated to be honest by the rewards of a positive reputation and profit. The second is motivated by respect for morally right action. Taking these motivations into consideration from the standpoint of Kantian ethics, it is clear which shopkeeper is acting right.

Volkswagen is under investigation following reports from the EPA that they had installed software into their engines that deceived emissions testers. Furthermore, engineers updated this software in 2014, claiming that they were improving the vehicles. James Liang, a senior engineer who had worked for Volkswagen for 30 years, admitted to investigators in September of 2016 that he had designed the software in question. Further investigation has revealed that this conspiracy may have involved executives of the company. It is unknown to the public whether Liang was acting under orders when he designed the software or he decided to create it on his own to meet requirements his superiors gave him. Both rule utilitarianism and Kantian duty ethics

But was it ethical? This question will often be asked regarding the case of engineer James Liang and his role in the Volkswagen emission scandal. During the period of early 2006 to 2014, James Liang and his team of engineers developed a “defeat” device that allowed diesel powered vehicles to pass the EPA emission test, when in fact the vehicles were emitting up to 30 times the allowable limit. To many, this may seem a black and white case of ethics due to the fact that Liang’s team and Volkswagen blatantly cheated on a governmental testing regulation and then proceeded to falsely advertise the vehicles as “clean diesel and environmentally friendly” as reported by the United States Department of Justice; however, different ethical

This example deems that killing the one healthy person is morally permissible because it saves five other people, and thus maximizes happiness. However, this judgment severely conflicts with deeply held moral beliefs that it is wrong to kill a healthy person and consequently, this creates a problem for act utilitarians. With regard to Kantianism, Kant believes that moral duty is based on reason. Every rational being must consider the decision procedure for moral reasoning to determine if their action is morally permissible and can be universalized. However, Kant’s decision procedures may lead to conflict. Kant endorses the claim that one must never lie, regardless of the circumstance. As discussed in class, we are tempted to make exceptions to the rule against lying because we think that if we are honest, the consequences will be bad, and if we tell a lie, the consequences will be good. Kant would argue that we can never be certain about what the consequences will be, and for this reason, the best policy is to avoid what we already know is evil – lying. Kant assumes that we would be morally responsible for any bad consequences of lying, but we would not be held accountable for any bad consequences of telling the truth. Consider the following example: Your friend has a baby and asks you if you think that the baby is cute. Your honest opinion is that the baby is ugly. According to Kantianism, you must tell the truth. Kant believes that we would not be responsible for the bad

Volkswagon was caught cheating on their diesel emissions by a man named Daniel Carder and his small research team at West Virginia University in late 2012 through May 2013. The team consisted of a research professor, two graduate students, a faculty member and himself. Their team originally wanted to investigate emissions to help the diesel cars in Europe. There has been much data suggesting vehicles in Europe have high nitrogen oxides and dioxides. The goal was to look at emissions in the U.S. where the emission standards were very strict. It was thought that if the cars were found to be clean, then they could take the data results to Europe, and say “why can’t you do the same in Europe?” The small research team had been granted $50,000

Morality is defined as “A particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified person or society.” (Oxford University Press, “Morality”). Gerald grew up with a moral obligation that pesticides should not be used on crops. He thinks that organic farming and not using pesticides is the right thing to do. Immanuel Kant is a Prussian philosopher who believes that in order to behave morally, one must act on a sense of good will and duty instead of personal benefit. If Gerald were to interview for that job at Pro-Growth Pesticides Inc., he would be doing so for personal benefit instead of a universal benefit. “Kant agreed that we have moral duties to oneself and others, such as developing one's talents, and

Starting in 2006, James Liang began design on the EA 189 diesel engine. To sell the EA 189 engine in the United States, the engine is mandated to pass an emissions test; which posed a problem for Liang and his team since, compared to the standards, the engine was inadequate. James Liang knew that the engine would not pass the test; therefore, he and his fellow conspirators developed the dynamometer, an attachment allowing them to cheat the emissions tests. Per Brad Plumer, “Since 2009, Volkswagen had been installing elaborate software in 482,000 "clean diesel" vehicles sold in the US, so that the cars' pollution controls only worked when being tested for emissions. The rest of the time, the vehicles could freely spew hazardous, smog-forming

Unlike Mill, Kant postulates that certain types of actions as theft, rape, lying and murder ought to be explicitly prohibited irrespective of whether they are likely to generate happiness or not (Reath 23). The Kantian ethical consideration requires that John contemplates whether his actions respect other human beings and whether he can will that other people in his position act in a similar manner.

BMW’s main competitors on the UK market are Daimler Ag well-known with Mercedes and Maybach, Vauxhall Motors offering Opel, Ford, Audi and Volkswagen Group UK. Ford has been first on the market share for the last two years (See AppendixB), attracting the customers with a combination of price, power and efficiency. Ford’s engine technology plays a key role, reducing both running costs and emissions while delivering rewarding levels of power and performance (Ford, 2015). This model may serve as an example to BMW in terms of considering emissions causes and the public sensitivity of this matter. After the recent emission scandal Volkswagen has lost positions among the leaders in the industry and people lost their trust and respect of the company. According to estimates, the cost of the entire dieselgate scandal for Volkswagen, including government fines and settlements, private settlements, recall expense, and future loss of sales, could be up to $34.5 billion (Trefis, 2015). According to the previous source, BMW’s diesel emission was also questioned, in particular, the model X3 was reported to be eleven times above the European norms which led to a 10% decline in BMW’s stocks. Further investigations will follow in BMW’s case but nonetheless it is a serious issue and a sign that the company must be very careful with its offered products, otherwise, BMW may follow Volkswagen’s collapse. Mercedes is arguably the toughest and the most challenging competitor to BMW as both

In 2016, a Volkswagen engineer by the name of James Liang pled guilty to criminal charges related to a gas emissions scandal (Isidore). The scandal was a result of Volkswagen engineers trying to pass the strict United States emission standards by cheating diesel engine emissions tests with software designed to recognize when emissions testing was being performed and regulate emissions accordingly (Chambers). By cheating the tests in this way, the diesel engine vehicles were able to pass US standards when tested while maintaining vehicle performance when being driven on the open road. However, when these diesel vehicles were driving on the open road, the gas emissions were not being controlled and the vehicles were actually emitting up to 40 times the acceptable limit (Isidore). This clearly presents some ethical issues, especially when analyzing the scandal from a Kantian perspective and focusing on the moral duty of the engineers involved. If James Liang and the other Volkswagen engineers involved had followed their moral duty, this scandal would have been avoided.

It is not hard to see that the scandal would cause a horrid blow to VW’s image. Until the incident, VW had, like many other German companies, the reputation of “German engineering” (Robertson, 2013). However, instead of using that innovation to develop diesel-fueled cars compliant with U.S. standards, it decided to try to scam its way in the market. Not only did the company admit to having 11 million cars with software intended to cheat tests (Gates, Ewing, Russell & Watkins, 2017), it also plead guilty to “destroying evidence in an elaborate cover-up” (VW Admits Emissions Cheating and Cover-up, 2017); building further distrust among its consumers.

Today, we live in a world that’s vastly interconnected. Something that happens across seas can affect a whole nation, several nations, or even all of them. Recently Volkswagen was put in the hot seat when they were caught imputing software into their diesel vehicles, that makes it show a different emissions output than was accepted by the EPA. They called this device the, “defeat device.” Thusly all of their vehicles that were diesel were marketed as low emissions which turned out to be a lie. The article on bbc.com states, “The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.” This is a huge blow to the company as far as public opinion goes. They lost the trust of millions of people around the world. They have been producing allegedly clean diesel emissions for a long time now and even included that in their advertisements. Because of this scandal they were forced to recall millions of diesel vehicles with this device causing them to lose over $2.5 billion. Their first quarterly loss in the past 15 years. This sounds like a lot of money but the EPA is still considering fining Volkswagen for each car they produced and lied about. The amount they are considering charging them is roughly $37,500 for each car which leads to a maximum fine of $18 billion. That’s more than the value of most of the cars, which really shows how seriously they are taking this. Even for a giant like VW that is a massive blow financially. From now on every

Volkswagen has found itself entangled in one of the most serious automotive scandals today. On September 18th, 2015 Volkswagen was accused of installing defective devices into their V6 diesel automobiles; the cars of Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen, all owned by Volkswagen AG (Customer Report, customerreports.org) were all affected. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was informed of this allegation, they set out an investigation to see whether this was true or false.