Engineering Ethics Essay On The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

In 2015, Volkswagen incurred a problematic situation that left people asking the question, “Where were the Lawyers?” Volkswagen’s sales were spiraling out of control in crucial markets such as China and Brazil, which eventually lead to a reputation damage for the company. Likewise, the emissions testing catastrophe only made matters worse. Over 11 million of Volkswagen’s diesel cars worldwide were equipped with illegal software, used to cheat on emissions testing, posing a more serious threat to the environment as well as endangering human life. Specifically, this paper will discuss how I as an employee or manger would have prevented the incident and as a CEO, how I would have responded once the issue became public as well as to

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,

The mistrust between the Volkswagen Company and their customers developed after the scandal associated with the incorrect emission of data and cheating of the system unfolded.  The scandal occurred on the eighteenth of September 2015 when it was found that the company had made a car with a turbo that released emission directly into the real word atmosphere. The allegations were genuine and were proved by the Environment Protection Agency in the United States (EPA) (Hotten, 2016).The chief

Kantian ethics and rule utilitarianism disagree on the morality of creating a “defeat device.” This device determined when its engine was undergoing emissions testing then switched from its normal operating mode into a lower emission mode. The normal emission mode was 40 times the limit dictated by the Clean Air Act [1]. By creating a dirty engine, Liang contributed towards the destruction of the atmosphere. This will negatively impact the quality of life for many future generations of people. Because damaging the environment negatively impacts millions of people, rule utilitarianism declares it to be morally wrong. The prosecution of six executives of Volkswagen, including the head of engine development, indicate that Liang’s superiors were involved in this conspiracy from the beginning [2]. The most applicable maxim to this situation is “I shall fulfill

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

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

Apparently, the prosecution now has help in the form of a whistleblower. Daniel Donovan claims that he was fired because he thinks that Volkswagen thought that he was going to turn

As a multinational corporation, the implication of the scandal determines the fate of numerous stakeholders both internal and external. Internal stakeholders comprise of the board, managers and employees while external stakeholders subsume shareholders, customers and suppliers. The economic, political and social impacts of the dishonest practices would shape the fate of Volkswagen and affect the future prospects of the automotive industry. Common shareholders whilst not involved in the day to day running of the business placed faith and belief in the firm by providing capital had suffered severe economic loss as share prices (get something for stat). Despite the callous deception in advertising the defeat device displayed no signs of disturbing vehicle performance, however, customers of Volkswagen and its subsidiary vehicles suffer from lower resale value. In addition, even though the scandal was global, European consumers were the most affected with diesel cars accounting for 41% of all European cars (Fontaras, 2016). This high percentage in respect to other nations is a result of incentives provided by the European Union for the purchase of diesel vehicles such as subsidies towards the production process resulting in lower premiums compared to petrol counterparts (Vidal, 2015) In additional with sales falling suppliers of Volkswagen would likely lose future contracts or have current contracts downgraded as less parts are required. Thus, this loss of future

Companies betrayed their employees, consumers, supplies, shareholders, and the government by using unethical techniques and being dishonest to keep their company on top. For example, Volkswagen Company is now in a business ethical dilemma, because the company wanted their latest cars to pose as a diesel friendly. In 2015, “the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many Volkswagen cars being sold in America had a defeat device or software in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the U.S. VW has had a major push to sell diesel cars in the U.S, backed by a huge marketing campaign trumpeting its cars’ emission. The EPA’s finding cover 482,000 cars in the US only, including the VW-manufactured Audi A3, and the VW models Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat. But VW had admitted that about 11 million cars worldwide, including eight in Europe, are fitted with the so-called “defeat device” (Russell Hotten).” “Volkswagen had been intentionally and scandalously cheating on their nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions for

James Liang was a engineer working for Volkswagen as the “leader of diesel competence” his role in the diesel emissions cheating scandal was to “calibrate the diesel engine software to recognize specific emissions tests’ drive cycles. The defeat devices themselves operated by detecting when a vehicle was being tested for emissions and turned on all emission control systems that otherwise remained off when the car detected it was driven on the road.” (autoweek) When the scandal broke nearly a decade later Liang was charged with and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating the clean air act.(nytimes) Liang co-operated with the United States government and received a 40 month sentence and a 200,000 dollar fine.(cit) Volkswagen itself was required to pay 22 billion dollars in connection to the scandal.(nytimes)

Volkswagen engineer James Liang was the first engineer indicted by the U.S. government during the Volkswagen scandal concerning one of the biggest frauds in the automobile industry during the 21st century. James Liang held the title of “leader of Diesel Competence” and had moved from Germany to Ann Arbor, Michigan in order to lead a team whose job was to conduct emissions tests on Volkswagens diesel engines. Unfortunately, Liang and his team were not able to fully engineer a diesel that complied with the new amendments of United States Clean Air Act. Liang’s solution to this dilemma was to install a software into the vehicle’s system that would improve the emissions control

In the ‘diesel dupe’ case, the action considers the installation of the ‘defeat device’ within diesel engines. This will affect a range of stakeholders, however, three primary stakeholders include: (1) the Volkswagen Group (VWG), (2) the consumers of diesel cars, and (3) Volkswagen Group shareholders.

The people at the West Virginia had tested vehicles as well as the EPA (Patel). Volkswagen chose to include rout programming device to cheat the system to pass the testing laws. Volkswagen as a corporation was basically trying to cut the cost of engines to be built by limiting the NOx emission system that controls how much dirty chemicals that goes into the air (Patel).By the company putting this device in their cars they were trying to cut down the cost that they would have to spend, at the same time Volkswagen cars had better performance. The ethical question would be is it really worth it to CHOSE to overlook the laws to save money on cash (Patel). "We expected better from Volkswagen," said Cynthia Giles, the E.P.A's. colleague manager for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance. She called the automaker's activities "a danger to general health of our

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.