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Categorizing it as "blame the engineer" is sadly accurate in my opinion. That has been VW's stance from the very beginning. VW's US CEO said, while denying a co

by nerdy 11y ago

Categorizing it as "blame the engineer" is sadly accurate in my opinion. That has been VW's stance from the very beginning. VW's US CEO said, while denying a corporate-level scandal, "software engineers who put this in for whatever reason," to a congressional panel back in October: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/volkswagen-pulls-2016-diesel-lineup-from-us-market/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/volkswagen-pulls-... Certainly doesn't get any more "blame the engineer" than that, unless they're supposedly somehow changing their tune now... which is not my impression. With regards to middle management being laid off, it strikes me more as the C-level players insulating themselves from the taint.

deleted 11y ago
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- dagw 11y ago
  Didn't downvote you, but the CEO of VW America has nothing really to do with the company that actually designs and builds VW cars. He basically just sells their cars in US. So as such he probably has no idea about what is actually going on. The executives at the 'real' VW have been much more nuanced in their statements
  - ascagnel_ 11y ago
    I would imagine that a company's national/continental headquarters is also responsible for making sure each car is compliant with their respective localities as part of the process of readying it for sale (especially in the US, where individual states can have their own emissions standards that exceed that of the federal government). Even if VW of America didn't design, build, or request the cheat devices, they're still partially culpable by either unknowingly offering the cars for sale (and not doing their own independent tests in advance of the third-party testing that detected the cheat devices) or knowingly offering cars for sale that didn't meet local emissions standards.
  - nerdy 11y ago
    If he doesn't know what is happening should he be making assertions to Congress (or anyone) like that?
    - dagw 11y ago
      Probably not. But I guess it's difficult for some people to say "Not my department, so fucked if I know". So they make something up that sounds plausible and hope that it either happens to be correct or that no one ends up calling them up it.
    - a3n 11y ago
      1. Members' questions probably forced a statement like that. 2. I'm certain he consulted with the mothership before testimony, and the message was "be a brand champion."
jazzyk 11y ago
There are parallels to finance (and other industries), when a lot of money is lost as a result of a series of risky bets, what do you do? Blame the "rogue" trader.
criddell 11y ago
It seems to me that there is plenty of blame to go around. Engineers, managers, executives should all shoulder some blame. The engineers that are actual Professional Engineers (ie the P.Eng. folks) should lose their professional standing. If a medical doctor lied and deceived patients, they should face severe repercussions. Professional engineers share similar ethical responsibilities.
URSpider94 11y ago
At least two of the people fired were C-level engineering managers (chief engineers), and in fact they are the people often cited with hatching this plan in the first place. I'll keep saying it -- there seems to be some belief that anyone sitting in the boardroom is not an engineer. That may be how you see it, but it's not the common perception.

by nerdy 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

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dagw 11y ago
Didn't downvote you, but the CEO of VW America has nothing really to do with the company that actually designs and builds VW cars. He basically just sells their cars in US. So as such he probably has no idea about what is actually going on. The executives at the 'real' VW have been much more nuanced in their statements
- ascagnel_ 11y ago
  I would imagine that a company's national/continental headquarters is also responsible for making sure each car is compliant with their respective localities as part of the process of readying it for sale (especially in the US, where individual states can have their own emissions standards that exceed that of the federal government). Even if VW of America didn't design, build, or request the cheat devices, they're still partially culpable by either unknowingly offering the cars for sale (and not doing their own independent tests in advance of the third-party testing that detected the cheat devices) or knowingly offering cars for sale that didn't meet local emissions standards.
- nerdy 11y ago
  If he doesn't know what is happening should he be making assertions to Congress (or anyone) like that?
  - dagw 11y ago
    Probably not. But I guess it's difficult for some people to say "Not my department, so fucked if I know". So they make something up that sounds plausible and hope that it either happens to be correct or that no one ends up calling them up it.
  - a3n 11y ago
    1. Members' questions probably forced a statement like that. 2. I'm certain he consulted with the mothership before testimony, and the message was "be a brand champion."

jazzyk 11y ago

There are parallels to finance (and other industries), when a lot of money is lost as a result of a series of risky bets, what do you do? Blame the "rogue" trader.

criddell 11y ago

It seems to me that there is plenty of blame to go around. Engineers, managers, executives should all shoulder some blame. The engineers that are actual Professional Engineers (ie the P.Eng. folks) should lose their professional standing. If a medical doctor lied and deceived patients, they should face severe repercussions. Professional engineers share similar ethical responsibilities.

URSpider94 11y ago

At least two of the people fired were C-level engineering managers (chief engineers), and in fact they are the people often cited with hatching this plan in the first place. I'll keep saying it -- there seems to be some belief that anyone sitting in the boardroom is not an engineer. That may be how you see it, but it's not the common perception.