I completed project 3 in the form of an audio podcast episode that I produced with Lucinda Krahl and Emily Claps. The episode can be found on Lucinda’s blog.
Recording the podcast episode about the Volkswagen scandal was informative in a number of ways. First and foremost, I was given the opportunity to do further research on the subject and actually form opinions in order to produce an episode worth listening to. There was a lot more to the process than I’d initially understood, including the actual testing process that uncovered the real emissions levels.
Potential reasons that a corporation like VW would resort to such tactics depend on the level that this comes from. If it came down from near the top, it could have been a tactical move on VW’s part to try to push a superior product through stricter regulations without spending extra money to fit such regulations. If it were a rogue engineer or two who hacked something together to make their jobs easier, then the motive might have been sheer laziness (knowing engineers, this possibility is more than plausible). But the sophistication of the system suggests that it was a dedicated effort instead of a quick hack.
If I were an engineer at VW, if the orders did come down from the top, I could have used Whistleblower protections to keep from being demoted or fired, or to seek reinstation (although it is not clear how well these protections work, as I definitely wouldn’t be the company’s favorite employee). That only really goes for the US though, I don’t know what protections might be like in Germany, where the scandal took place.
Ultimately the responsibility for such scandals that involve whistleblowing should stay at the highest level. It is completely unfair and unethical to expect common workers and engineers to have to be responsible for things of this magnitude; people at the top need to be held responsible for their actions.
Jack thoughts 