SOW MOHAMED
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Volkswagen Pollutes its Reputation with Software to Cheat Emissions Testing
CITM100-410
Claude K. Sam-Foh
1 Does the Volkswagen emission cheating crisis pose an ethical dilemma? Why or why not? If so, who are the stakeholders? The Volkswagen emission cheating crisis does pose an ethical dilemma. Volkswagen intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicle’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) output to meet U.S. standards during regulatory testing but emit up to 40 times more NOx when the cars were actually driven on the road. Volkswagen put this…show more content… To what extent was management responsible? Explain your answer. Management: In 2007 Volkswagen decided to abandon a pollution-control technology developed by Mercedes- Benz and Bosch to use its own internally developed technology. This took place at the same time that Volkswagen CEO Mr Martin Winterkorn started pressuring his managers with higher growth targets for the U.S. automobile market. The person or persons at fault in the management responsible for this decision are not known. Lawsuits by some states like New York, Maryland, and Massachusetts have stated that dozens of engineers and managers, including CEO were involved in the scandal. Volkswagen became the target of regulatory investigations in a lot of countries, and it’s stock price fell by a third in the days following the cheating scandal. Mr Winterkorn resigned from his CEO position and the head of brand development Mr Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Audi research and development head Mr Ulrich Hackenberg, and Porsche research and development head Mr Wolfgang Hatz were all suspended from their…show more content… The automakers operating in the U.S market developed strategies to meet the new mileage rules, while VW’s focused on diesel. However, diesel engines, while offering better mileage, also emit more smog forming pollutants than the conventional engines. VW’s strategy came up against American air pollution standards, which are tougher than those enforced in Europe. Cheating on emissions tests solved a lot of problems for VW. The cars equipped with the “cheating” software were able to deliver better mileage and performance allowing VW to avoid having to pay for expensive pollution-control systems. VW started installing the software to cheat emissions tests back in 2008 after learning that its new diesel engine developed at great expense for its growth strategy, could not meet the pollution standards enforced in the U.S. market and other countries. Rather than stopping the production and discard years of research and development, VW decided to