Volkswagen: Diesel-gate scandal

RICHE Antoine

DUBOIS Bastien

DEMENAIS Alexandre

EP2

Volkswagen: Diesel-gate scandal

The project:

The Volkswagen affair, also called «dieselgate», is an industrial and health scandal linked to the use by the Volkswagen group, from 2009 to 2015, various defeat device techniques aimed at fraudulently reducing the polluting emissions of some of its diesel and gasoline engines during approval tests. According to the group, more than 11 million vehicles from its brands Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Škoda and Porsche are involved worldwide. The case, unparalleled in automotive history, was revealed in September 2015 by the American Environmental Protection Agency. The group wanted to create this defeat device because in 2009, the brand was in possession of a brand-new engine supposedly less polluting. Due to design errors, the engine was found to pollute well above world standards. To lose as little money as possible, Volkswagen saw fit to create this defeat device in order to mislead the environmental certification tests.

List of all the stakeholders:

• Customer : it is a natural or legal person who allows the company to create its turnover and in return expects a quality product or service covering all its demand. Thus, it is about the person who buys the project therefore the final product or service.
• Project manager : he is responsible for all aspects of the project, from its launch to its closure. It is he who organizes and manages the project. He is responsible for planning, developing tasks, managing the budget and respecting the schedule. He must ensure that the project will be delivered on time and within the allocated budget.
• The project team : This is chosen by the project manager and is responsible for carrying out the project. Each member has his own specialty and competence and together they are supposed to complement each other. Everyone has an appropriate task and must complete it within the required budget and time.
• Suppliers : they bring and must provide the equipment, material or software necessary for the realization of the project and expect payment on a fixed due date. They can also be subcontractors who work under the direction of the project manager. Failure to deliver the equipment late will affect the project schedule and budget. It is a key stakeholder in the success of the project. Poor choice of suppliers can defeat your project.
• Sponsor : Here will be the Volkswagen Management, it finances the project. It is therefore up to them to make the most important decisions (the project manager being below hierarchically speaking). The content and quality level of the project as well as the schedule and budget are defined by the sponsor.
• Public power : authority which directs the general administration of the State and makes apply the laws on the national territories. It is a very important stakeholder because if you do not obtain the required authorizations or if your project does not meet the standards imposed, it can simply be canceled.
• Users : person or organization who will use the project or the products of the project.

Deontological analysis:

That’s the engineer’s code of ethics. It is an ethical theory that affirms that every human action must be judged according to its conformity or not to certain duty. Here, the engineer has two quite distinct duties.

He has a duty to respect his superiors. He must respect what his superior asks of him. He must be loyal to his employees and colleagues. But despite what his superior asks him, he also has the duty to protect public health and therefore not to apply what his superior asks him.

The engineer thus finds himself with a moral dilemma that comes with obligations from the point of view of the company but also obligations as protector of humanity. It can be noted that the choice between these two obligations can only be made by the person himself and his morality in relation to the circumstances.

According to Flores the answer to such a dilemma is not predefined as an algorithm that will present each ethical response according to the different situations, the choice is therefore up to the person engaged in the project and nobody else.

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