Volkswagen promised something its engineers could not build. Nobody was allowed to say so — so they wrote software to hide it instead.
Harder version: read this lesson at C1 level →
Look at each word. Say what you think it means. Then tap the card.
Tap a card to see the meaning.
Write one word from the cards in each gap.
1. The speed on this road is fifty kilometres an hour.
2. He got a of one hundred euros for parking outside the station.
3. She was with me and told me exactly what she thought.
4. Our sales for this year is two million.
5. He finally that he had broken the window.
6. Two ministers had to after the newspapers published the story.
1. limit · 2. fine · 3. honest · 4. target · 5. admitted · 6. resign
Read each part. Then answer the questions before you read the next part.
In the late 2000s, Volkswagen wanted to become the biggest car company in the world. The most difficult market was America, where the company was weak.
Its idea was "clean diesel". The promise was beautiful: German engineering had solved the problem. You could have a diesel car that used little fuel, drove well, and was clean enough for the strict American rules — without the expensive extra equipment that other companies needed.
For several years it worked. Journalists loved the cars. Customers bought them.
But inside the engine department there was a problem. The promise was impossible.
Engineers later said in court that you could not meet the American limits with that engine, at that price, with that performance, in that time. It simply could not be done.
And in that company, you could not say so. Volkswagen was famous for brilliant engineering and for fear, in equal amounts. You did not discuss targets. You did not present failure. Bosses were known for destroying engineers in meetings.
So somebody chose a different road. Software.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Volkswagen wanted to grow in the American market.
2. The engineers could easily meet the American limits.
3. It was normal at Volkswagen to tell your boss that a target was impossible.
The software inside the engine could recognise the official test. It watched the steering, the speed and the wheels. When it saw the test pattern, it switched the car into a clean mode.
On the road, it switched the cleaning system down again. Real emissions were many times higher than the limit — up to forty times, according to the American investigators.
It is important to understand what this was not. It was not a mistake. It was not a small problem with a rule. It was software built on purpose, improved over several years and several models, and installed in about eleven million cars.
Its only job was to make an official measurement measure something that did not exist.
The end came from a very small study. A charity paid researchers at a university in West Virginia a few tens of thousands of dollars to measure diesel cars on real roads. They expected to prove that modern diesels were clean.
They drove Volkswagens between cities with measuring equipment. The numbers were far above the laboratory results. They published in 2014.
Volkswagen spent more than a year answering the regulators with technical explanations and small repairs. None of them closed the gap, because the gap was the design.
Only when the regulators said they would not approve the 2016 models did the company admit the truth, in September 2015.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. The software could tell when the car was being tested.
2. The cheating was an accident.
3. The problem was discovered by a very expensive government investigation.
The explosion took days. The American environment agency published its notice. The share price fell by about a third in two days.
The chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, resigned. His sentence is now famous. He said he was "not aware of any wrongdoing on my part" — and in the same statement accepted responsibility for the crisis as chief executive.
At first the company said a small group of engineers had done it. The investigations found a much wider picture underneath.
The company paid enormous fines, changed its rules, and built a large compliance department.
And then something strange happened. Partly because the American court agreement forced it, and partly as a kind of apology, Volkswagen went into electric cars earlier and harder than any other big carmaker.
Serious analysts argue that this scandal made the whole car industry go electric years sooner.
It is an odd monument. The most lasting result of the scandal may be the technology that kills the engine that caused it.
People argue about the real lesson. Was it a rules problem — so fix it with better controls? Was it a management problem — impossible targets plus punished honesty always equals cheating, everywhere? Or was it a leadership problem — a board of insiders cannot supervise something all the insiders benefit from?
The question for any company is simple and uncomfortable. In your organisation, what happens to the person who says "we cannot reach this target"?
True or false? Click your answer.
1. The chief executive said he personally knew about the cheating.
2. Volkswagen later invested heavily in electric cars.
3. Everybody agrees on one single cause of the scandal.
This story is full of sentences with no person in them. Mistakes were made. The software was installed. The cars were tested. That is the passive, and companies use it constantly when the news is bad.
Active: Engineers wrote the software. → we know who did it.
Passive: The software was written. → the person disappears.
How to build it: the right form of be + the past participle. was written · were installed · is tested · has been paid.
If you want to say who: add by. → "The software was written by the engineers."
Why this matters here: "Mistakes were made" admits a problem and hides the person at the same time. Listen for it whenever a company apologises.
| Active | Passive | Who disappeared? |
|---|---|---|
| Engineers wrote the software. | The software was written. | the engineers |
| The company installed it in 11m cars. | It was installed in 11m cars. | the company |
| Regulators discovered the problem. | The problem was discovered. | the regulators |
| Somebody made mistakes. | Mistakes were made. | everybody |
Change each sentence into the passive. Do not say who did it.
1. Volkswagen installed the software in eleven million cars. → The software in eleven million cars.
2. Researchers published the results in 2014. → The results in 2014.
3. The company paid enormous fines. → Enormous fines .
4. Somebody tested the cars in a laboratory. → The cars in a laboratory.
5. The regulators approved the new models. → The new models .
1. was installed · 2. were published · 3. were paid · 4. were tested · 5. were approved
Each sentence has one mistake. Say the correct sentence out loud, then check.
1. The software was wrote by the engineers.
2. Eleven million cars was sold with this software.
3. The problem discovered in 2014.
4. The fines were paid from the company.
5. The chief executive was resigned in September.
1. The software was written by the engineers. (use the past participle, not the past simple)
2. Eleven million cars were sold with this software. (plural subject → were)
3. The problem was discovered in 2014. (the passive always needs be)
4. The fines were paid by the company. (by, not from)
5. The chief executive resigned in September. (resign is not passive — he did it himself)
Take your time. Short sentences are fine.
Tell me the story of Volkswagen in your own words. Six or seven sentences is enough.
What happens where you work when somebody has to give bad news to the boss?
Is it safe? Give an example if you can.
Put these in order, from most guilty to least guilty: the engineer who wrote the code, the manager who set the target, the chief executive, the board.
Explain your order.
Some people say the scandal was good in the end, because it made electric cars arrive sooner.
Do you accept that argument? Why, or why not?