VW North American Chief Testifies Before Congress, Blames Software Engineers

Volkswagen is in the news again for their diesel emissions crisis – this time because their North American Executive testified before congress.

Michael Horn, the leader for Volkswagen in North America, testified before U.S congress Thursday and offered up an apology for the emissions crisis. Speaking before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Horn said, “Oh behalf of my company, my colleagues in Germany and myself personally, I would like to offer a sincere apology for Volkswagen’s use of a software program that served to defeat the regular emissions testing regime.”

After his apology on the part of Volkswagen, Horn was subject to questioning from lawmakers who were discontent with the Volkswagen emissions software “defeat device.” Horn said VW plans to fix the 482,000 vehicles impacted by the emissions software issue, but not buy the vehicles back. Horn also said that VW is weighing whether or not to compensate owners for lost vehicle value. Speaking before congress Horn said, “Our plan is not to buy back the inventory. Our plan is to fix the cars.”

Horn also noted that “dealer profitability” is a top priority for Volkswagen. Horn also blamed the entire emissions software issue on software engineers. Speaking to U.S. congress, Horn said, “This was not a corporate decision, from my point of view, and to my best knowledge today. This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reasons.”

Representative Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from New York didn’t buy the explanation from Horn. Speaking to Horn, congressman Collins said, “Either your entire organization is incompetent when it comes to trying to come up with intellectual property, and I don’t believe that for a second, or they are complicit at the highest levels in a massive cover-up that continues today.”

Facing disbelieving lawmakers, Horn said that it was rouge software engineers who are responsible for the diesel emissions crisis. Do you believe him? How do you think Horn is handling this crisis and the questioning from congress?