15 - A Whistle Not Blown: VW, Diesels, and Engineers

Summary

This chapter is a “case study,” that is, a collection of facts organized into a story (the case) analyzed to yield one or more lessons (the study). Collecting facts is always a problem. There is no end of facts. Even a small event in the distant past may yield a surprise or two if one looks carefully enough. But the problem of collecting facts is especially severe when the facts change almost daily as the story “unfolds” in the news. One must either stop collecting on some arbitrarily chosen day or go on collecting indefinitely. I stopped collecting on October 3, 2016 (the day on which I first passed this chapter to the editor of this volume). There is undoubtedly much to be learned from the facts uncovered since then, but this chapter leaves to others the collecting and analyzing of those newer facts. The story I tell is good enough for the use I make of it here – and for future generations to consider. Increasingly, whistleblowing is being understood to be part of the professional responsibilities of an engineer.