Science Behind VW Scandal

Guest: Dale Tree, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering Professor at BYU Volkswagon is poised to announce a plan this week for recalling some 11 million cars fitted with software rigged to cheat on emissions tests in the US and the Europe. The scandal cost Volkswagen’s CEO his job and a drop of $25 billion in market value for the company. Why did Europe’s biggest car maker attempt to fool customers and regulators into believing its cars were cleaner and more efficient than they really were? Why go so far as to have sneaky software that limits emissions only when the car is being inspected? Is it really that hard to make a diesel engine that gets great mileage and has low emissions without cheating?