DAVID VS. GOLIATH

West Virginia Engineer Caught VW Cheats

Found first emissions discrepancies.

A 45-year-old West Virginia engineer and his team of researchers are being credited with producing early evidence that Volkswagen AG was lying about the results of U.S. vehicle emissions tests. Daniel Carder and his team—a research professor, two graduate students, and one other West Virginia University faculty member—set up road tests on the West Coast from Los Angeles to Seattle and found “huge” discrepancies between their own findings and Volkswagen’s official numbers. “There was one vehicle with 15 to 35 times the emission levels and another vehicle with 10 to 20 times the emission levels,” Carder said. The team’s findings were made public over a year and a half ago, leaving Carder surprised at the current uproar.