Earlier quoted context omitted.
And they got bailed out by the US taxpayers. I am just astonished at the outrage over some skirting of an arbitrary number in an emissions standard, in contrast to the comparative yawn over the things other automakers have done that they knew would actually kill people.
Diesel emissions kill tens of thousands of people each year. It's probably hundreds of thousands across Europe. VW's scam has added to those deaths. VW killed far more than 150 people.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vw-pollution-footprint...
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-estimate-the-death-to...
while pollution will affects almost everyone on earth, the cumulative effect is not that much and pollution is not a major cause for deaths to begin with
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.wrapper.ENVHEALTH3?lang=en...