VW Dieselgate engineer sings like a canary: Entire design team was in on it – not just a few bad apples, allegedly

A Volkswagen engineer has agreed to spill the details of his involvement in the VW emissions scandal.

Former engineer James Robert Liang took a plea deal with the US federal government to cooperate with its ongoing investigation of how the German carmaker cheated American emissions tests and passed off its "clean diesel" engines as meeting state and government clean air standards.

While VW executives have claimed that the use of a defeat device to artificially limit emissions during tests was the work of a "couple of software engineers," Liang's plea deal shows that the conspiracy dates back roughly a decade and has roots in the team that designed the engines.

In other words, Liang claims the design team was in on it, not just a couple of bad apples.