Lutz writes: "That's the way he ran everything. It's what I call a reign of terror and a culture where performance was driven by fear and intimidation. He just says, 'You will sell diesels in the U.S., and you will not fail. Do it, or I'll find somebody who will.' The guy was absolutely brutal."
Lutz reckoned that VW engineers at one point said to Piech, "We don't know how to pass the emissions test with the hardware we have," and were told "You will pass! I demand it!"
"In these situations, your choice was immediate dismissal or find a way to pass the test and pay the consequences later," Lutz wrote. "Human nature being what it is -- if it's lose your job today for sure or lose your job maybe a year from now, we always pick maybe a year from now."
