Look forward to a criminal fraud investigation, billions in fines, Musk resigning etc.

Agreed that it seems like everyone at least looked suspicious.

"But, mom! Everyone is doing it!" cried the 12-year-old.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

There was a period in the early-mid 2000s where their diesels, along with Mercedes, got pushed out of California and CARB-compliant states. The opinion among diesel enthusiasts was that this was intentional on the part of CARB not just over NOx concerns, but also to help the market for hybrids grow. Otherwise, given the TDI's at-the-time superior highway mileage and the then-prevailing diesel prices, the VW diesel would have presented as the superior option to the Prius for a lot of people.

During this period, there was still a lot of pent-up demand for the VW and Mercedes diesels in California. Any car coming from out of state with at least 8,500 miles on the odometer was considered a "used car" and could be registered no matter the powerplant, so there was quite a cottage industry of putting that much mileage on brand-new out-of-state diesels and then turning them around on LA or SF Craigslist. The market here was primed to buy VW, but VW cheated to get in a position to sell new "CARB-compliant" diesels again. I'm not surprised that the prosecutors went after them disproportionately.

Example making can be rather distasteful, but it can also be an effective deterrent preventing similar things happening again.

because it sure reads like this is exactly what your view.

it doesn't matter if there's a double standard, it's bad behavior no matter what the rules are for everyone else. and if there is a double standard then that is something else that needs addressing. a double standard does not diminish the severity of these documents.

You read the whole 100GB already? I'm impressed with your speed-reading skills!

Other automakers don't go and scream around in their advertising (or in the antics of their founder) to the degree Tesla does.