By the way Mr Horn is head of VW Group of America, a subsidiary which besides operating a factory in the U.S. is more or less a distributor of cars for VW and r

By the way Mr Horn is head of VW Group of America, a subsidiary which besides operating a factory in the U.S. is more or less a distributor of cars for VW and related brands in the U.S. As other people have said Horn doesn't know what's going on at VW AG. Also, judging from an earlier article it appears it's common to refer to various higher-ups on the product teams as Engineers even though they are quite old and were clearly acting in a managerial or even executive capacity. When Horn says "software engineer" he's making a leap and it's the wrong leap. Horn is making these statements after being pressed by members of Congress, he's not volunteering these misleading statements.