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James R. Healey reports that General Motors has fired 15 people who either were incompetent or irresponsible in their actions involving fatally flawed ignition switches that are linked to 13 deaths in crashes where airbags failed to inflate. "A disproportionate number of those were in senior roles or executives," said GM CEO Mary Barra. Two high-ranking engineers previously put on paid leave were among them, said Barra adding that five more employees "one level removed" were disciplined in unspecified ways because they "simply didn't take action."
A far back as 2002, General Motors engineers starting calling it the "switch from hell" but it would take a dozen years, more than 50 crashes and at least 13 deaths for the automaker to recall the ignition switch, used in millions of small cars. GM's own internal investigation never explains how a lone engineer in a global automaker could approve a less expensive part that failed to meet GM standards. Nor does it illuminate why the same engineer could substitute an improved design without changing the part number, a move critics cite as evidence of a cover-up. After the first cars with the switch went on sale, GM heard complaints from customers, employees and dealers. But "group after group and committee after committee within GM that reviewed the issue failed to take action or acted too slowly," the report said. A unique series of mistakes was made," said Barra. And the problem was misunderstood to be one of owner satisfaction and not safety. GM engineers didn't understand that when the switches failed, they cut power to the airbags.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by caseih on Sunday June 08 2014, @08:04PM
Probably going to lose karma for this... but while every death attributable to mechanical failure is a tragedy, it seems like the amount of outrage over this issue, both here and elsewhere in the media is quite out of proportion to what actually happened, and ultimately could make things much worse. Let's be realistic here, and appeal to math. 50 accidents in which this problem may have been a factor (remember it's not been proven in every case, simply suspected), and 13 deaths out of millions of vehicles is very near zero, despite the existence of this flaw for many years. Are these cars "dangerous" as the media is saying? Not according to the math and statistics. Should it be fixed? Yes. Should it have been fixed years ago? Yes. Should we put all GM execs in prison as punishment? I'm not so sure that's appropriate. In fact it's harmful.
People talk about a corporate culture of denial. Well this doesn't happen in a vacuum. In large measure, it's our attempts to hold others responsible at *all costs* that contributes to this problem. See in days of yore when problem was identified, sometimes contributing to fatalities, a company would issue its recall and proceed. But now this push to punish companies, and even try to hold officers personally liable has created a regulatory environment where any revelation of problem or weakness is very bad for the company and its shareholders. In recent years the government has proceeded with fraud cases against auto companies over flaws in their vehicles, which was unprecedented. This does not help a company want to fix problems quickly. I believe this action (first used against Toyota) directly contributed to GM continuing to hide the knowledge of the flaw until the very end. Any recall issued is possibly subject to fraud prosecution. Hence there's no incentive for a company to acknowledge flaws until absolutely forced to. There's a regulatory line that has to be found, but so far the Department of Justice has erred in this. Mistakes have been made in the past and will be made in the future. We have to foster an environment where self-correction of mistakes is encouraged and rewarded. This does not do that. Appropriate regulation will always be needed of course.
Taken a bit farther, if the current regulatory philosophies continue, and the Justice Department (and the popular media) clamor for more personal responsibility on the part of carmakers, it's just going to hamper innovation by new companies like Tesla and entrench older companies.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday June 08 2014, @08:30PM
I'm waiting for the tee shirt "I bailed out Government Motors and all I got was 13 lousy dead bodies"
So, capitalism failed us (or at least privatize the gains / socialize the losses failed us) so we nationalized a car company at great effort and expense and now we are supposed to have Stalin like great leap forward dictatorship of the proletariat revolution, yes comrade? Oh WTF comrade we end up with CYA and dead bodies stacked everywhere, what are you Trotskyite counter-revolutionary, comrade? This BS never happened in the good old USSR, comrade, how could this be happening to our mighty workers here in the United Socialist States of America, comrade?
A bit of expectation trouble.
Now if Ford killed people and stacked bodies like cordwood, they'd get a bit of a pass because 1) historically they haven't killed as many people as GM and 2) they didn't get a taxpayer paid bailout so you can comprehend a bit of being cheap.
Or if a couple people make some stuff up about Toyota thats OK because they're furriners and not white christians like us.
The problem is the godless commies, err, uh christs soldiers of socialism bailed out GM and even then they can't get something simple right like a F-ing ignition switch.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Sunday June 08 2014, @10:31PM
So, capitalism failed us (or at least privatize the gains / socialize the losses failed us)
On that subject, Soviet cars killed far more people, and nobody was ever prosecuted for that - not a manager, not a car factory. For example, some models of Volga GAZ-21 had a small sculpture of a deer on the hood (like in this photo [wikimedia.org]; here is another view [retrodetal.ru].). In collision with pedestrians this little deer, seemingly made out of light plastic, gutted them like a fish. I have never heard of any recalls, but this was talked about at driver's education classes; the ornaments were eventually discontinued for other reasons, but they are still sold as an upgrade kit.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 09 2014, @04:49PM
You fail to acknowledge that the "bailout" was a loan, and GM repaid the loan and the government sold its shares of GM stock. It's no longer Government Motors.
Now if Ford killed people and stacked bodies like cordwood, they'd get a bit of a pass because 1) historically they haven't killed as many people as GM
You don't know your history well, do you? Ford Pintos were rolling bombs, Ford knew it and kept it hidden. It would have cost them ten bucks per car to fix, but figured that it would be cheaper just to pay the victims' families. Then the same thing happened with the Crown Vic. Chevy had a similar problem with pickup trucks but recalled the cars after the first couple of people were immolated. Ford has killed a LOT more people than Chevy. And I doubt there is a single auto manufacturer who hasn't killed a few of their customers.
Also, Ford was offered the same deal as GM was but refused the help and got back on their feet without it.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 08 2014, @09:01PM
it's our attempts to hold others responsible at *all costs* that contributes to this problem
Bullshit.
The GM engineer knew there was a problem and he covered it up.
GM's system didn't review his work and didn't find the giant pile of irregularities.
This chain of events is the result of an MBA's cost/benefit calculation, based on distorted values.
In contrast, there is an all-volunteer project that produces better work with a greater sense of responsibility than the multi-$billion for-profit operation engaged in criminal activity.
The reason for the excellence is that the head guy is a fanatic about quality [google.com] and the meme percolates down through the ranks.
13 deaths out of millions of vehicles is very near zero
You assign a low value to the lives of other humans.
Maybe someone here knows the proper term for that kind of personality.
Just how close to you would a tragedy have to be for you to feel empathy?
...and if a jury decided that the value of a human life was $27B, you can bet there would be a change of tune in the cost analysis of corporations.
In case it's not obvious, I'm in favor of a corporate death penalty.
--gewg_
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 08 2014, @09:27PM
> Let's be realistic here, and appeal to math. 50 accidents in which this problem may have been a factor
More like 300 deaths, not just accidents, deaths. [hotair.com]
The number of non-fatal accidents is certainly well above that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 09 2014, @02:14AM
You know what else is very near zero? Fucking ZERO!!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 09 2014, @04:39PM
The crime was that they deliberately hid the problem. The outcry wouldn't have been there if they had done a voluntary recall when they first discovered the problem.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org