I received a recall notice a few weeks ago for my 2005 Subaru. It was part of the now infamous Takata airbag inflator recall campaign. For those of you not familiar with the ever-expanding Takata airbag recall, or maybe just overwhelmed by the number of recent auto manufacturer recalls, Car and Driver has put together a nice up-to-date summary and timeline. Being a generally prudent car owner, I went to the dealer to get a new airbag, only to learn that the dealer would not be able to get a replacement until … well …, they just said they would call me if they ever got one. In fairness, most of the replacements were given to high-humidity locations such as Florida and Puerto Rico as moisture is believed to contribute to the component failure. After all, Michigan never experiences humidity, right? For other reasons (mostly), I got a new car, so I guess I’ll never know how long the replacement would have taken.
2014 was really a banner year for automotive recalls, and they don’t seem to be slowing down. Don’t be alarmed, though—modern cars are actually pretty safe compared to earlier models. The land yachts of yesteryear really can’t hold a candle in terms of safety to anything built in the last 10 years. And as of March, Takata parts had killed only 10 people, so the chances of actually being injured by a defective airbag are far less than being struck by lightning. Perhaps what is more alarming is the length of time it can take a manufacturer to decide to pull the recall trigger. It is alleged that Takata took a full 4 years to formally acknowledge the problem to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. General Motors took twice as long to fess up about its ignition switches that have (so far) killed 124 people and injured 274 others. Mistakes are part of life. However, when dealing with public safety, admitting those mistakes really can’t happen soon enough. In GM’s case, the consequences for its “mistakes” included several class-action lawsuits, congressional hearings, forfeiting $900 million to the Department of Justice, funding a $600 million victim compensation fund, and formally admitting that it lied to consumers and federal regulators about the defect.
An engineer friend of mine once said that we could eliminate car accidents caused by driver error by simply placing a giant spike on the steering wheel, pointed at the driver. While there are some obvious holes in that theory, the implication is quite clear. If the consequences of car accidents were more severe, drivers would exercise more caution. Speaking of consequences, ever since Asahi Metal Industry Co v Superior Court of California, 480 US 102 (1987), auto suppliers have been on notice that any component they make can be shipped anywhere in the world, and with that global market also came global liability. Yet the increased liability for defective parts has not resulted in a complete elimination of those defects. So while product liability has come a long way, the risk-reward tradeoff will continue to exist in some form, both for our clients who are consumers and for those who are manufacturers.