A

STUDY

INTO

ENGINEERING ETHICS

IN

TAKATA AIR BAGS CASE

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

1.1- Intro to Engineering Ehtics.

1.2- What is Takata Air-bag crisis.

1.3- What is a Air-bag?

1.4- History of Air-bag

1.5- Features of a Air-bag.

2. Back Ground

3. Alternatives

4. Proposed Solutions

5. Recommendations

6. Executive Summary

7. Conclusions
 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1- Intro to Engineering Ethics

Engineering ethics is the applied ethics and system of moral principles to

the practice of engineering. Very similar to the “Hippocrates Vow” of

medicine community, it sets the obligations by engineers to the world, to

the society, to their clients, and to their profession. It enables engineers

to responsibly confront the moral issues raised by their technological

activity or research. During the 18 t h century when most of Europe and

America was being mechanized there were many disasters like bridges

collapsing, vehicles malfunctioning, industrial chemicals and gasses

leaking, oil leakage from ocean going Tanker ships. In response to these

Engineering disasters the development of first formal codes of ethics for

Engineers by three of the four founding engineering societies AIEE,

ASCE and ASME. AIEE adopted theirs in 1912. ASCE and ASME did so

in 1914. In today’s world of e-commerce, global markets and

multinational companies the scope has been enlarged to a large extent

with International Standards Organization prescribing the most code of

ethics, the second organization being AIEEE. Today many parts of a

machine are procured from different companies. One such example is the

Volvo Transport vehicles which procures parts from 487 companies from

48 countries, in manufacturing its vehicles. Most of the spare parts are

from reputed world renowned companies with good track record of quality

and research. One such part is the “Air-bags” from world top most air

bags manufacturer Takata Corporation.

1.2- What are Takata Air Bags:

Takata Corporation is the world’s top most automotive air bags

manufacturing company. It’s head quarters is located in Tokyo capital of

Japan with manufacturing units in four continents Asia, Europe

(Germany), Australia and USA. The company’s top product is the vehicle

airbag used in almost all their premium 36 vehicle brands. Since 1950 it

has been in forefront of research and development of vehicle airbags

technology and started manufacturing them overseas from 1988. Till

recently it is the world largest producer of airbags with more than 25%

share of the global market. The company’s client’s are mostly Japanese

and German vehicle manufacturers. It uses Ammonium Nitrate to trigger

the air bag inflation.

1.3. What is a Air Bag?

Today automobiles are manufactured with many inbuilt safety devices at

the driver and passenger seats. The airbag is the most crucial of all

vehicle safety devices parts. It consists of a flexible fabric bag called as

airbag cushion, the purpose of which is to provide driver/passenger

protection and restraint during a crash event by inflating rapidly then

quickly deflating during a collision or impact with another object or a

sudden deceleration. This airbag provides an energy absorbing cushion

surface between the vehicle's occupant and the steering wheel. During a

crash event, the vehicle's crash sensor(s) provide crucial information to

the airbag electronic controller unit (ECU), including collision type,

angle and severity of impact. Using this information, the airbag electronic

controller unit's crash algorithm determines if the crash event meets the

criteria for deployment and triggers various firing circuits to deploy one

or more airbag modules within the vehicle. Working as a supplemental

restraint system to the vehicle's seatbelt systems, airbag module

deployments are triggered through a pyrotechnic process that is designed

to be used once. Latest additions to vehicle safety are the side-impact

airbag modules consist of compressed air cylinders that are triggered in

the event of a side impact vehicle impact.

1.4- History of Air bags

The airbag device used in various automobile evolved from the air-filled

bladders used in vehicles as early as 1941. An invention jointly credited

to the German engineer Walter Linderer, and to the North American John

W. Hetrick. Both of them registered for patents in 1951. After the patents

expiration in 1971, Ford started implementing them in their automobiles.

In Japan, Yasuzaburou Kobori started developing an airbag "safety net"

system in 1964, for which he was later awarded patents in 14 countries.

Later in 1967, a breakthrough occurred when Allen K. Breed invented

vehicle crash detection sensors which are composed of an

electromechanical sensor with a steel ball attached to a tube by a magnet

that would trigger a small explosion of sodium azide to inflate an airbag

in under 30 milliseconds. With the onset of early 1990s, airbags became

widespread in all vehicles and even passenger airbags were later

introduced.

1.5- Features of Air Bags:

The key features of vehicle Airbags are:

1) Airbags are installed to stop the driver and other vehicle passengers

from hitting hard parts of the car in moderate to severe crashes.

2) During an incident of crash airbags are inflated within 30 milliseconds

by triggered by a small explosion of sodium Azide.

3) There are different types of airbags available. a) driver airbag b)

passenger airbags c) torso-protecting airbags d) side curtain airbags e)

Roll-over protection head curtain.

 2. BACKGROUND

The biggest Engineering ethics case of all time is that of Volvo Company

and Takata Corporation’s which was due to defective air bags belonging

to Takata Corporation, as well as the severe failure by auto industry

gaint, Volvo company in identifying these defects before inducting them

into their Car models. It’s the mandatory duty of the automotive company

to test and measure the reliability of spare parts that are included into

their vehicles. Government and Industry propose numerous tests and

measurement solutions and Industry best practices to guarantee passenger

safety. It would be ethical to mention that still disasters occur despite of

these safety measures. So it is a given conclusion that these safety

measures were not adhered to by most of the auto manufacturing

companies. The guilt stands less on the airbag manufacturer and more on

the Vehicle manufacturer as he is the guarantor of passengers’ safety who

is travelling in his vehicle. In the report filed by the National Highway

Safety Administration (NHTSA) of U.S. Department of Transportation it

was mentioned that Takata Corporation used a volatile chemical

compound of Ammonium Nitrate to inflate their airbags, which have been

linked to more than eight deaths and have led to the recall of more than

40 million cars worldwide. Not only the chemical compound but the gears

which control the triggering mechanism were also found to cause the bag

to explode with too much force, spraying metal shards into the car. All of

the deaths were due to asphyxia from air bag and body penetration of

shrapnel of triggering gear mechanism of Takata Airbag.

 3. ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
The best possible solutions to prevent similar future crisis are:

1) Force: Air bags must open less forcibly.

Alternatively, we cannot judge how many lives they may save by

deploying slowly. This may cause them to be less effective in saving

passenger lives.

2) Control: There must be mechanism to activate or deactivate air bags.

Alternatively, we have to judge in what circumferences do we need to

activate or deactivate air bags. Child passengers are one sure reason to

deactivate the air bag mechanism.

3) Size: Implement smart air bag technology that deploy with a force

adjusted to the size and stature of the passenger.

Alternatively this may costly but viable solution. It may need more

cameras and sensor to gauge passenger body propositions.

4) Kids safety: Implement new safety mechanisms like seat belt air bags

to ensure kids safety.

Alternatively this is a new technology which needs few years in study to

prove its worth in saving passenger lives.

5) Labels: Implement warning labels on the airbags mentioning that they

may be harmful or fatal to kids.

Alternatively this may go the similar way of warning labels on cigarettes.

6) Standards: All car components including airbags must pass mandatory

government and Industry standard tests in the premise of best practices.

Alternatively this may cause heavy additional overload both in manpower

and resources on the government, Industry and the auto maker company.
4.PROPOSED ETHICAL ENGINEERING SOLUTION

According to my analysis the most viable of all these solutions is the

implementation of smart Air bags. The primary passenger safety

mechanisms in all vehicles are Seat belts and airbags are the secondary

mechanism to augment them. According to research study conducted by

the NHTSA, smart airbags effectively reduce the chance of injury to

children by 45 percent. The same study found that there aren’t any

increased risks for adults who use smart airbags and the advantage over

normal airbags is 67%.

Smart airbag is a new passenger safety mechanism featuring an advanced

micro controller that monitors the size and position of the occupant of the

seat using various sensors and deploys the airbag accordingly to the

collected statistics. The core need for the development of this particular

type of advanced airbag system is that standard airbags are actually

causing fatal injury than they prevent if they deploy in front of small

children, ladies or diminutive adults. The smart airbag module corrects

this by sensing how fast and how much volume the airbag will need to

deploy. The unique component of a smart airbag that distinguishes it from

a standard airbag is the advanced sensor system. These sensors network is

designed to measure the height, weight and seating position of all

passengers in the vehicle. It also identifies whether or not the seat belt is

fastened. In the case of collision, when the airbag will need to deploy, the

airbag microcontroller will make a spontaneous decision as to how hard

the airbag will shoot out of its compartment. The smaller the person

riding in the seat, the gentler the airbag deployment will be.

Pro’s and Con’s - Unfortunately, smart airbags have proven to be better in

theory than in practice. These airbags are easily fooled, and they often

make mistakes. Still, having the smart airbag capability is better than

having a standard airbag in these situations, and most modern cars feature

smart airbags at the point in time in my research.

5. RECOMMENDATIONS:

My chief ethical engineering recommendations to avoid future crisis are:

1) Smart Air bags must be made mandatory by NHSTA, transport

management, Govt of U.S.

2) All vehicles must have mechanism to activate or deactivate air bag

mechanisms.

3) All vehicle manufacturers must implement warning labels on the

airbags mentioning that they may be harmful or fatal to kids.

4) All vehicle components including airbags must pass mandatory

government and Industry standard tests before being inducted into the

vehicle.

5) All vehicles must us Silver Azide chemical to inflate their airbags.

 6. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
6.1- Objective
The primary purpose of this investigative study is to research the Takata air bag crisis

thoroughly and also the similar previous automotive crisis and come up with

recommended ethical engineering practice solutions to prevent future happenings. The

affected volume of the crisis is worldwide and phenomenal when compared to previous

all crisis.(137 countries, 27 auto makers, 1.4 million vehicle and innumerable people)

6.2- Method
My primary research methodology was to collect and study all the reports from both

commercial organizations and government organizations and identify the sequence

towards this crisis, the unethical engineering practices on the side of the automaker

company and that of the airbag company. Also the Senate discussion over this incident

was thoroughly read to analyze the arguments from both company sides.

6.3 – Results
My research study analysis derived two key points of unethical engineering practice 1)

Even though the airbag manufacture company Takata was a global market leader he

switched to low quality manufacturing process endangering the lives of the vehicle

passengers. 2) Volvo being a global market leader known for its safety measures was

lax in testing the vehicle components. Critical life saving parts testing’s like Airbag or

crash test should be regularly done by a third party company to assure passenger safety.

6.4- Summary of Correlation

In conclusion my recommendations are that all vehicle components must pass

government and industry laid quality tests. Critical components which are designed to

save human life must be regularly done by a third company to assure quality control

and ethical engineering control.

 7. CONCLUSION:

In conclusion of the above research study into the Takata airbag crisis I

stand the engineering ethics blame entirely on the air bag manufacturer

company Takata corporation for not conducting adequate Tests and

Measurements on the crash airbag and only started third part based tests

after more than 23car owners died due to the defective airbags and their

triggering mechanisms and chemicals. I recommend all companies to

adhere to ethical engineering practices and implement the above

mentioned recommendations to avoid the biggest killer of vehicle

occupants - airbags

8. REFERENCES

Air bag safety – Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation – United States Senate – Jan 9, 1997

J.Pesce, “Staunching Hospitals’ Financial Hemorrhage with Information Technology,”

Health Management Technology, August 2003.

Takata Narrative Response to Senate Commerce Committee (Dec. 12, 2014)

Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and BMW issued recalls.

See Timeline -Takata Air Bag Recalls, Reuters (Nov,25,2014)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USDOT Calls for National Recall of
Defective Takata Driver Side Air Bags (Nov. 18, 2014)