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GM Names and Fires Engineers Involved In Faulty Ignition Switch
An anonymous reader writes 'Thirteen people have died because of faulty ignition switches in General Motors vehicles. The company has recalled 2.6 million cars, paid a $35 million fine, and set up a fund to compensate the victims. Now, an internal investigation into the incident has shown that the company was aware of the problem since 2002. 15 employees have been fired over what CEO Mary Barra calls "misconduct and incompetence." The report singles out Ray DeGiorgio, an engineer who allegedly approved a part that did not meet specifications and misled coworkers who were investigating complaints. "He actually changed the ignition switch to solve the problem in later model years of the Cobalt, but failed to document it, told no one, and claimed to remember nothing about the change."
"There's no evidence anyone else knew the switch was out-of-spec at the time, the report says; neither did DeGiorgio tell anyone when issues with the part were brought to his attention multiple times. When one engineer specifically asked DeGiorgio in 2004 whether the switch met torque specifications, DeGiorgio didn't respond. Evidence the investigators gathered showed that he started two e-mails but never sent them. ... Instead, DeGiorgio was consumed by a problem in which cars with the switch were failing to start in cold weather, something the report says was "a personal embarrassment to DeGiorgio.'"'
"There's no evidence anyone else knew the switch was out-of-spec at the time, the report says; neither did DeGiorgio tell anyone when issues with the part were brought to his attention multiple times. When one engineer specifically asked DeGiorgio in 2004 whether the switch met torque specifications, DeGiorgio didn't respond. Evidence the investigators gathered showed that he started two e-mails but never sent them. ... Instead, DeGiorgio was consumed by a problem in which cars with the switch were failing to start in cold weather, something the report says was "a personal embarrassment to DeGiorgio.'"'
toyota allowed a man to go to prision for several years rather than admit the truth about a defect. if you think toyota didn't do everything to cover this up your kidding yourself.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/22/man-got-eight-years-for-deaths
Because the old GM is gone. The shareholders and management switched. It's a new company with the same name and it doesn't deserve to be liable for the past company.
"Doesn't deserve"? Gotta disagree with you there. Sure the company technically is incorporated as a "new" company and some (but not even close to all) of the management has changed but fundamentally it is still the same company. You are giving them a pass based on some legal technicalities which they do not deserve. In all practical terms it is the same company, selling the same products, under the same name, with mostly the same employees and the same facilities.
I run a company that supplies parts to GM. (we're a Tier 3 supplier) I honestly doubt there was much if any cover up. Frankly in my experience GM is too incompetent for that. I see their engineers do stuff all the time that is borderline retarded and the company is so large it's hard to even find a person responsible for a specific issue, much less hold them accountable. While I can't say for certain either way, I tend to think the cause of this fiasco is more structural than criminal. I think this is probably a case of incompetence of such a degree that it appears as malfeasance.
Faulty firmware? Are you referring to the brake debacle a few years ago?
I think it's been pretty well established by know that it was all media attention driving that and Toyota really didn't have anything wrong with its vehicles.
Established by whom? I had a Pontiac Vibe (Toyota Matrix which is based on the Toyota Corolla) with an automatic transmission and 1.8L engine and it 'suddenly accelerated' a few times before I got rid of it after 1 year of ownership because I was scared to let anyone drive the car. Pontiac and Toyota told me the sudden acceleration was because of a floor mat. There was no floor mat on the driver side of my car nor was there anything that could 'grab' the accelerator pedel. Pontiac and Toyota told me I was stamping on the gas instead of the brake. Funny, while driving my car would just take off and I could have my feet nowhere near the brake or gas pedals and the car would keep on accelerating. The brakes COULD stop the car, but if I let off the brakes the car would still take off. The way I took care of the issue was by moving the selector from drive to neutral and back to drive. Sometimes I had to do this a few times for the car to go back to normal operation. Not really very good for the transmission or engine. Pontiac and Toyota refused to listen to anything I had to say and basically told me 'sucks to be you, now please go away'. I have zero interest in ever purchasing anything made by Toyota again. I don't purchase anything made by GM either, but that is because most of their cars are poorly designed pieces of sh$t based on family experience from the late 70's to 2011. My extended family just can't learn from their mistakes.