U.S. to fine air bag maker Takata $14,000 per day

Takata is using the wrong game plan. U.S. regulators were very lax with automakers, including domestic and Japanese, and the manufactures stonewalled until confronted by Congress. Then, the makers faced huge fines, and juries began punishing the companies, too. Takata is winning no friends by pulling this crap by inundating regulators with unexplained documents. I hope the company is taught a lesson.

@Burning Bush,

I could you see your point if said coffee shops served stale coffee that exploded in your face and killed you. Cuz, that's what some of these airbags have done and Takata is sayin, "Whaaaa? Did we do that? Can you check our records? Hhmmm... NO!"

Unfortunately for Takata, the methods by inept corporate leaders to stall and hope the situation goes away that work in Japan just don't work in other nations, and we're seeing that. The situation is just not going to be hoped away. It should be a million dollars a day, with no cap, but $14,000 is a start.

Burning Bush: The one and only purpose of airbags is to help save lives; not take lives away. When you choose to manufacture and sell airbags, I think most would agree that you are obligated to at the very least cooperate with investigations.

$14K a day makes it look too teeny.

Make it, say, $2M a month, including fractional months. And if no action by 3rd month bump it to $10M.

Each day they fail to comply, the fine should double from the previous day's amount.

@Mocheaka

On the 30th day I calculate fine as $15T by your method, not even counting previous days' accumulation.

I think the NHTSA just wants to hurt them, they don't want to take possession.

This surprised lots of american consumers @first cos we have been trusting Japanese products for decades. Japanese products usually boast of qualities averting danger, loss and not causing injury.

Takata deserves every bit of punishment it receives from this. They calculated the odds of an explosion occurring with the defective canisters, and concluded they could absorb the costs of payouts for what they deemed to be a statistically acceptable number of deaths and injuries.

This is morally and ethically reprehensible on so many levels and goes far past the point of fines and well into the territory of jail time for the people who A) knew the defects existed, yet allowed the flawed system to be put into cars, and B) made the decision to keep that truth from a public that has every conceivable right to know that the very safety system they rely on isn't going to turn their automobile into a deathtrap.

With that said, I feel for the rank and file workers at Takata who will in all likelihood be the ones who feel the brunt of the fines and recalls when they are summarily "downsized" due to lost revenue while Takata officials scramble to protect their salaries. Anti-Corporate malfeasance laws need to be given sharper teeth to deal appropriately with these amoral asshats.

I'm with you on this one, Bush. To ensure transparency, though, all products from refrigerators to nose hair clippers should be offered with an accompanying list of all parts as well as their manufacturer name, location and lot number. Sure, these lists would be the size of a telephone book for such products as a house or airplane, but which would you trust more, the overbearing hand of "the man" or your own well-informed discernment?

Caveat emptor to the max!

sorry the Japanese version of stonewalling will not work with US regulators, should just bite the bullet and cooperate with the regulators or the damage in the long term will be much more. its a pity Japanese regulators werent this aggresive in Japan. would force big corps to change there ways pretty quickly.

Personally, I am very surprised by the arrogance and non-compliance of Takata. It makes no sense for them to act like this, so what are they thinking?

What's next, are coffee shops going to get fined by the government for serving stale coffee?

Stale coffee doesn't explode and send metal shards into the neck of 18-year-old kids who just graduated high school, killing them. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to guess that if it was your son, daughter, husband, wife, lover, or best friend killed or maimed by what is ostensibly supposed to be life-saving technology, your little laissez faire chant would take an immediate backseat to your cries for accountability from government regulators.

why don't car companies stop using this air bag manufacture and go to another one?

Such an act is crystal clearly contrary to Japanese values and a breach of trust people around the world have in Japanese products!