IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 35

should have been changed to reflect
the fact that the new part was substantially different. And GM should
have recalled however many cars
they had sold with the defective ignition switch and replaced them free
of charge.
If this had been done early,
before too many cars had been
sold with the defective ignition, it
would have cost something, but
the earlier such things are dealt
with properly the less expensive
they are. But at the time, a few
other things were happening at GM
that provided distractions, namely, bankruptcy. So matters drifted
along, and at some point, Delphi
(the company that makes the
switch in Mexico for GM) changed
the plunger to fix the problem.
There is contradictory information as to whether Ray DiGiorgio,
a GM engineer, approved a design
change in April of 2006 making
this fix. He has testified that he
did not, but a Congressional committee claims it has documentation showing that he did. Whatever
was done in 2006, it had no effect
on the thousands, if not millions,
of cars already on the road at that
time with defective switches.
After Brooke Melton's death, her
parents decided to sue GM. Their
lawyer, Lance Cooper, hired a consulting materials engineer named
Mark Hood to look into why the ignition turned off - an event that was
documented by the car's black box.
After plowing through numerous
Cobalts of various vintages in junkyards, he discovered that the critical
plunger had been silently altered
around 2006 or 2007. Switches
made before then took less torque
to turn off than the newer switches. Armed with these facts, Cooper
took depositions from GE engineers
and reached a settlement with the
firm. But the publicity surrounding the lawsuit attracted enough
june 2016

attention that others with similar
This situation shows that corcrash incidents on their hands
porations, like people, have good
began looking into the matter. And
times and some not so good times.
recently, GM CEO Mary Barra testiGM's financial troubles possibly
fied before Congress about
the whole thing.
To her credit, Bar ra
took action to issue massive recalls involving some
GM should have recalled however
six million cars on this
and other problems withmany cars they had sold with the
in weeks, after learning
defective ignition switch, and
about them when she took
the helm of GM in January
replaced them free of charge.
2014. But these recalls are
too late for Melton and at
least a dozen others who
died in ignition-related crashes of
dissuaded decision-makers from
GM cars. Although the investigaissuing the massive recall that
tions are continuing, it appears that
would have been needed to fix the
at least one GM engineer may have
ignition defect early, before more
lied under oath about the matter.
defective cars were sold. But the
This story has heroes and vilresult has been an even larger and
lains, although most engineering
more costly recall later. Let's hope
ethics cases are not black and
GM can fix all of the defective igniwhite, including this one. Consulttions soon and move on, a sadder
ing engineer Hood and GM CEO
but wiser organization.1
Barra appear to have done the
Author Information
right things with what they learned.
Karl Stephan is Professor at the
Investigations may prove that the
Ingram School of Engineering, Texas
GM engineers involved with the
State University, San Marcos, TX.
faulty ignition switch may have
made the best decisions they could
Acknowledgment
have, based on the information
This article originally appeared in
they had available. No automaker
the author's engineering ethics
can afford to do as much prototype
blog at www.engineeringethicsblog.
testing as they would like. It took
blogspot.com on Apr. 7, 2014.
making and selling thousands of
cars to reveal that a few people
with exceptionally heavy keyrings
1
I referred to the Wikipedia article "2014 General Motors recall," as well as the following online
could end up getting killed by a
news articles. CNN reported on the problem at
switch that took just a little less
http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/02/news/companies/gm-recall-part/. Engineer Mark Hood's
torque than usual.
detective work is described at (URL no longer
But the truly blameworthy actions
available). Also, a Reuters article (URL no longer available) correctly describes the critical
happened after GM began receiving
component as a "detent" plunger (it has been
reports of such ignition-caused crashelsewhere described incorrectly as an "indent"
plunger). And National Public Radio published a
es. One fatal accident due to a defect
helpful timeline of the issue at http://www.npr.
that can occur under certain condiorg/2014/03/31/297158876/timeline-a-historyof-gms-ignition-switch-defect.
tions should be looked into, and if necessary, a recall - not just a service
advisory, which GM issued about the
matter in 2005 - should be issued.
∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

http://www.engineeringethicsblog http://www.blogspot.com http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/02/news/com http://www.npr

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