Developments In The Takata Controversy

A short while ago, Takata got itself into the middle of a controversy: some of their airbags (which are standard on a disturbingly large number of cars) were equipped with a defective inflator. When vehicles equipped with these airbags are in a humid area for long enough, in the event of a crash said inflator could explode with too much force, bursting the airbag and sending metal shrapnel into the vehicle occupant's face. So far, 139 people have been injured.

Now, reports state that Takata actually knew about the problem, but chose to ignore it. They allegedly organized tests back in 2004 on a number of vehicles. When the engineers gave the results of their investigation to the the company's board of directors, they were told to destroy the documents and forget about it. Takata finally launched a recall in 2008, but it only included a fraction of all the vehicles that came with defective airbags.

• Also: Takata Massive Airbag Recall Intensifies
• Also: A Huge Cross-Brand Recall over Third-Party Airbags

To this day, more than 7 million vehicles are affected. Model-years range from 2000 to 2008. However, the problems have only been reported in hot and humid regions, meaning we are safe... For now.