TU-TESL

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Regardless of the short-sighted behavior of product quality to reduce cost, it is bound to bury a mine that may be detonated at any time in the future. Takata's airbags, known as "death airbags," are "dead but not stiff.". Takata's airbag safety problem has been more than ten years. Takata has also declared bankruptcy, but the problem caused by the airbag has not been completely solved. Recently, Takata airbag has fallen into a new round of safety doubt. According to Bloomberg, NHTSA requires that KSS, which has acquired Takata, prove by December 31 that the new chemical desiccant used to replace airbags is safe for drivers. Previously, Takata air bag was prone to safety problems after being affected by moisture due to ammonium nitrate deterioration. In China, for example, according to the recall announcement of the defective product management center of the State Administration of market supervision and administration, a total of 1075788 vehicles in the domestic passenger vehicle market were recalled in November this year, among which Changan Ford announced the recall of 344872 new Mondeo and 203004 sharp sector vehicles, accounting for nearly half of the total recall this month due to the assembly of Takata company airbags with potential safety hazards. This time, if Takata fails to prove the safety of the airbags containing chemical desiccant, it will cause the largest recall since the "Takata airbags incident" broke out, which may affect 100 million airbags, and the recall cost may reach tens of billions of dollars, which may cause another huge blow to the automobile manufacturers. On December 4, the national highway traffic safety administration announced that another 1.4 million cars using Takata airbags would be recalled in the United States. According to CNBC, the recall covers parts of,,, and vehicles manufactured between 1995 and 2000. According to a new document released by the national highway traffic safety administration, Takata airbags may rupture or under inflate when used in hot, humid and hot environments. The newly discovered problem has killed one Australian driver and injured another Australian and Cyprus driver. Before that, Takata airbag has been in the safety storm for several years. Takata, a Japanese airbag supplier, was one of the three largest airbag manufacturers in the world. The world-famous automobile brands it cooperates with include Honda, Toyota, GM, BMW, etc. Takata used to be the best company in the world, but its pursuit of interests made it make a wrong choice. In order to reduce the cost, the company uses ammonium nitrate in the gas generator. Although the cost of this raw material is low, its performance is very unstable. It is easy to fuse with the water in the air at high temperature, and expand rapidly and explode. When the air bag is deployed in the collision, it may break abnormally, which will cause the fragments of generator parts to fly out and hurt the personnel in the vehicle. Due to the soaring recall costs of defective airbags, Takada, who suffered a lot of damage, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan on June 26, 2017, while its US subsidiary filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. Takata's debt at the time of bankruptcy was about 1 trillion yen (10 billion US dollars), the highest ever for a Japanese manufacturing company. Although it has been ten years since Takata airbag first burst into safety problems, the resulting recall is still not completely over. Although it has been ten years since the problem of using Takata airbags broke out while recalling, Takata airbags have been installed in the vehicles of many manufacturers since then, showing the helpless reality of "recalling while using". In fact, Takata airbags were found to be faulty as early as 2001, and a fatal incident occurred in 2008, after which the recall began. At least 24 people have been killed and at least 300 injured in Takata's air bag failure, according to data reported by US consumers. According to statistics released by the US highway traffic safety administration, 41.4 million vehicles have been recalled from May 2016 to December 2019 due to Takata airbag problem, involving 56 million airbags. During this period, Takata has repeatedly found potential safety hazards in its products, but the company has not reported to vehicle customers and safety regulators, and even tampered with test data. It is worth noting that although Takata's airbag problem has been known to the outside world since 2008, the cooperation between car companies and Takata has continued. Some insiders pointed out that this is due to the fierce competition among automobile manufacturers and the monopoly situation of the parts industry. On the one hand, manufacturers need to rely on replacement parts provided by Takata for recall; on the other hand, Takata's share is too high to find enough replacement manufacturers in a short time. It is reported that for the recall of problem airbags, each automobile manufacturer can roughly divide into two ways: one is that the automobile manufacturer pays the recall fee in advance and waits for Takata to repay it; the other is that the automobile manufacturer waits for Takata to pay the fee before recalling and replacing the new car with problem airbags that has been sold. In fact, Takata is no longer able to repay the recall costs of major automakers. Of the 43 million gas generators recalled in the US before May 2017, only 38% were replaced. That is to say, with the ongoing massive recall of Takata airbags, the pressure is shifting to the affected automakers. "Both automakers and suppliers know that sooner or later. But they are locked up, and they will have to bear 100% of the recall cost because of Takata's bankruptcy. " Scott Upham, an analyst at valient market research, an automotive safety analysis and research provider, said. In fact, the whole automobile industry is trying to reduce costs in the upstream and downstream, and many automobile enterprises are almost demanding for cost control. But regardless of the product quality to reduce the cost of short-sighted behavior, it is bound to be detonated at any time in the future.