News has just emerged that Honda Japan recently conducted an audit and found that Takata, their airbag supplier routinely manipulated results of airbag inflator tests reported to Honda.
Takata engineers removed some test results to artificially reduce variability in airbag inflator performance, said Brian O’Neill, a former president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Takata and Honda jointly hired O’Neill to begin the audit in late October, days before Honda first announced findings of data manipulation.
Findings of pervasive data manipulation and misrepresentations to carmakers could complicate Takata’s efforts to restructure and secure potential buyers following the biggest safety crisis in the auto industry’s history. Takata needs its customers’ backing to help weather costs of recalls that may exceed 100 million airbags worldwide.
