Ethics at the Center of the Automotive Industry

     In engineering, individuals and companies are faced with ethical dilemmas every day. Unfortunately, there are often many factors that play a role in the decision between what is considered right or wrong. One such dilemma occurring right now is between automotive manufactures and the United States government. In recent years, the government has instituted stricter regulations on future fuel economies of new vehicles. Through Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (CAFE) the government mandates by 2025 every new car and lightweight truck has to meet the 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) rating. This CAFE mpg standard equates to just over a 40 mpg combined window sticker millage that is most frequently used when purchasing a new vehicle. These regulations come in an effort to reduce the United States dependence on gasoline and decrease pollution (Figure 1). Naturally, one would look to increasing engine performance to reach these new standards. Unfortunately, car manufactures today have already reached the technological limit for increasing engine efficiencies. This has caused the Unites States automotive manufactures to face an ethical dilemma.

 Figure 1 Savings to the consumer and the environment

(Source: http://theexpiredmeter.com/2012/08/the-unitended-consequences-of-higher-gas-mileage-standards/)

Company X  

     To analyze the dilemma facing automotive manufactures, they will be broken down into two different theoretical companies. Company X is the conservative company that places money before anything else. It could be compared to most large corporations in the Unites States economy. Company X realizes the unreachable technology feat that must be overcome to reach the 2025 CAFE Standards to help the environment. The company reaches a decision to not increase funding in research and development in an effort to reach the milestone. After all, Company X cannot stand to lose any of its profit margin, so therefore, their increase in cost would be turned over to the consumer. The consumer would see the extraordinarily high priced car and not want to purchase it. Instead, the company decides to stick to its current project and development plan and wait till the year 2020 to ask the government to lower the CAFE Standard of 54.5 mpg to a more realistic number.

Company Y  

     Company Y on the other hand, loves leading the industry in innovation. This company has no concept of profits and spends as much as it needs to reach the concept design. This company realizes the need for environmental improvement within today’s automobiles. Therefore, Company Y dumps millions of dollars into research of lightweight body design. Through the use of lightweight metals and brand new manufacturing processes, Company Y is able to decrease the weight of its automobiles without compromising any luxuries to meet the new standards. The cost of this new technology raises the cost to manufacture the automobile, but Company Y decides in the best interest of the environment that it would offset some of the cost to the consumer by cutting into the company's profit margin.

Who is Right?  

     After seeing both sides to the ethical issue it may be easy to see the problem plaguing automotive manufacturers today. It is hard to pick from what is right, by helping the environment with a cost of a loss in profit, or what is wrong, by keep profits at the cost of hurting the environment. Company X realized that at the rate they are going in advancement in order to reach the 2025 CAFE Standards their production car would have to have less than a one-liter engine and be smaller than today’s Ford Focus. Company X realizes that no one would buy such a car that they would be capable of designing. In the grand scale of the issue, Company Y moved in the right and ethical direction by taking the initiative to help the environment by increasing fuel economy and decreasing pollution with developing a new lightweight car design. In the end, with the consumer savings at the pump and the environmental savings to the planet, the method of Company Y is the only way to go. The drawbacks, due to the loss in profits, are minimal compared to the lasting effects of not abiding by the CAFE Standards. After all, if today’s cars continue to destroy the environment, soon there will not be a world left to drive them in.

Flawed Engineering

Is the public as safe as they think they are?

     On your way out of the house this morning, did you think twice about how safe the car was that you may have gotten into? Many people think that newer vehicles will be completely safe in the event of an accident. Unfortunately, due to recent scrutiny, major car manufactures like Chevrolet, Honda, and Chrysler have made large recalls due to significant safety design defects. As with any new product there are bound to be overlooked details. A reputable company will develop a complete fix for the issue and not a band aid to the problem. After all, the solution to the problem has a direct impact on the integrity of the engineers who designed the product in the first place.Without this integrity, the future consumer would be skeptical of every new product.

Are some recall improvements enough?

     One automotive recall in particular has been called into question this past month for what some consider a band aid fix. Over a year ago, Chrysler realized an issue in rear-end crashes of their Jeep models. The models affected are 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2002-2007 Liberties. In their particular designs, the gas tank hangs far below the bottom of the vehicle. In the event of a rear-end collision, most often the gas tank ruptures and causes an explosion like the one in Figure 1. This is due to the impact force and failure for proper protection around the gas tank.

Figure 1 The Result of a Rear-End Impact

(Source: http://blog.caranddriver.com/chrysler-goes-to-trial-over-fiery-jeep-crash-defends-fuel-tanks/)

     Chrysler’s solution for the nearly 1.5 million vehicles is to install a simple tow hitch on the rear of the vehicle. As seen in Figure 2, the addition of this tow hitch provides little protection to the actual gas tank itself. According to CBS news, during testing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) it was concluded the fix only provided “incremental safety benefits in low to moderate speed crashes”. Prior to this, Chrysler also refused to admit that there was an issue until the NHTSA asked them to take action. 

Figure 2 Chrysler’s Tow Hitch that is Meant to Protect the Gas Tank

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/automobiles/chryslers-solution-for-jeep-recall-runs-into-resistance.html)

     The results of this testing propose two questions. Why did it take 22 years for Chrysler to admit the problem? How do they get away with a band aid solution? According to CBS news, there are more than 50 deaths contributed to this fire issue, These unnecessary deaths put strain on the integrity of the engineers who put time into the design of this vehicle. The consequences of the design flaw put the driver of the vehicle and the general public at a very high risk. One would have to wonder if it is the engineers at Chrysler who opposed the safety recall or is it actually the corporate businessmen. With engineers abiding by a code of ethics it is most likely the latter.

What is there to do?

     As much as engineers want to design the most technologically advanced products, a majority of the engineers that are found in industry are guided by corporate decisions directly correlated to money. Sometimes, like in the case of Chrysler’s safety recall, the issue of money causes engineering innovations to fall short. This is either due to the cost of research and design or implementation. Non-the-less, they both have the same shortcomings for the consumer and general public. These shortcomings pose a problem when it comes to abiding by the engineering code of designing a safe product. One area of engineering where economics is not an issue is when working for the government. This is why government organizations like the NHTSA perform intense testing and set regulations for corporate companies. Unfortunately, sometimes these policies also come up short. If corporate business boxing matches continue to happen, it may start affecting the integrity of engineers as we know them. Engineering issues like these recalls, and shortcomings of future innovations, have a direct impact on every person who is on the road. No matter what the economic cost, each engineer has to take a stand to make the world a safer place.

(CBS News Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chrysler-jeep-recall-gas-tank-explosions-still-raising-safety-concerns/)