Honda Motor Co has agreed to pay US$70 million in penalties to the US government for failing to report hundreds of injuries, deaths and other consumer claims involving its cars, transportation officials said on Thursday.
American Honda, the company’s US subsidiary, will pay two US$35 million fines, the largest amount ever paid by an automaker as a result of an investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The automaker has been under investigation for violations of the NHTSA’s Early Warning Reporting regulations. The rules require automakers to quickly report any information about possible defects, deaths and injuries or damage and warranty claims made by consumers.
In November of last year, Honda disclosed it had failed to report 1,729 cases involving deaths or injuries between July 2003 and June of last year.
Eight of those incidents involved Takata Corp air bags that had ruptured and have been the subject of massive recalls and federal investigations.
“One thing we cannot tolerate and will not tolerate is an automaker failing to report to us any safety issues, because if we don’t know about these problems, we’re missing an essential piece of the puzzle in the recall efforts we use to fix them and to protect the public,” US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said during a news call.
The automaker had earlier attributed its disclosure transgressions to data entry and computer programming errors and also said it had relied on an “overly narrow interpretation” of its legal reporting requirements.
“We have resolved this matter and will move forward to build on the important actions Honda has already taken to address our past shortcomings in early warning reporting,” Rick Schostek, executive vice president of Honda North America Inc, said in a statement.
The company said it was initiating new training regimens, changing internal reporting policy and enhancing oversight of its early warning reporting process.
US law caps the fines for those kinds of violations at US$35 million. Foxx said the caps need to be lifted because a single violation could lead to a death.
Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has initiated a recent US Senate probe of the auto industry, said: “US$70 million is a start. But we still need automakers to step up and take care of consumers with defective airbags, and we need regulators to insist on more timely and accurate reporting of possible safety defects.”
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks