US regulators on Friday fined Japanese auto parts manufacturer Takata Corp US$14,000 a day, accusing it of stonewalling the investigation into the company’s defective airbags.
Takata failed to fully respond to regulator requests to explain about 2.4 million pages of company documents supplied in the probe, or to provide knowledgeable staff a “walk-through” of the papers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.
“Takata is neither being forthcoming with the information that it is legally obligated to supply, nor is it being cooperative in aiding NHTSA’s ongoing investigation of a potentially serious safety defect,” the NHTSA said in a letter to Takata.
TOO MUCH POWER
About 20 million vehicles produced by some of the world’s biggest automakers are being recalled due to the risk their Takata-made airbags could deploy with excessive explosive power, spraying potentially fatal shrapnel into the vehicle.
The problem has been linked to at least five deaths globally.
US regulations require Takata to explain documents that are not self-explanatory. Vincent said the company’s failure to provide adequate explanations over several months made a Feb. 4 meeting with the company “a waste of agency time and resources.”
Takata said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the NHTSA’s statement. “We strongly disagree with their characterization that we have not been fully cooperating with them,” it added.
Takata said it has released almost 2.5 million pages of documents to NHTSA in response to the agency’s orders, that it has been “in regular communication” with NHTSA staff on additional documents and that it has met regularly with NHTSA engineers to try to understand the root cause of the airbag program.
“We remain fully committed to cooperating with NHTSA in the interests of advancing auto safety for the driving public,” the company added.
Takata also said it has been working closely with automakers in areas it believes are most vulnerable.
Takata believes the airbag problem surfaces in humid, hotter regions and resisted the NHTSA’s call for a national recall of cars.
Takata will be fined a civil penalty of US$14,000 a day starting on Friday for each day the violations persists, Vincent said.
He warned the company that the NHTSA could force depositions of Takata employees in both the US and in Japan if the company did not cooperate fully in “short order.” He also said it could refer the matter to the US Department of Justice for court action.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last