1. What are key ethical issues this industry faces?
Key ethical issues that face this industry include the manufacturing cars that are safe, but at the same time do not work forever so that people are forced to buy new cars. Also, companies face ethical issues with their manufacturing process. Do they outsource to other countries for cheaper labor, or do you pay American workers and ensure the product is being made correctly?
Aside from the manufacturing process, the automotive industry faces ethical issues with the pricing of their cars. They must make their product affordable for their consumers without making it dangerously cheap and continue to make a profit.
2. What are some examples of ethics challenges that industry players have experienced?
An example of ethical challenges the automotive industry must face happened fairly recently. In February of last year, Toyota faced a massive recall for their faulty rug mats. The problem was the acceleration pedal would get stuck on the floor mat while people were driving. This problem was caused by the fact that Toyota outsourced the installation and manufacturing of these mats to a company called CTS in Indiana. These mats were not made properly (most likely because Toyota was trying to get the mats made cheap) and caused accidents for the drivers.
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Ethical issues in the auto industry are especially scary as they are often dangerous to the general public. Thankfully Toyota was very ethical in issuing a prompt recall of the faulty product. It would be interesting to know how the Toyota issue was discovered an how fast Toyota acted on it.
ReplyDeleteI think picking Toyota as your example is a very good idea. There is a lot to say about that brand. Especially when it is such a popular brand and is being followed under a microscope.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about safety in cars. This is a real ethical issue. Because people have rights to not drive dangerous vehicles and live under threat. However, in my post I tried to bring something new like cars' weights issues and batteries' problems. And that inefficient batteries could lead to a fire. So, they are all related to safety and I wanted to be specific in certain points.
ReplyDeleteNice post and nice example though!
Your post was very interesting(the toyota recall incident) since I had really no idea at all since at that time I was in the military. It made me to think that maybe it could happen in the Korean automobile industries as well, so I tried to find a similar situations for it.
ReplyDeleteSafety is the KEY word for automobile as far as I concern. Good Post and I liked it :)