Ethical Problem in the Automotive Industry
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- Navigate this page:
- WHAT IS ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL
- SAFETY TESTING AND RESULTS.
- AIRBAGS AND SEATBELTS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE.
- IS IT WORTH THE MONEY
- DID I MAKE THE ETHICAL DECISION
- WORDS OF ADVICE TO FUTURE ENGINEERS
- ADDITIONAL SOURCES
- University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering 2015-11-03 1
Budny 4:00 L15 Ethical Problem in the Automotive Industry Blaine Abriatis bra29@pitt.edu ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL: HIGHER SAFETY FOR HIGHER SALARIES? During a board meeting today, I was issued the task of determining whether or not our automotive company should implement additional safety features in our base model cars for no additional upcharge. Our company already has the research done for this system, but it is only offered in our high end models. The conflict arises when the head of our sales team is telling me to raise the price due to more technology present in the vehicles. In the manufacturing aspect, it will cost no extra money to incorporate this system into the base model cars. Our company has already done all the research and has the resources to produce this in all of our models without raising the price. My conscience is telling me to use the existing technology in the base model cars without raising the price to allow those with less money to have the same amount of safety. Will gaining a small revenue, compared to the whole company’s profit, justify risking the death of people who can’t afford the premium price tag of electronic stability control? WHAT IS ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL? Electronic stability control (ESC) is a newer safety feature that is prevalent in most high-end car brands such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Audi just to name a few. ESC is a feature that will send signals to each wheel telling it how to correct a loss of traction. Loss of traction can be something like skidding on ice, or even hydroplaning around a corner. This system is intelligent enough to not need any user input to act, and it acts within milliseconds of traction loss [1]. Having this feature in your car can be the difference between life and death in some cases. If you if you examine the 1.2 million annual crashes and take out the amount of crashes due to the loss of control that could’ve been prevented with ESC, you would be left with approximately 284,400 crashes per year [2]. A staggering number of families would be impacted by this technology and would no longer risk suffering the news of a loved one passing away due to a preventable accident. Now think of how many of those 1.2 million people were in an accident due to not being able to afford a vehicle with this updated safety feature. If my company could reduce that number by even a fraction, it would be a tremendous step in the right direction. The only thing standing in between families and their lost loved ones is greedy corporate America. SAFETY TESTING AND RESULTS. Consumers may be thinking that this is a great technology, but where are the facts to show that it is indeed as useful as it seems? When this system was still in the early stages of development, there was very rigorous testing done to insure that it certainly was a helpful in preventing accidents as it was said to be. Many of these tests were done at the University of Iowa. Since it would be much too dangerous to test this on real roads with real people, they built a life sized simulator that mimicked a vehicle with ESC [3]. This ensured that no one would be injured in the testing, and that all variables could be controlled. Variables included road surface, weather, and even wind conditions. They developed three different tests to push the system to its limits. These tests were swerving to avoid a car pulling out in front of you, negotiating a sharp turn at a high speed, and experiencing a large gust of wind. They tested 120 paid volunteers, with only half of them having ESC activated in the simulator. The volunteers were not informed whether or not their vehicle was equipped with the stability control or not [3]. The results from this test were quite astonishing to say the least. In these three tests, people without ESC lost control 24.5% more times than those who had ESC enabled [3]. As one can see by these results, this technology can help even the average driver in critical situations. The best part about it is that it makes split-second decisions so that you, the driver, don’t have to. As one can see by these results, ESC can dramatically reduce the risk of getting in an accident. AIRBAGS AND SEATBELTS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE. The first major safety breakthrough in the automotive industry would most likely be the invention and use of the seatbelt by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin in 1959. Following this was the first practical use of the airbag in a vehicle in 1971 at Ford [4]. Airbags were introduced in a time when people still weren’t using seatbelts very much. This development showed people how much more safe their vehicle would be when involved in a collision at moderate to high speeds. Then somewhere along the timeline of automotive engineering someone thought, “What if we could make it so that you were never involved in a crash in the first place?” This started the era of crash prevention devices like Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS), traction control and Electronic Stability Control. The best way to survive an accident is to never get into an accident in the first place. You can look at any car produced today and there will be many differences between price categories, but a few things will always be included. Every car that rolls off the assembly line today will be equipped with airbags, front and rear seatbelts, a padded dashboard, ABS, and windshield wipers. Some of these amenities seem so common you may not think of them as safety features, like windshield wipers, but they in fact are. Many may not think that windshield wipers are a safety feature, but those people may not even live in an area that experiences adverse weather conditions. A driver would truly be more unsafe while driving through a torrential downpour if they didn’t have windshield wipers. Why can’t our company be the first to offer ESC on every one of our vehicles without a large price increase? How long will it take until a system like ESC is standard on every automobile, just like headlights and windshield wipers are now? If our company is the first to get behind this idea, not only will many others follow in our footsteps, but we will also have increased revenue due to all of our vehicles being the safest on the road. With ESC offered standard on every one of our vehicle, they will become more desirable vehicles to the market. This increased appeal and therefore increased sales would make up for any profit not gained if we don’t increase the price for the ESC technology. It all comes down to whether or not you are willing to be the first company to take that initial step. Once we start, every other automotive manufacturing company will follow in our footsteps. IS IT WORTH THE MONEY? One of the biggest questions has to be whether it is worth the increased profits for my company to possibly endanger innocent people simply because they can’t afford it. This is where it comes down to a moral choice. Australian businessman and politician Clive Palmer had very good insight on this topic and related it to the movie The Titanic. Clive said “The Titanic represents a realization for people that human life is more important than money. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, it’s the content of your character that really matters. Everything else is just an illusion.”[5] Furthermore, if the Titanic would’ve had more safety features there is a good chance more people would have survived. The Titanic lacked the correct amount of life boats for its passengers and this had a very large impact on the amount of deaths. In the same respect, if we did not put electronic stability control in all of our cars, that would also have a large impact on deaths. In regards to money versus ethically right, people may look up to you more, or respect you more if you have a lot of money, but if you do something ethically wrong all the money in the world isn’t going to help you regain trust or popularity. There comes a point when you have to realize that it’s what is on the inside that defines a person and not what’s in their wallet. After reading this quote from Clive, I have decided that I will be going against what the sales manager told me to do. I am openly opposing him, because it is both morally and ethically wrong to put a price tag on people’s safety. Would it also be worth the money to possibly have the company put in a situation where the vehicles were being recalled due to lack in safety? In 2014, Volkswagen had to recall 113 Bentleys and 104 Lamborghinis due to a possible flaw in the braking system [6]. This problem had the potential of putting people in danger, and cost the company more money to fix the problem than it would’ve been to just make it right the first time. Is it worth it to my company to cut corners now and make some more money with the possibility of having to spend even more later on down the road when we have to recall the vehicles for not being safe enough? I would just put the system in the cars now and not have to deal with the repercussions later. DID I MAKE THE ETHICAL DECISION? To determine whether or not I made the right decision, I decided to consult two different codes of ethics. I read both the Software Engineering code of ethics and the National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics. Although this exact case may not be very software oriented, my professional title is a software engineer so I thought it was best suited to use this code of ethics. As I read the code of ethics for software engineers, I noticed that the one of the very first points was that “Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related modifications meet the highest professional standards possible.”[7] As I considered what this meant, I realized that what I was doing was indeed following this rule. Instead of giving the public something that wasn’t the best possible solution for the price, I was now giving them the absolute best product that was achievable at the same price point. The next part stated how software engineers should be independent and maintain integrity when they make professional decisions [7]. When I was contemplating what I was going to do about my own dilemma, I am confident in saying that I both maintained integrity and was independent with my choice. I wasn’t going to be swayed by the influence from my sales manager telling me to do the less moral thing. I then stumbled upon an online article that talked solely about engineering ethics in a technology/computer field. It was noted in there that computers and technology were becoming so advanced that they would soon be replacing the function of both man and mechanical machine [8]. This rise in technology creates many ethical dilemmas due to the fact that some people still do not want to trust their lives on electronics and technology. I then began to delve into the National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics to see if it stated anything else that would be pertinent to my situation. The one point that was particularly relevant was, “If engineers' judgment is overruled under circumstances that endanger life or property, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate.”[9] When I was told to either raise the price of the cars with electronic stability control or not put that system in the cars at all, this was directly going against this code of ethics. My supervisor was telling me to take out a part of the car that would essentially endanger the lives of both the people in the vehicle, but also other people sharing the road with the vehicle. Not only should I have gone against what the sales supervisor told me, which I did, I should also inform other members of the company with notable positions. This would let the other members of the company know what the sales manager was trying to persuade me to do. I decided in the end to inform the sales manager that I would not be supporting his idea to install the electronic stability control with an extra price tag. I asked the sales manager what he would do if it was his family was the one driving the car without ESC. This really hit home with him and I made my point very clear. I also let the vice president of the company know what I was asked to do. The vice president was just as concerned as I was and he promptly put the sales manager on a temporary leave from the corporation. I think that the course of action that I took was appropriate for my situation. WORDS OF ADVICE TO FUTURE ENGINEERS This problem put me under a lot of stress, and I would like to give some advice to future engineers should they ever be put in a similar situation. The best thing to do is first think about what morally makes sense to you. If the predicament you’re in seems like its heading in a bad direction, it most likely is. For example, if you are asked to illegally obtain information from a rival company, there is a good chance that this is heading in a bad direction and you should stop as soon as possible. The second thing to consider would be, what will the impact be on the people using your product or device? Will what you’re planning to do hurt or injure someone in any way? If the answer to this question is yes, the alternative safer route should be taken into serious consideration rather than risking the consequences and backlash of somebody seriously hurt by your product. The final and most important aspect to consider is whether or not you would be able to live the rest of your life knowing the choice you made. I personally could not live my life knowing a family who couldn’t afford the high priced model with ESC had to settle for a less safe vehicle and therefore risked their lives. That’s why I had to make the decision to leave the price the same and include ESC. REFERENCES [1] Constant, Charlie. (2012). “ESP: Electronic Stability Program.” Car Engineer. (Website). http://www.car-engineer.com/esp-electronic-stability-program/ [2] Chouinard, Aline, and Jean-François Lécuyer. (2011). "A study of the effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control in Canada." Accident Analysis & Prevention. (Online Article). http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/command/detail?sid=7aa46c53-c65d-4cde-84bc-0f90a108867e%40sessionmgr4002&vid=28&hid=4107 [3] Papelis, Yiannis E., Ginger S. Watson, and Timothy L. Brown. (2010). "An empirical study of the effectiveness of electronic stability control system in reducing loss of vehicle control." Accident Analysis & Prevention. (Online Article). http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/command/detail?sid=7aa46c53-c65d-4cde-84bc-0f90a108867e%40sessionmgr4002&vid=25&hid=4107
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