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Toyota-owned automaker halts Japan production after admitting it tampered with safety tests for 30 years (www.cnn.com)

submitted 2 years ago by jordanlund@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Daihatsu, the Japanese automaker owned by Toyota, has halted domestic production after admitting it forged the results of safety tests for its vehicles for more than 30 years.

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[+] Stamets@lemmy.world 198 points 2 years ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 61 points 2 years ago

Similar to the VW emissions scandal:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

That wasn't over 30 years though...

[+] Stamets@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] andy_wijaya_med@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Capitalism..

[+] ByteJunk@lemmy.world -13 points 2 years ago

I get the anger, but that's the worst possible solution.

Where do you think the people that have been pulling this off successfully for years are gonna go? To unemployment lines, or to the next big paycheck in some other company? Spoiler alert: publicly traded companies are the natural habitat of ambitious twats with zero scruples.

And how about the guys that actually work the shop floor, how likely are they to have some other work opportunity that pays as well?

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago

Fines are just the cost of doing business to these bastards.

[-] Magrath@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 years ago

I don't think that's the way to do it. The workers who have nothing to do with it get shafted by losing their jobs and there is a little less competition in a world where there isn't enough in some industries. I think long jail sentences will the best deterrent. Fines only do so much. C-level executives needs to start going to jail.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

Shutter a company and instead of a fine force the company to continue paying those workers at full pay for a defined amount of time like 5-10 years.

[-] eclectic_electron@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

where is the money going to come from if they can't sell anything?

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago

If they don't have the cash on hand to survive payroll for 5 years they'll have to liquidate assets and let people know they won't be able to reopen so should try and find employment elsewhere while using the asset to pay them for the 5 year period wether they get a job elsewhere or wait to get a job after that 5 years.

[-] eclectic_electron@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Doesn't that ultimately punish not the company, but anyone who lent money or sold material to the company? Usually assets would be liquidated to pay off creditors but if all the assets go to employees creditors don't get paid. This really hurts all the small businesses who sold supplies or materials to the company and haven't been paid for them yet.

And of course, this all ignores the fact that for most companies most of their valuation is in their intellectual property, mainly their brand identity and recognition. And for manufacturing company's, even most of the tangible assets are going to be things like factory buildings and equipment. Those things are all highly specialized so it's very difficult to get someone else to come in and use that space to the same level of productivity. That will result in major damage to the local economy when a huge source of tax revenue and jobs suddenly disappears.

I'm not saying all this because I think companies should get away with whatever they want. Not at all. I just want to give some context for why these "obvious solutions" aren't being used. It's not that the entire world is in some conspiracy. Many of these problems are legitimately very difficult to solve.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

It would require a large overhaul of how the system currently works but eventually things would be priced into the risk a company poses. History of unethical decisions, choice of CEO and board members, etc. where lenders would require higher rates. Also companies may instead be forced to sell their IP instead of liquidate assets. Also maybe 5-10 years might be overkill and more feasible lengths of time could be 1-2 months because people choosing companies to supply them will be less likely to choose those which could have a month long disruption to their supply.

Also I just thought of this in 5 minutes for a random comment. I'm sure there's plenty wrong with the idea but that doesn't mean there's not some form of the concept which could be feasible. It would probably require a committee of 10+ experts to write up something like that.

[-] evatronic@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

5 - 10 years is a bit much, but liquidate the entire company, assets, buildings, real estate, etc. pay the executives $0, and continue salaries for as long as possible with those funds.

[-] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

But that would encourage workers to speak up if they see their companies doing something wrong because it could make everyone lose their jobs. I think that would be a benefit overall.

I agree people should go to jail too. For sure

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There is no fine on earth that could be levied that would discourage others from doing this. If they have profits higher then who cares.

when the punishment is a fine, it's only a crime if you're poor.

[-] Dmian@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

"Make more money, faster, at any cost" seems to be the motto of a lot of companies these days... Stockholders are there, waiting for their returns, like hungry hatchlings. And CEOs will do anything to try to keep them happy. This system is shit.

[-] crsu@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

tHe E C O N O M Y

[-] anemoia_one@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 2 years ago

“Make more money, faster, at any cost” is the literal motto of capitalism

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

It should be: "Make the best quality of goods[ and services] possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible." To paraphrase Henry Ford.

He was a jackass in a lot of ways but that ideal is bounds better than "fuck workers and consumers, get yachts."

[-] Granixo@feddit.cl 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's Daihatsu we're talking about.

Would you EVER feel safe inside a Daihatsu?

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

If only, apparently some of the cars were sold as Toyotas...

[-] Justas@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

And Subaru. And Mazda.

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

How fast am I going, how empty is the road, and am I wearing a condom and prescription helmet?

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 years ago

I got ⅔ of the way through the article, then I was like wait I drive a Toyota!

[-] criticon@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

Do you drive a Daihatsu?

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

They did make some branded as Toyota, so maybe. I haven't seen a complete list of affected models. What I have read makes me think the Toyota branded cars weren't available in the US though.

[-] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

List of affected models: https://www.daihatsu.com/news/2023/20231220-4_1.pdf

It's not just affecting Daihatsu and Toyota models, but also some Subaru and Mazda models. It's mostly compact / cheap vehicles though, if you drive an SUV chance that it's not affected.

I wonder why they felt the need to cheat the safety tests though, it's not like people buying these cheap super compact vehicles for their safety.

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

Apparently I don’t.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 14 points 2 years ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Daihatsu, the Japanese automaker owned by Toyota, has halted domestic production after admitting it forged the results of safety tests for its vehicles for more than 30 years.

The brand, best known for manufacturing small passenger cars, has stopped output at all four of its Japanese factories as of Tuesday, including one at its headquarters in Osaka, a spokesperson told CNN.

Last week, Daihatsu announced an independent third-party committee had found evidence of tampering with safety tests on as many as 64 vehicle models, including those sold under the Toyota brand.

The scandal is another blow to the automaker, which had admitted in April to violating standards on crash tests on more than 88,000 cars, mostly sold under the Toyota brand in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.

In that case, “the inside lining of the front seat door was improperly modified” for some checks, while Daihatsu did not comply with regulatory requirements for certain side collision tests, it said in a statement at the time.

According to a report released last Wednesday by the investigative committee, 174 more cases were found of Daihatsu manipulating data, making false statements or improperly tinkering with vehicles to pass safety certification tests.

The original article contains 441 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 55%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] epyon22@programming.dev 9 points 2 years ago

I don't think there was, but we're there any models sold in the US? If any most likely under Toyota brand.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

Just looking at the current list, it's all Indonesia and Japan, but then we'd also need to go back 30 years...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Daihatsu_vehicles

this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023

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