General Motors Ends NHTSA Safety Oversight, Promises to Keep in Touch

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

General Motors’ safety practices are no longer under the watchful eye of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The three-year oversight period was part of a settlement GM reached with U.S. regulators back in May 2014, resulting from its failure to recall defective ignition switches attributed to 124 deaths and countless injuries.

While NHTSA’s role as General Motors’ personal watchdog ended last month, the automaker said it intends to continue meeting with the agency on a monthly basis to discuss potential defects. It also stated that the time spent with the regulator had been transformative, leading to a safer environment and more stringent quality control.

“Over the past three years, we have taken significant strides toward our goal of setting a new standard for customer safety,” Jeff Boyer, GM’s vice president for vehicle safety, said in a official statement.

“GM’s goal is to bolster lessons learned and to continue a cooperative relationship between GM and NHTSA to help further advance motor vehicle safety,” Boyer continued. “In the spirit of continuous improvement, we will constantly evolve this approach to help keep the safety of our customers at the center of everything we do.”

The handling of the ignition recall was the antithesis of putting customer safety first. While General Motors eventually issued a formal recall of roughly 800,000 of its small cars, some employees had been fully aware of the potential risk caused by the poor-quality switches for years. As evidence of customer deaths mounted, GM expanded the recall to encompass nearly 30 million vehicles worldwide.

In addition to compensating its victims and the costly recall, General Motors was slapped with extensive fines and forced to forfeit almost a billion dollars to the U.S. government. CEO Mary Barra also fired over a dozen employees in 2014, including corporate lawyers who settled cases brought forward by victims’ families in hopes they would remain silent. She also apologized publicly and profusely, visited the families of victims, and established a fund for them long before any legal compensation had been decided by the courts.

The crisis helped shape Barra as the company’s then-new CEO, and she used it to help reshape GM. “I never want to put this behind us,” she told employees a few months into her first year on the job. “I want to put this painful experience permanently in our collective memories.”

After the recall, General Motors swiftly developed its Speak Up for Safety program — which encourages employees to address any safety concerns they have while also submitting new ideas. The automaker has stated it responded to hundreds of product safety concerns as a direct result of the program. “GM must embrace a culture where safety and quality come first,” Barra said during the announcement.

Hopefully the trend continues as the NHTSA becomes less involved in the manufacturer’s day-to-day operations. GM said it will continue working with regulators under a strong voluntary cooperation model and asserts its new vehicle safety structure is vastly improved due to the partnership.

[Image: General Motors]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Zip89123 Zip89123 on Jun 23, 2017

    Uh huh, and the police will police themselves. Yeah right.

  • Tod stiles Tod stiles on Jun 23, 2017

    You know if only we had less government meddling in business these things would never happen.* * You can read that either way.

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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