Reference no: EM132890608

You are the software development manager for an organization that produces the software used to control the deployment of airbags used in several popular U.S. automobiles. Last year, vehicles using your software were involved in 200,000 crashes, and 4,000 people died as a result of those accidents. An internal investigation conducted by your firm revealed that at least 40 of those fatalities occurred when airbags failed to deploy properly because of software problems. The cost to develop an improved version of the software is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $10 to $20 million. Simulations have shown that proper deployment of the airbags would likely have reduced the number of fatalities from over 40 to less than 10. Should your firm make the investment necessary to upgrade the software and install it in all new vehicles? The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has the authority to issue vehicle safety standards and to require manufacturers to recall vehicles that have safety-related defects. If your firm chooses to inform the NHTSA of its findings and a recall is issued, it will cost an additional $250 million to execute the recall and upgrade existing airbags to the new software. Should your firm work with NHTSA to execute a recall and install the new software in all vehicles-old and new?