Case Study: Firestone $500$ Tyre

These questions relate to the case study on the Firestone $500$ Tyre.

Please read the article, and use that information to answer the following questions. There are also

some questions relating to the Firestone tyres and the Ford explorer.

For all Questions about the Firestone $500$ tyre include references to the article to justify your

answer. For other questions please include references.

$1.$ How would you categorise Firestone's management's response to the developing problems

with the Firestone $500$ Tyre?

$2.$ What was the risk identified? How was this risk managed?

$3.$ How did the Firestone $500$ Tyre Fail? What was the technological basis of this failure?

$4.$ Was the failure immediate, or long term? How could this type of failure be caught during

testing?

$5.$ In Chapter $6$ of the textbook, Systems Test, Evaluation, and Validation" we discuss different

types of testing. Identify different types of testing that occurred, and the effects of each type

of testing.

$6.$ The Firestone $500$ recall was not based on a known, specified, engineering failure. Rather,

some other information was deemed sufficient to justify the recall. What was the additional

information, and would you agree that it justified the recall?

$7.$ The Centre for Auto Safety had compiled information about problem rates for various tyres.

This information showed the rate for the Firestone $500$ was significantly higher than other

brands. A court order that this information not be released to the public. It was

"inadvertently" released. Discuss the ethics of this release. if the information release had

caused the Firestone company to go out of business, what would have happened to the

employees? Even those who were not related to the defective tyres? Please consider this

question from both the pro and the con sides.

$8.$ When it became clear that a recall was imminent Firestone decided to sell off the final

Firestone $500$ tyres in southeastern states at clearance$-$sale prices. Discuss the ethics of this

behaviour. Please consider this question from both the pro and the con sides.