Ethical Individual Written Assignment: Toyota and Ethical Dilemma

Ethical Individual Written Assignment: Toyota and Ethical Dilemma
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Ethical Individual Written Assignment: Toyota and Ethical Dilemma
During the period between late 2009 to 2011, Toyota Motor Corporation was involved in serious ethical issues that prompted the recall of millions of vehicles after reports of fatal crashes as reported by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to a physical defect within the drivers’ footwell (Greto, Schotter & Teagarden, 2010). It was shortly after discovered that two models from Toyota, namely the Corolla and the Camry, were undergoing instances of unintended acceleration due to the sticking of the acceleration pedal despite no input.
The first recall carried out was as a result of an out of place floor mat on the footwell in the driver's side of the vehicle. These mats initially meant to be heavy-duty all-weather mats, were found to move forward when not well secured and trap the accelerator pedal into the footwell (Jim & Shinde, 2015). The second instance of recalls, which was initiated on January 21st of 2010, was a result of accelerator pedals sticking in a 'throttle open' position in vehicles that did not have floor mats.
The ethical issue at hand is that while Toyota was aware of the issues that would cause fatal crashes, the company proceeded to market and sell faulty vehicles. Toyota had been aware of the potential issues with the accelerator mechanism and design which would result in the sticking of the pedal in an open position without any persisting input at the time (Bauman, 2011). There were pre-existing pieces of evidence that alluded to the fact that Toyota was aware of such instances in their vehicle brands dating back to 1999, with no considerable effort put into publicizing the potential danger or providing an effective permanent remedy.
The key stakeholders in this ethical dilemma are the whole entity under the Toyota Motor Corporation banner. This is because they are licensed and approved automakers of the vehicles with the fault as described in the previous paragrap...