A Cheaper Airbag, and Takata’s Road to a Deadly Crisis (Published 2016)

Linda Rink holding a Takata airbag inflater. At least 14 people have been killed by the faulty devices.Credit...Rajah Bose for The New York Times In the late 1990s, General Motors got an unexpected and enticing offer. A little-known Japanese supplier, Takata, had designed a much cheaper automotive airbag. G.M. turned to its airbag supplier — the Swedish-American company Autoliv — and asked it to m