"In one pointed exchange, Mr. Blumenthal asked Ms. Barra and Mr. Millikin if they would ask for the pardon of a woman who had been convicted of criminally negligent homicide in a crash that killed her boyfriend. G.M. determined that the crash was caused by the faulty switch.
No, both said, they would not, but they would be happy to help in other ways."
WTF? Welcome to the machine of corporatocracy folks.
GM's ignition switch debacle should be a lesson to engineers everywhere. During college I had to take a course in engineering ethics. In that class we heard horror stories and I thought these must be rare occurrences and that maybe I would have to deal with such a situation once in my career at most.
That's not the case. Engineers are under constant pressure to cut costs. Looking over them are managers that get bigger bonuses if they can keep their costs down. Inevitably they push problems and costs into another department's court.
Software writers become all too familiar with the problem. They are the boots on the ground that managers come to as a first line of defense. The perception is that software is free and can fix almost anything.
"Brains are the cheapest cut of meat." -- Bill Davidson
Funny isn't it how gently Congress handled Toyota with their runaway cars. Never saw so many kid gloves. Maybe Barra should break down and cry like the head of Toyota did. I believe Barra is doing what she has to do and should be given time. She can hardly clear the Augean Stables sitting in front a bunch of pious congress critters.
__________________
Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
Eleanor Roosevelt