The greatest worry is areas with long periods of very high humidity. However, even with the very unfortunate deaths and injuries which should have been avoidable, Takata found itself in a classic squeeze.
The product, on delivery, was fine - cost effective and reliable. It was only after years of exposure, which might not have been well simulated in accelerated heat w/humidity tests, that the problem was spotted. The squeeze came in thusly - if Takata let on that this was a problem they would not only have to produce all the orders they currently had, get new orders to continue an income, but also spool up manufacturing to replace all inflators they ever made. I think few companies could survive that, plus they would have to somehow also develop an entirely new inflator that could not have any similar defect as both the replacement, the current production, and for future contracts in what would likely be a year before they got cut off by everyone.
Worse, major auto makers knew about these problems, which is what prompted the Takata inquiries, and those companies kept it quiet as well.
I see from
that Takata had previously been involved with seatbelt failures and, again, the major makers knew about the problems and kept silent.
In the grand scheme of things, airbags do not guarantee survival; they simply significantly reduce the chances of death or serious injury. And even with the deaths from the shrapnel included, the overall reduction in deaths and other injuries was apparently a very large net positive. I would like that the airbag inflators had been designed to have a safe mode for over-pressure rupture rather than uncontrolled fragmentation.
In looking at some Chinese inflator manufacturer pages, they list a 15 year lifetime for their inflators. It would be nice to know what happens at the end of that time. The price of the inflator is around $20, but I expect that this is not replaceable individually in the airbag system.
