General Motors is taking steps to make the recall process go a lot more smoothly, and they’re doing so by harnessing technology.
Until recently, the speed with which a recall could be issued by GM was limited because of the way that information about a potential safety problem was gathered. If a problem were to crop up in one region, for instance, only engineers in that particular region would look into the issue.
Since this was done without communicating with other areas, the identification of a widespread safety defect might be slowed down. This approach ends up costing more money and consumers across the globe could be put at risk, as many components are the same across vehicle models and countries.
To combat the issue and hasten defect investigations, GM will open two state of the art data centers modeled off of the facilities of tech giants like Facebook and Google. It’s hoped that the boon to data storage and communication will facilitate speedier investigations that ultimately serve to protect consumers.
The company will also make more of an effort to develop their software in house as opposed to outsourcing it. The thought is that becoming more invested in the IT sector will enable the company to get a better understanding of business operations in their entirety.
All of these things should improve crash tests, bring products to the market more quickly, and foster hasty identification of manufacturing problems.