One of the largest and most complex recall efforts in auto industry history is growing larger and more complex.
After starting small, the Takata airbag inflator recalls have spread like a virus to infect 12 automakers and as many as 25 million U.S. vehicles. U.S. regulators have stepped in to help speed up repairs and funnel a finite supply of replacement parts to the vehicles considered most at risk of an inflator rupture.
Even though the recalls have been proceeding in earnest for more than a year, millions of inflators remain unfixed.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 31 percent of all recalled Takata inflators had been repaired as of Feb. 12, up from 18 percent in mid-August.
The challenges, and human costs, continue to mount. A 52-year-old man was killed in December in South Carolina when his 2006 Ford Ranger struck a cow on the road, and the airbag exploded upon deployment. It was the 10th death linked to the faulty inflators, and it prompted an expansion of the recalls that added 5 million inflators to the tally.
And Takata is facing a daunting ultimatum from NHTSA: Prove by the end of 2019 that its ammonium nitrate inflator propellant is safe, or be forced to recall every ammonium nitrate inflator ever made.