General Motors knows all about its warranty issues. And Toyota knows all about its own.
But GM doesn't have access to Toyota's. And suppliers that sell the same part to both automakers often don't have information on how those parts are performing in the field.
This is the nature of proprietary data, repeated thousands of times all over the auto industry.
But an information service company — We Predict, of Ann Arbor, Mich. — is working to pull back the curtain on parts performance data and provide transparency across corporate lines.