DETROIT — Japanese auto supplier Takata, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, pleaded guilty Monday as a corporation in federal court, agreed to a $1 billion plea deal and told a federal judge its behavior over a 15-year period was “deeply inappropriate.”
Takata, a 70-year-old supplier of airbags, seatbelts and other safety equipment to nearly every global automaker, made airbags that have been tied to 17 deaths globally. The potentially defective airbags, which can spray shrapnel into the faces of occupants when they activate, are on more than 42 million vehicles worldwide. Its headquarters is in Tokyo but its U.S. headquarter is in Auburn Hills, Mich.
