“The question is is when did they become aware of this flaw, and did they only admit it after the govt started asking for answers.”
Having been in on the design and testing of major and minor systems for 30 years, I can give some insight. The engineers design it to work however it’s supposed to. But people in the field do things that were not intended and you can sometimes get spectacular and even deadly failures. Today companies test for unintended functions and accidental combinations of events that can lead to failure. For example, on the SR-71 the flight control for the x axis had the same pin-out as the y axis with no connector keying. A crash just after engaging the auto pilot lead to all future connectors being keyed so connectors can’t be interchanged.
Wow.
I am an engineer too, not on avionics or any kind of vehicle systems, but wow.
I guess I was just wondering if they pulled a GM move here (ie the known bad ignition switch) or if they only really found it after being told to go over their designs for system flaws.