Below is a video of a rear end crash test of Ford’s 1972 Pinto at about 55 km/h.

The reason why the car caught fire is because in pre-production tests, Ford realized that the Pinto’s fuel system ruptured extremely easily. The company has a patent to a considerably safer fuel tank that would cost about $11 more per vehicle. However, instead of paying for the part, Ford calculated how many of these would lead to deaths or serious injury and decided that the payouts they had to give to the family of each of the deceased is still considerably less than the cost incurred by the company had they purchased this part.

So basically, Ford sold a car for 8 years knowing that it could very well potentially burn people to death.And just in case the thought of that isn’t unsavory enough, the company’s “cost-benefit analysis” pretty much literally puts a price tag on a human life. NOT COOL FORD.

But, I’d say that the absolute kicker is the fact that less hasty testing reveals that a $1 plastic part could have prevented all these deaths. Sometimes, the ethical descisions are not as ambiguous after all.