Mazda Motor Corporation, Receipt of Petition for Determination of Inconsequentiality of Takata's Defect Information Report Filing Under NHTSA Campaign Number 17E-034 for PSDI-5 Desiccated Driver Air Bag Inflators and Decision Denying Request for Deferral of Determination

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On July 10, 2017, Takata Corporation ("Takata") filed a defect information report ("DIR") in which it determined that a safety-related defect exists in certain phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate ("PSAN") driver-side airbag inflators that it manufactured with a calcium sulfate desiccant, including inflators that it supplied to Ford Motor Company ("Ford"), Mazda North American Operations ("Mazda"), and Nissan North America Inc. ("Nissan") for use in certain vehicles. Mazda's vehicles identified by Takata's DIR were designed by Ford and were built on the same platform and using the same airbag inflators as the affected Ford vehicles. Mazda has petitioned the Agency--in part through a purported joint petition with Ford (see DOCKET NO. NHTSA-2017-0093)--for a decision that because analysis of inflators installed in certain Ford vehicles does not demonstrate propellant-tablet density degradation or increased inflation pressure, and because there are design differences between the inflators installed in Ford and Mazda vehicles and an inflator variant installed in Nissan vehicles, the equipment defect determined to exist by Takata is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety in