Interesting. What is the question?
Can they do it? If they did it, it's done.
Can they use the information in court? The general test for the admissibility of evidence is whether it is probative of a contested fact. It seems pretty clear that the evidence would be probative of many contested facts.
Sometimes evidence is excluded as a sanction for abuse of the discovery process. So that would be determined on a case-by-case basis. Did GM abuse the discovery process by failing to tell the other litigating party (plaintiff, probably) that this device existed? If so, it's excluded, but only in that case.
Now that everyone knows about it, presumably it will be available to all, regardless of who it helps.
Larger questions. Does the device endanger the passengers in any way? If so, GM is dead meat. Even if not, it's not smart, public relations-wise.
Is there something wrong with it? I can't tell, it seems not based on the limited facts, but I suspect that GM is gonna be sorry they ever got this cute. |
