CAE Professional Ethics & Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An automotive engineer discovers a supplier has falsified material certification documents. What is the most ethical course of action?
- Accept the documents to avoid project delays
- Report the falsification to management and procurement (Correct answer)
- Quietly source an alternative supplier without disclosure
- Request the supplier correct only the visible errors
Correct answer: Report the falsification to management and procurement
Engineers must report fraudulent documentation to protect product integrity and public safety, regardless of schedule impact.
Question 2: Which SAE standard primarily governs professional conduct expectations for automotive engineers?
- SAE J1772
- SAE Collegiate Design Series rules
- SAE International Code of Ethics (Correct answer)
- SAE J2534
Correct answer: SAE International Code of Ethics
The SAE International Code of Ethics outlines professional conduct, public safety obligations, and honesty standards for members.
Question 3: A project manager pressures an engineer to sign off on a brake component that narrowly fails internal durability targets. The engineer should:
- Sign off since it is close to the limit
- Refuse to certify and document the disagreement in writing (Correct answer)
- Ask a less senior colleague to sign instead
- Approve conditionally and hope field performance is adequate
Correct answer: Refuse to certify and document the disagreement in writing
Engineers must not certify work that fails established standards and should document refusals to protect public safety and professional integrity.
Question 4: When an automotive engineer holds a patent on a technology being evaluated for a company project, the primary ethical obligation is to:
- Promote the technology to maximize personal royalties
- Disclose the conflict of interest to supervisors before evaluation begins (Correct answer)
- Recuse silently and let others decide
- Transfer the patent to the company automatically
Correct answer: Disclose the conflict of interest to supervisors before evaluation begins
Disclosure of financial interests before participating in related decisions is a cornerstone of conflict-of-interest ethics.
Question 5: Which federal agency's regulations must U.S. automotive engineers consider most directly when designing vehicle safety systems?
- EPA
- OSHA
- NHTSA (Correct answer)
- FTC
Correct answer: NHTSA
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sets and enforces Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that govern vehicle safety design.
Question 6: An engineer is asked to omit known test failures from a regulatory submission to speed approval. This action would violate which principle?
- Efficiency
- Honesty and full disclosure to authorities (Correct answer)
- Confidentiality
- Intellectual property protection
Correct answer: Honesty and full disclosure to authorities
Omitting material data from regulatory submissions constitutes fraud and violates engineers' obligations to honesty and public safety.
Question 7: When an automotive engineer learns that a recalled component also exists in a different vehicle platform that has not been recalled, the engineer's ethical duty is to:
- Wait for formal engineering change orders before acting
- Immediately notify the responsible safety team about the shared component risk (Correct answer)
- Assume the other platform's engineers are already aware
- Document the issue only in personal notes
Correct answer: Immediately notify the responsible safety team about the shared component risk
Engineers have an obligation to proactively communicate known safety risks across all affected platforms, not wait for formal processes.
CAE Professional Ethics & Standards 2
An automotive engineer discovers a supplier has falsified material certification documents.
What is the most ethical course of action?