Ford Hires NHTSA Veteran to Help Improve QualityFordFord led the auto industry in recalls last year by a wide margin here in the United States, but the Michigan-based automaker isn't taking that lying down. Instead, FoMoCo is taking steps to improve its quality control—and one of its latest hires may well be key to its efforts. Ford Motor Company has hired National Highway Traffic Safety Administration veteran David Hines for a new chief auto safety officer role, according to The Detroit News.Hines will reportedly report to Steve Croley, Ford's chief policy officer, and will be based in Washington, D.C.; his role will focus on global product safety, compliance, governance, and strategy. Before this move, Hines served as the director of NHTSA's Office of Crash Avoidance Standards for more than 13 years.Ford"David's thirty years of experience in automotive engineering and safety will be an asset to the company as we continue to put quality first," Croley said in a statement to The Detroit News. (Road & Track has reached out to Ford for further comment; we'll update this story should we hear back.)AdvertisementAdvertisementHines will also be responsible for a cross-departmental team focused on engineering, digital design, quality, manufacturing, and purchasing. The team will primarily ensure product safety, design, and quality over its lifecycle, according to the News.During his time at NHTSA, Hines worked to create and implement Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards around autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. But isn't Hines' first rodeo with Ford; he was previously a product design engineer at the automaker, where he assisted in the development of the Ford Freestyle SUV and the Five Hundred sedan. He also worked at Toyota early in his career, focused on exterior development of the Camry and Solara.Hiring one person certainly won't be the end of Ford's quality control issues, but the automaker is clearly focused on rectifying its previous issues. (After all, 12.9 million cars covered under 153 separate recalls in a single year is presumably not a number it wants to repeat.) But with moves like Hines's return and other efforts, such as implementing daily engine teardowns at its Essex, Ontario plant to help catch issues early on, it appears Ford is once again looking to live up to its old slogan: "Quality is Job One."You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State