A Fight Over the Right to Repair Cars Turns Ugly | WIRED John Deere was one of the first that I'd heard of, but there are an ever increasing number of companies out there who seem to think that even though YOU buy THEIR car, it's not really YOUR car, but rather they're just letting you drive it between their regularly scheduled non-optional service calls. I regularly slag Toyota's "closed-hood" customer maintenance practices and horribly corrupt corporate climate...BUT....they "might" not be the most crooked out there. My libertarian leanings do not lend themselves to letting me view seeing dot.gov as the first tool that I would reach for to 'fix' something like this. HOWEVER (comma!!!) regulations ARE sometimes needed to keep the dot.coms in check. SO. Right to repair..... Right? Privilege? Something to think about BEFORE you click the little box acknowledging that you've read the nine pages of leagelese written in mice-type font...on that next non-optional OTA update.
Toyota's current practices on repair information (they retain copyright on the repair manuals and diagrams, but you can subscribe for an affordable rate and view them, and they use SAE standard protocols on their diagnostic port, and their Techstream software is also available for you to use, with an activation fee that's at least less than a typical dealer visit to read codes) seem to be pretty much what's required of them under the old (2012-ish) RTR law that was passed by Massachusetts. The manufacturers had been fighting RTR tooth-and-nail, and then when they saw Mass doing a law that wouldn't ask any more of them than that, they about-faced and got behind the Mass law to preempt other states doing anything more strict. While nobody likes everything about the current arrangements, there are a lot of ways they could be worse, and they do at the very least underscore that open protocols and repair access are not inherently incompatible with copyright. It's possible to ensure the people who build and write the stuff can put food on the table, while also insisting that the stuff they build and write use protocols that are standardized and documented. In the closed-source big-software world (commercial operating systems and database managers and stuff) there have long been some really weird licensing practices. Like, you pay a yearly fee for the use of the software ... now if you buy a faster computer, and move the software onto the faster hardware that you bought, your fee for using the software goes up ... because it's faster now.
i immediately thought of software, and isn't tesla planning on subscription based services or something? great income stream if you can get it. in the end, all 'rights' are decided by government. on the other side, most people think indy mechanic is the mom and pop shop. but that includes pep boys, firestone, goodyear and the lot. all big corporations eager to get the grubby hands on personal data the can sell to miners.
One of the things that I've always admired about Apple, the company that I love to hate and hate to love, is that they don't seem to yoke their customers too egregiously with planned software obsolescence. Their HARDWARE is a different story but it's not FORCED planned obsolescence. My SEVEN YEAR OLD emergency backup phone (Apple 6s) is still running the latest OS, and at 128GB it's still completely functional. Of course...that phone was the better part of $1000 in 2015.....but then, as now, if you wanted the best of the best you had to cut a biiiig check. RTR is different, because it amounts to a forced service contract with the OEM. From what little I know of the Mass law, it's a pretty good solution if only because both sides think that it's suboptimal....(a sign of a good agreement!) but I'm thinking that copyrights should have a standardized sunset that's a little more like the patent system for some things. The old "life plus 70 years" model seems a little misplaced in the tech world given the wide disparity in cost and talent between the patent and the copyright processes. ACTUAL mileage WILL vary.
apples big money maker is battery replacement. and their batteries/battery management is horrendous. the biggest problem with the rtr bill is that politicians don't understand it, people don't understand it. and of course, you only get two choices, so one side has to lose
It seems to me that that way of formulating it creates the biggest likelihood of losing. People who buy stuff want to be able to repair their stuff (or pay the mechanic of their choice to repair it). Manufacturers want compensation for the development work that went into the stuff. Everybody wants the stuff to be hard for "the wrong people" to hack. Owners don't want their cars taken over driving down the road, or their location data sold; manufacturers don't want to be on the hook when some owner's misbegotten mod sends the car off the road. All of those things can be approached in ways that balance the legitimate interests. It gets dicier when there are pretexts involved, like the manufacturers jumping on the "security" concern as a reason they "have to" lock everyone else out (even though the idea of saying your stuff is secure because you'll keep the bad guys from finding out what mistakes are in it has been shown to be a nutters idea again and again and again).
we had a pretty decent rtr law up until this one, and they probably need tweaking as tech develops. but this one is above and beyond sanity, because pols don't understand the tech, and they pander to whover will get them the most votes. i realize that that is a generalization, but they need expert help in crafting these laws. it will never be perfect, or make everyone happy.
A Tank Breaks Down in the Field — The Soldier Can't Fix It: Congress Debates Whether Troops Should Be Allowed to Repair Their Own Gear
We kinda had this problem when I started working in the hospital I eventually retired from. We had a clause in our purchase contract that stated every OEM vendor must supply us with two operations and one service manual for anything they sell us. That clause was rarely enforced; but I enforced it. After about 6 or 7 years in; I started withholding payment and for those vendors that refused to abide by the sales contract. Even told one vendor to come get their 5 million dollar turd or give us the manuals and software access rights. I even caught heat from the CEO and explained that their annual service contract is six figures, so we would be at their mercy as far as downtime and availability - since we wouldn't know how it's suppose to work, much less have a clue in how to fix it. Told him, he's the boss and he could easily sign-off and cut that annual check as long as it's not coming out of my budget. It's kinda a moot point now, since all the genZ people, just phone-in for vendor repairs. Equipment downtime has tripled and all life support spares are never 100% operational anymore. After I left, they've gone thru 2 department managers in 18 months and the department budget has tripled. I was at another major department manager's retirement party last week, they were talking about doubling the spare backup equipment fleet, because of the repair delays. IMHO; part of the reason health care cost keeps sky-rocketing.
