if any of you live in Massachusetts you make think the right to repair law is good but it wont change anything and make it worse for all of you. Basically the whiny independants who don't want to spend twenty thousand dollars a year on computer equipment or ten thousand dollars on training have basically used their money to convince the public that this is a good thing. So lets break down the stupidity of the law. First of joe independant garage wants all the information available. Secondly he wants access to tools. He wants to right to fix your vehicle under warrantee.

First off, its a screw job completely. Everyone here that has bought a code reader or any other equipment understands it costs money to have this access. Secondly anyone else who has spent the money on special tools knows it costs money to do this. What the independants or more likely valvoline and jiffy lube want is to have that info for free. Then they want access to those tools. They want them for free. That way they can pay some high school drop out six bucks an hour to fix your car and diagnose your car. Seriously if you think dealers make mistakes, if a place can't even put oil back in the car how in the world are you going to trust them to fix your timing belt or your water pump or electrical problem. They want to undercut the dealer who has to spend money on parts, labour and tools and info to fix the car right. but these corporate types don't care. Trust me any good independant worth his weight in gold doesn't like this bill. They understand what it takes to fix the cars and what it takes to have info and tools. They buy them already. They don't need the bill. And seriously if you ask them about doing warrantee work, they won't. Warrrantee doesn't pay good at all. Trust me how are you going to do the repair. Are you going to the shop you want demanding a free repair. And who says its warranteeable? Who in the shop is going to do the warrantee paperwork. Or are you gonna pay out of pocket and hope for the best. Better hope you get all your money back. Are you gonna sue the manufacturer if they claim that the repair is incorrect. In fact the simple upgrade the independant did may not be covered because the bulletin he used is for another vin. That vehicle isn't covered. Or better yet, there is no picture of the mileage and vin plate and no part to return. What do you do, return it to the dealer. Seriously its a crock of crap. Guaranteed to help only jiffy lube and frustrate consumers. Hell remember when you are out of warrantee you can go anywhere you want. you have to pay not the manufacturer.

 

Anything that creates an incentive for manufacturers to stop the monopolistic practice of using proprietary software in the computer systems is a good thing in my book.
Open source is the way to go to reduce car manufacturing and ownership costs.

That said, I'm not in favor of a law forcing manufactures to provide free tools to all mechanics, though I guess if it's passed I might move to MA, I wouldn't mind a bunch of new free tools.

 

I'm not ok with the free tool bit (since it isn't free for dealers), but yes to openly available technical information on all cars sold in the US, including their computer systems. There's no good reason why my $180 Actron OBD II scanner can scan all the subsystems of a Buick Regal legally, but not a Land Rover or a BMW except for greed on the part of the manufacturer. The age old line about dilution of quality of service is a crock of ****. Has been for years.

 

also, you forget the guys making the info available in the form of scanners don't want diyers working on only one vehicle at a time. plus all the info for all the vehicles is alot of space so you need more computing power. information aint cheap. its just that the cheap shops that refuse to update or pay a dime for anything are the ones pushing for it. They will be the ones that misuse the law and sell it to anyone for a price. Not to mention steal you car from your driveway with nothing more then a computer and a made up key. Thats right they want information on all the security codes including key codes so they can steal your car back when you don't pay the bill.
of course now this makes massachusetts warrantees only good in massachusetts. So anyone dumb enough to go to mass for a vehicle will not be honored by anyone.

 

you dance with the one that brought you

 

The binaries for allowing a scanner to communicate with all the vehicle ECU's in the world, ever, would fit in well under 10GB of space.

I bought a 16GB flash drive the other day for $19.99 retail.

Information isn't cheap when you're the only one who's giving it out. When it's open source, suddenly the price is a bit less. If someone tomorrow released a scanner that was capable of scanning every system in everything ever for under $1000, and wasn't restricted to a particular year make and model, there would be a fire sale on Hawkeye's (and their unlock codes) and Testbook's.

And a mechanic's lien doesn't include surreptitiously creating a key and taking your car in the middle of the night, what you're describing is grand theft auto.

Your doomsday theories aside, there's a lot of good that will come from this law, and others like it.

 

what incentive does the owner of the intellectual property software have to keep it current and support it? Do as much as you can yourself, and change fluids more often than spec and save for the complex. don't complain when Joe teenager toasts your truck by improper program options.... software is not idiot proof

 

the cheap show owners are asking for code readers. they are asking for programming and other abilitities. The same abilitities that cost dealers thousand of dollars a month in fees and equipment leasing. They want all of it for ten bucks. They want the tools to do the jobs as well, they want them for free as well. They are cheap guys who don't want to pay a dime for anything. they are the hacks that oversell every job including brakes that no one seems to need.

 

Have You read the proposed bill completely?

I read one paragraph so far and all it looks to me like it will set a standard
for all auto, and light truck manufacturers to use the same diagnostic equipment platform.
Like OBD scan tool standards
All workshop information will be available through subscription and special tools will be available to purchase.

 

If it's open source there is no "owner".
If it's open source all manufactures can use the same code, probably saving millions, if not billions, of dollars between them all. All the needed code would need only a small amount of memory space.
Why would the manufactures not maintain the code? If they don't maintain the code they can't even service their own products.

The no incentive for code maintenance/fixes/"innovation" argument is a myth.

As for your car's security, if the code were open source within a very short time owners/hackers would release add-on code that would protect the security of your car, even if the manufactures didn't provide a method from the start, which would be stupid to not do.
Arguing that car is now available for anyone to steal is like arguing that you can't make Linux, FreeBSD, etc. secure.