Massachusetts Passes Wireless Auto Telemetry Right to Repair

ifixit.com

19 points·kwiens··3 comments

I’m in Massachusetts and I think two things played out here -

#1 - Most people I’ve spoken to understand the principle behind right to repair, they know it is in the best interests of consumers, and that there are well funded interests in opposition to it. For this reason, they are skeptical of anything that smells like a rollback attempt and quick to react.

#2 - The No on 1 ads (in opposition, funded by the auto industry) were downright offensively bad. Imagery of a woman being stalked and raped in a parking garage, or of a hacker taking a car over from afar because of some repair data they got their hands on was insulting to a lot of people I know, who easily saw through the argument.

What's unfortunate is that Massachusetts already has good right-to-repair laws; the only thing this ballot measure changes is that car data must be accessible wirelessly, which frankly I think is a terrible idea. (The idea of cars needing firmware updates is ludicrous to me, but I realize that opinion may not be shared by many people.) I agree, however, that the messaging of the measure's opponents was just plain bad.

Edit: in re existing laws, see the 2012 ballot measure, which required that independent repair facilities have access to the same vehicle diagnostic and repair information available to manufacturers' dealers and authorized repair facilities.

Maybe now car owners will be able to access the data.

Tesla doesn't let owners access their car computer in any way.

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