Hacker News Reader

Comment by Simulacra | Hacker News Reader

Fyi actual title "Replacing Brake Pads on a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Requires a Professional Mechanic’s Login"

This article feels like half the story. Is this only a repair you can get done at a Hyundai dealer, or can you take it to any shop? Ostensibly that shop must have the Hyundai equipment, requiring you to purchase an expensive piece of equipment, so even technically this completely fails right to repair. And I don't think car dealers are explaining this when they sell you the vehicle. You don't realize until you take it in for service that you may need to buy a subscription for brake pads, or pay through the nose if you go to another shop because the equipment is expensive.

If anything, this is a very blinking, loud, and glaring sign above Hyundai cars: DO NOT BUY.

View on HN

AFAIK most cars with electric parking breaks need to be set into a special maintenance mode either via OBD-2 or a special in-car procedure to be able to change the pads. Otherwise the breaks Pistons just push together and leave no room for the new pads. At least that is what my 2015 VW would do. But every shop around here has that Software or knowledge.

So Hyundai just upped the game and put some subscription into their service software. Definitely not a consumer friendly move, as changing pads and even disks is not that hard.

It seems like this may be a good opportunity for someone interested in cars to make a site that evaluates especially EV vehicles for their various tricks and traps like this OP story to hold manufacturers’ feet to the fire, so things like subscription or unlock charges and DLC nonsense is not spread and normalized. I don’t want to give them any ideas, but I would prefer if we avoided things like having to buy blinker credits do you don’t end up pulled over off found at fault in an accident because you ran out of credits to use your blinker.

I for one would love to know if a manufacturer requires expensive hidden costs for services that amount to vendor lock-in. It seems like yet another industry moving into the scammy business model like airlines and hotels, where the prices they show you are never they price you pay.

The cars are literally equipped with a computer and a touchscreen these days, there is no justification to mandate an external computer or diagnostic tool to be able to do basic service such as a change of brake pads.

Someone engaging this mode by error or stupidity, and then causing an accident makes me think some things should remain lock behind some "I know what I am doing" barrier, which the subject of the original link seem to not have scaled above, as there is a simple way to brute force the electronic break, no expensive tools needed.

A maintenance mode can be done without risk of activating it by mistake.

Then the different kind of maintenance can be split into sections with warnings about implications of each setting/action.

Well, basically all car manufacturers have this kind of anti-consumer behavior. So you end up not being able to buy anything that's produced after 2000. Definitely not EVs where manufacturers put even more software locks like this. It is a terrible turn-off from what supposed to be better for our environment.

EV manufacturers are taking notes from computer and mobile phones industry where only authorized technicians can replace with the authentic/genuine <brand> parts

Reply on news.ycombinator.com