Right to Repair law in MA (open-source your car)

The Washington Post reports that small auto repair shops in Massachusetts are pushing a bill that would require auto makers to provide (for a price) all diagnostic and software data they make available to their dealerships. "Massachusetts would become the first state to approve the so-called auto right-to-repair law. The Senate recently passed it, and it's pending in the House. Industry observers say passage of the bill in Massachusetts could drive similar legislative efforts in other states." (thanks, Rob Boyle)

• [Anonymous]

  As a locksmith, I often encounter customers who own German cars and CANNOT get a spare key made anywhere except the dealership. Not only do some manufacturers withhold information from the companies which make key blanks, but they also withhold vital information necessary to program transponder keys.

  I had a customer recently who lost his key and I had to break the bad news that it was physically impossible for him to get a new key without having his car towed 100 miles to the nearest dealership. Why? because the programming procedure requires a password which is unique to the vehicle and the manufacturer flatly refuses to release the password, not even to a licensed locksmith, not even to the registered owner of the vehicle. Their computer system won’t even allow the techs at the dealership to display the password on the computer screen!

  Hopefully, this law would require the manufacturer to tell the owner of the car what their password is, if the customer asks. Then, owners of German cars might be able to have keys made at a local locksmith instead of being forced to go to the dealer.

• [Anonymous]

  Its time for open sourced autos, ala generic PSs. The MFG’s make it as difficult as they can to repair your car to enhance dealer service lockin and over pricing.

• [mlc]

  This is nice and all, but when will we have it for something less destructive than cars?

• [Anonymous]

  This is why I drive an antique Mustang. I don’t want a computer and all those sensors in my car; they don’t belong there.

  Sidenote: I’m a software developer from Boston.

• [Church]

  WTF is this “at a price” crap?

  Require them to provide that in a keydrive that you can keep in the glove compartment. Problem solved.

  Unless your problem is how many bucks you’re going to get out of the auto industry for your warchest, I guess.

  • [Anonymous]

    IF you are Willing to pay through the nose and bend over to have your vehicle repaired, then So be it! Hey, Some of us would rather NOT go to a Dealership to have their vehicle repaired.

    Small businesses are the foundation of this Great Nation, Not Major Corporations telling us How and Where and When we have to Fix our vehicles.

    Small businesses, “at a price” because nothing is free except the air we breathe, are here to stay.

    I am a roadside mechanic and I like to repair my own vehicle. Should and IF this Law does not Pass then everybody out there like me will eventually be Royally “F”ed!!!

• [theawesomerobot]

  Massachusetts just keeps making it harder and harder for me to leave. Hopefully this isn’t kicked down by uninformed residents who think all mechanics are just trying to find ways to rip you off.

  Also – really: “This is a thinly veiled attempt by parts manufacturers to lower the cost of remanufacturing original equipment of manufacturer parts,” THIS is the best argument against it that Alliance can come up with? Oh no, please anything but more affordable car parts!

• [orwellian]

  This is a pretty big deal. It means consumers could save on repairs and the data would help those wanting to modify the performance of their vehicle. You could modify the fuel efficiency as well; use less fuel when running errands in town and give yourself more power for the freeway or even racing. My brother’s a mechanic and he’d love this.

• [Donald Petersen]

  OMG likelikelike.

  I have found it incredibly difficult to get the equivalent of a factory service manual for a Volvo. I’ve never run into trouble getting them for Chevys or Toyotas, but even in the eBay aftermarket, Volvo’s proprietary service info seems to be impossible to find at any reasonable price.

  Volvo will actually sell you their info at volvotechinfo.com. Their “Master Set” of manuals was upwards of five grand. Volvo in particular doesn’t seem to want anyone other than dealerships to work on their cars.

• [Gabriel Burt]

  This is good news, but remember that requiring them to distribute the software is far from open sourcing it — it would likely be in compiled/machine language form, and if not, the source would probably be much more restricted than allowed to be open source.

• [Lady Katey]

  This is great. I’m not sure why the dealers/auto makers are so freaked out by this- they’ll still get to do all the ‘under warrenty’ type repairs. I’ll continue going to the Chevy dealer for my regular maintenance (though I refused their $600 suggested 30,000 mile tune up) because I sprang for the extended warrenty on my car. Which has worked out, as I’ve needed a few things in the suspension replaced (horray for Massachusetts pot holes!).

• [Anonymous]

  WTF, other states? This law seems like a no-brainer to me, to prevent dealerships from bullying consumers into ditching their local, independent repair shops.

  Last month the ABS and V-trac lights came on in our new/used Rav 4. We then took it to our regular independent shop, a local guy we’ve trusted for years who happens to specialize in Toyotas. He told us that he couldn’t diagnose and fix the car without access to proprietary information that we could only get from the dealer. Of course, when we took it to the dealer, they wanted us to pay a lot for just the diagnosis. In the end, we visited two different dealers about this problem before it was fixed – there’s a REASON we prefer our local guy!