Klaus via EV wrote:
It's been going for a long, long time. To mention just a few: [snip]...
It's just a game of cat and mouse.
A great summary, Klaus. And the cat has all the teeth and claws (money,
lawyers and lobbyists).
You'll notice that car companies have gotten a lot smarter in dealing
with safety concerns. They just used to deny they existed, and fight
every change. Now, they find a "fix" where they can add cost and
increase their profit margin.
Problem: Cars are easy to steal. Cheap, worthless locks.
Old way: "Not our fault! We use the best locks $1 can buy! Blame the
crooks. Blame the customer."
New way: "Aha; let's use $2 locks, and make them so nobody but us can
make keys. And we'll sell them for $100 each. We'll run the independent
keymakers out of business, monopolize the key market, and make big
money! Bwuoo hah hah ha!"
So the automakers write the laws the way they like, and lobby and make
"campaign contributions" to get Congress to implement them.
I'm all for Right to Repair! My dealership sucks big time.
Same here. When the dealerships have a monopoly on parts and repairs,
they inevitably turn into STEALerships. They can do bad work at high
prices, and you don't have any choice.
Big deal Tesla can deactivate the cars it built! The Tesla is just a
computer designed to look and work like a car.
It's been said that Microsoft has the perfect racket. A monopoly on PC
operating systems, so they can charge a fortune for buggy software with
a fake warranty. You only *think* you own the program; in fact, they can
"upgrade" it any time they like to kill it, and force you to buy a new
version.
I'm sure there are people in the auto industry that look hungrily at
this business model, and want to apply it to cars.
If it's your car then reverse engineer the software & hardware and
make it your own!
You're calling for an automotive version of Linux. It could happen! :-)
At some point, consumers will have to stand up and say, "Enough is
enough!" Learn to fix your own car (at least for the simpler things).
Lobby for laws to protect YOUR rights. Hopefully, even contribute to
open source efforts to "unlock" some of the automaker's little profit
engines.
--
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
-- Henry Ford
--
Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm
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