"Automakers" (Ford and Chevy implied) want to ban u from working on cars

"Kanaric" (Kanaric1) 04/20/2015 at 17:57 • Filed to: None

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Want to change your oil? Tune your car? Upgrade the suspension? Seems like they are trying to prevent you from doing any of that.

I posted this on Grassroots Motorsports but people there are so slavishly conservative most of them supported this line of thinking. I am politically unaligned, I pick what issues I enjoy the most which are both left and right wing and vote accordingly, but some people just see “oh I agree with less taxes” and just buy into ALL of the ideology. Even car enthusiasts nodding their heads in agreement to not being able to touch their cars because the pillars of good who can do no wrong corporate overlords say they want it.

These idiot companies are too interested in defending against perceived slights over appealing to what their customers want or expect. This is the same logic that defends premium channels and cable companies despite netflix making 90 billion dollars or whatever obscene sum. Comcast would rather lose profit and have their shows pirated because there is no ease of customer use and refusal to modernize. Same with companies like Ubisoft for video games, loading things up with DRM. They keep trying to load their hit up with DRM but people still pirate their games don’t even see it because the crackers remove it, the DRM just makes it more complicated and annoying for their actual customers. They are idiot companies. They are totally backwards in thinking and people of the younger generations EXPECT different behavior. Any company with recent success follows a modern business model like this. A business model of making their product easily accessible to ALL their customers and doesn’t try to limit them at every corner. There is a comparison in virtually every industry.

Subaru, for example, has open source tools out (they didn’t make obviously) and their cars have exploded in popularity the past 15 years or so. Their sales didn’t crater losing all the R&D money. They are popular in enthusiast circles, and they even support enthusiasts at times and always have. The logic that these mods and tuning cuts into profits is the most idiotic i’ve heard. A car that is popular, and modded, builds a companies reputation with enthusiasts and increases visibility and sales which also helps to sell other cars in the brand.

I will never get people like that or these companies that behave in this manner. I will say one thing, if Ford or GM makes it so they start pursuing cease and desist orders against enthusiasts and aftermarket I will never buy another product from them again and it will KILL the american car tuner scene and/or bring much delight to Chrysler.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:04

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But think of it this way, if they were able to prosecute against chipping there wouldn’t be any more douchenozzles chipping their diesels to roll coal

RallyWrench > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:04

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This is nothing new, BMW has been like this for years.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:05

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Manufacturer’s current view of us:

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:05

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What a heap of nonsense. I’ll be working on my own stuff as long as I’m physically able. I’ve genuinely had situations where I’ve diagnosed faults the mechanics at a main dealer couldnt work out. My car is in safe hands with me and I’d like it to stay that way.

E92M3 > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:08

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I can see both sides argument. You hand your ECU over to a startup to get their new performance map, and steering calibration. After 6 months that ECU has a bug, and your car shutsdown the same instant you tried to turn and beat a Semi. Or you spent millions to develop an OS platform, and some tuner is making money modifying a few parameters.

PS9 > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:11

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That article doesn’t say anything about oil changes or suspension mods. The heart of the issue is the software automakers use to control specific aspects of the vehicle and how much copyright protections they are relatively afforded. Neither a piece of software, nor the DMCA can stop anyone from unbolting the drain plug, or swapping out a set of coil-overs.

It sounds like they want to use the DMCA to guarantee them a share of the profits enjoyed by tuning outfits that sell PCM mods and whatnot, but a favorable ruling could also give them the power to crush the tuning industry completely and give automakers complete control over software-related vehicle mods for the foreseeable future.

spanfucker retire bitch > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:11

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Here’s hoping the EFF is victorious in its arguments.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 18:12

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If I lease a car, thats fine, I get that.

If I buy a car, I’m going to do what ever the fuck I want to do with it. I dont care what the manufacturer intended purpose for it is. You want to introduce language that absolves you of liability if my modified car kills me? Go for it. Kill the warranty? Sure. But dont sit here and try to say I, or certified mechanics dont understand how a damn car works.

Fucking power grab.

Axial > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 04/20/2015 at 18:24

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False. They’d just stick to the older trucks where impending legislation likely couldn’t apply, like they mostly do now to avoid the DPF requirements.

random001 > Kanaric 04/20/2015 at 21:36

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Hell, the Germans have been trying this for years. Try draining the oil on any modern MB. That's right, no drain plug. Commies.

MonkeePuzzle > Kanaric 04/21/2015 at 09:54

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passive aggressive engine covers have been saying keep out for some time