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GM and John Deere want to make self-repairing motorized vehicles illegal

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I remember debates about DRM in games about a decade ago where this argument would often come up. Someone would use the car analogy and someone else would shoot it down as being a trite argument.

The problem with the farming equipment is farmers like to repair their own machines. It's more cost effective. Under John Deere's new system, you have to call out a licensed JD mechanic to work on your tractor Which is not only more expensive but results in lost productivity.

Things have been moving in this direction for awhile now though. You open up the hood of any higher end car and all you see is a big hunk of plastic covering the engine. As if to say "here be dragons". A lot of third party mechanics are having to spend a lot of money now on proprietary equipment to work on these vehicles. Which means increased costs for consumers.

It's all about pushing drivers back into the dealer system for their repairs. I'm sure automakers too are eyeing Tesla and wondering if direct sales and repair are a viable revenue stream. It's certainly going to piss off the custom community.

For the time being, I'll just buy older cars and keep them longer, or buy whatever the ricers are buying.
 
Here's a handy dandy list of automakers supporting the DMCA, so you know who not to buy from when purchasing your next vehicle.

General Motors Company
BMW Group
FCA US LLC
Ford Motor Company
Jaguar Land Rover
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz USA
Mitsubishi Motors
Porsche
Toyota
Volkswagen Group of America
Volvo Cars North America
Click to expand...
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-ford-others-want-working-own-car-illegal-160000229.html

So safe brands off the top of my head include
-Tesla
-Honda
-Nissan
-Hyundai / Kia
-Subaru
 
I wish we had a Tesla dealer here and that I had the money to buy one. Tesla is one of few large companies that seems to greatly support making the world a better place, instead of just greed. There needs to be more companies like them. I hope they continue to be successful and expand.
 
The Boston Dangler said:
none.

http://www.tractordata.com/
Click to expand...
Not the IH1486 with a 550ci V8 ?
IMHO one of the nicest looking tractors ever made.

(OK, it's a diesel from their Semi truck division, but it's still a big V8)
latest
 
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brianmanahan said:
i thought the V8 IHs were the 1468 or 1568
Click to expand...

Oops. I messed that up The number of Cylinders as the last digit makes a lot more sense

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/3/7/372-international-harvester-1468.html
(Doesn't look as pretty with the cab)
 
Puppies04 said:
Firstly, the thread title got me all excited about magical self repairing cars. Imagine the wife coming home crying because she dented the door again and you are all like "don't worry the car will sort that out".
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This is exactly what I thought this was about. I was thinking, "what, they want to preemptively ban future technology that makes most repair shop visits obsolete? The bastards!" Then I was sadden to see this future vision of mine is not quite here yet.

I don't have much to say about GM wanting to ban car software modification. There's decent arguments on both sides of the court on that concept. As for John Deere, well, I haven't a clue, and when it comes to software modifications, perhaps that's for the best. Tinkering with the vehicles themselves, that should always be within a user's right. If the ECU is locked tight, I don't know if I really have a problem with that. On cars I would prefer the ECU to be accessible as there are plenty of performance enhancements (and even better green performance for states like California, at least when conducting other tuning beyond factory status), but on tractors, are they really getting that involved with performance tuning?

I'd ask my uncle, but I'm fairly certain he is using mostly older farm equipment. The things are built like tanks and cost a pretty penny even decades old, but continue to get the job done just fine.
 
brianmanahan said:
i use a bidet. look ma, no hands!
Click to expand...
I hope you're using factory-certified plumbing fittings, and had it put in place by an authorized equipment installer.

Want warm water, too? Don't forget to pay the annual licensing fee to keep that feature unlocked.
 
destrekor said:
This is exactly what I thought this was about. I was thinking, "what, they want to preemptively ban future technology that makes most repair shop visits obsolete? The bastards!" Then I was sadden to see this future vision of mine is not quite here yet.

I don't have much to say about GM wanting to ban car software modification. There's decent arguments on both sides of the court on that concept. As for John Deere, well, I haven't a clue, and when it comes to software modifications, perhaps that's for the best. Tinkering with the vehicles themselves, that should always be within a user's right. If the ECU is locked tight, I don't know if I really have a problem with that. On cars I would prefer the ECU to be accessible as there are plenty of performance enhancements (and even better green performance for states like California, at least when conducting other tuning beyond factory status), but on tractors, are they really getting that involved with performance tuning?

I'd ask my uncle, but I'm fairly certain he is using mostly older farm equipment. The things are built like tanks and cost a pretty penny even decades old, but continue to get the job done just fine.
Click to expand...
I've heard about a number of farming systems that tie into GPS, speed, power and other data for precise planting / harvesting / fertilizing (because soil conditions vary on the same farm)
Although this article sounds more like, a farmer is working his field, an error code pops up, and is now down until his factory-licensed repair tech shows up vs now when your uncle can usually do the fix or temp repair to finish working the field before the rain starts.

And, yes, I think it is dumb to lock it down too much.
Toyota used to look down on guys eco modding the Prius (like adding more batteries for more electric only time) but I thought Toyota finally realized Eco modding is the new hot rodding, so they softened their stance.

I'd imagine half of Deere's Tier 4 emissions R&D costs go into that ECU, now they are scared.
 
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Puppies04 said:
Firstly, the thread title got me all excited about magical self repairing cars. Imagine the wife coming home crying because she dented the door again and you are all like "don't worry the car will sort that out".


Secondly we are talking about tractors here. The entire market is based around having progressivly more powerful machines that cost more money but the manufaccturers don't want to have to develop 20 different pumps gearboxes and engines. They want to develop one set of hardware and install software that stops you turning your $300,000 tractor into a $600,000 tractor with a laptop.

If that isn't fair then neither is Intel locking the multiplier and artificially disabling 2 cores on your I3.
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Oh, so it's the same kind of deliberate-crippling market-segmentation thing that is pretty-much normal for CPUs or software, then?

Interesting if that's creeping into other products. I don't honestly know what my opinion on this specific example is, but the general trend bears watching. Feels like the future is some sort of corporate-capitalist version of the Borg. Where we are all wired-in to some giant corporation.

I'm still waiting for it to happen with novels in e-book form - pay extra for DLC to 'unlock' additional characters, storylines and philosophical themes in the work. Buy the basic edition of "The lone Karamazov" and then pay extra to unlock the additional brothers.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I wish we had a Tesla dealer here and that I had the money to buy one. Tesla is one of few large companies that seems to greatly support making the world a better place, instead of just greed. There needs to be more companies like them. I hope they continue to be successful and expand.
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Hey @Red Squirrel, if only you instead dumped a couple thousand dollars into TSLA stock at this time back in 2015 when you made this post, you would have been able to purchase a couple dozen Tesla vehicles, Tesla Power Wall(s), and Tesla solar roof today!
 
zinfamous said:
Hey @Red Squirrel, if only you instead dumped a couple thousand dollars into TSLA stock at this time back in 2015 when you made this post, you would have been able to purchase a couple dozen Tesla vehicles, Tesla Power Wall(s), and Tesla solar roof today!
Click to expand...

Haha no kidding. But doubt I could have afforded the stock even then, with the site I'm with you need to buy 100 stocks at a time.
 
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