auto industry – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Stories filed under: "auto industry"

New Right To Repair Bill Targets Obnoxious Auto Industry Behavior

from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept

It’s just no fun being a giant company aspiring to monopolize repair to boost revenues. On both the state and federal level, a flood of new bills are targeting companies’ efforts to monopolize repair by implementing obnoxious DRM, making repair tools and manuals hard to find, bullying independent repair shops (like Apple does), or forcing tractor owners to drive hundreds of miles just to get their tractor repaired (one of John Deere’s favorite pastimes). The Biden administration even just got done signing an executive order asking the FTC to tighten up its restrictions on the subject.

This week the list of right to repair legislation jumped by one with the introduction of the “Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair” Act (REPAIR Act), which would mandate equitable access to repair tools and tech, boost the FTC’s authority to handle consumer complaints, and mandate additional transparency by the auto industry:

“Americans should not be forced to bring their cars to more costly and inconvenient dealerships for repairs when independent auto-repair shops are often cheaper and far more accessible,? said Rep. Rush. ?But as cars become more advanced, manufacturers are getting sole access to important vehicle data while independent repair shops are increasingly locked out. The status quo for auto repair is not tenable, and it is getting worse. If the monopoly on vehicle repair data continues, it would affect nearly 860,000 blue-collar workers and 274,000 service facilities.”

The auto industry has been particularly obnoxious when it comes to providing independent access to data, tools, and repair manuals for cars with increasingly complicated internal electronics. That’s a particular problem when an estimated 70 percent of U.S. cars are serviced by independent repair shops. The industry has also been obnoxious in their attempts to scuttle legislation attempting to address the problem, including running ads in Massachusetts that claimed an expansion of that state’s right to repair legislation would only be of benefit to stalkers and sexual predators.

The problem for companies looking to monopolize repair is several fold. One, the harder they try to lock their technologies down, the greater the opposition grows. And that opposition tends to be both broad and bipartisan, ranging from the most fervent of urban Apple fanboys, to the most rural of John Deere tractor owners. This isn’t a battle they’re likely to win, and while we haven’t seen federal legislation on this front passed yet, if the industries continue to push their luck in this space it’s only a matter of time.

Filed Under: auto industry, repair act, right to repair

Ajit Pai's FCC Does Something Good, Frees Wireless Spectrum The Auto Industry Had Done Little With

from the stopped-clocks,-twice-a-day dept

Wed, Nov 25th 2020 06:30am - Karl Bode

While we’ve had no shortage of criticism for Ajit Pai’s facts-optional, relentless ass kissing of entrenched telecom monopolies, or his wholesale demolition of U.S. consumer protection, his agency has done a good job bringing more wireless spectrum to market. Doing so wasn’t particularly controversial, since everybody, consumers to big carriers alike, benefit from having access to more spectrum — especially valuable middleband spectrum of great use in 5G deployments. Still, it’s complicated and warrants kudos in an era when government often can’t tie its own shoes correctly.

Last week, the FCC quietly voted unanimously to add 45MHz of spectrum to Wi-Fi to public access, taking it away from an auto industry public safety initiative that failed to materialize over the last 20 years. Spectrum in the 5.850GHz to 5.925GHz range for several decades had been set aside for something called Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), a vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications system that was supposed to warn drivers of traffic dangers. But decades in, 99.9943% of cars still don’t have the technology, and many experts had argued this spectrum was better used elsewhere.

Because this spectrum aids his industry BFFs, Pai was keen on moving forward in ensuring this spectrum could be put to better use. Both consumer groups and telecom policy and lobbying groups agreed with the decision, which hasn’t happened all that often in the last four years. Public Knowledge counsel Harold Feld, who probably knows more about U.S. spectrum policy than anybody alive, had this to say of the move:

“The addition of 45 MHz of unlicensed spectrum will create a WiFi channel capable of supporting WiFi 6. This will enable wireless providers to dramatically increase the speed and reliability of rural broadband. It will dramatically increase the power of public hotspots and mobile hotspots on which many low-income families rely for access to school and work during the pandemic. Because this relies on already existing technology, the expansion and change to WiFi 6 can happen relatively quickly through software upgrades once the rules become effective.”

DSRC services now have to vacate the lower 45MHz within one year. The FCC also set aside around 30MHz for a newer vehicle safety technology dubbed Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X), which the FCC claims will serve the same function using less overall precious spectrum.

The decision wasn’t entirely without controversy. The Department of Transit wasn’t thrilled, arguing that DSRC tech still could have been useful, that 30 MHz wasn’t enough for C-V2X to work (“there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that 30 MHz will suffice to support a safety-driven ecosystem like the one in which DOT and other stakeholders have invested.”). The auto industry (which had been accused of “spectrum squatting”) understandably opposed the ruling via its various policy organizations. Other critics like Senator Maria Cantwell argued the FCC had been told to pause all controversial decisions during the transition, which is custom.

Still, you’d be hard pressed to find an issue where this FCC and consumer groups align, so progress is progress, even if not everybody’s happy with the outcome. Of course, this doesn’t make up for Pai’s long history of demolishing U.S. consumer protection on behalf of telecom monopolies in fits of lies and rank hypocrisy, but it’s still nice to see (most) folks agree on one of his last major decisions as agency boss.

Filed Under: ajit pai, auto industry, dsrc, fcc, mobile, spectrum, wifi

Auto Industry Pushes Bullshit Claim That 'Right To Repair' Laws Aid Sexual Predators

from the fear-mongering-ahoy dept

Fri, Sep 11th 2020 06:33am - Karl Bode

A few years back, frustration at John Deere’s draconian tractor DRM culminated in a grassroots tech movement dubbed “right to repair.” The company’s crackdown on “unauthorized repairs” turned countless ordinary citizens into technology policy activists, after DRM (and the company’s EULA) prohibited the lion’s share of repair or modification of tractors customers thought they owned. These restrictions only worked to drive up costs for owners, who faced either paying significantly more money for “authorized” repair, or toying around with pirated firmware just to ensure the products they owned actually worked.

Of course the problem isn’t just restricted to John Deere. Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and countless other tech giants eager to monopolize repair have made a habit of suing and bullying independent repair shops and demonizing consumers who simply want to reduce waste and repair devices they own. This, in turn, has resulted in a growing push for right to repair legislation in countless states.

To thwart these bills, companies have been ramping up the use of idiotic, fear mongering arguments. Usually these arguments involve false claims that these bills will somehow imperil consumer privacy, safety, and security. Apple, for example, tried to thwart one such bill in Nebraska by claiming it would turn the state into a “mecca for hackers.”

While there’s been no shortage of bad faith arguments like this, the auto industry in Massachusetts has taken things to the next level. The state is contemplating the expansion of an existing state law that lets users get their vehicles repaired anywhere they’d like. In a bid to kill these efforts, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, has taken to running ads in the state falsely claiming that the legislation would aid sexual predators:

The primary message of the ads is that if we allow people to more easily repair their vehicles, data from said vehicles will somehow find itself in the hands of rapists, stalkers, and other menaces. Granted actual experts have made it abundantly clear that this is utterly unfounded. The existing law requires that automakers use a non-proprietary diagnostic interface so any repair shop can access vehicle data using an ordinary OBD reader. It also makes sure that important repair information is openly accessible. The update to said law simply attempts to close a few loopholes in the existing law:

“Question 1 seeks to close a loophole in that earlier law, which exempted cars that transmitted this data wirelessly. As cars become even more computerized, independent repair shops are worried that manufacturers will do away with the OBD port and will store this data wirelessly, exempting them from the earlier law. The new initiative simply guarantees that car owners and independent repair companies can access this data wirelessly without “authorization by the manufacturer,” and requires car manufacturers to store this data in a secure, “standardized, open-access platform.”

One local ABC affiliate in Massachusetts thoroughly debunked the ads’ claims. Experts told Matthew Gault at Motherboard that the real goal of the auto industry here is to simply shift all of this diagnostic tech to wireless to wiggle around the law. In part to maintain a monopoly on repair (letting them drive up the cost of taking your vehicle to the dealership), but also to further obscure all the driving, location, and other data automakers are collecting and selling to a long list of companies:

“My guess is what automakers really don’t want to talk about is all of the data that they are collecting from connected vehicles that they’re not telling us about,? Paul F Roberts, founder of Securerepairs?a group of security and repair professionals who advocate for security and repair issues?told Motherboard on the phone.

?The backup safety cameras that go on every time you put your car in reverse, are those on all the time and are they observing your surroundings and inferring data about your whereabouts and preferences?? Roberts said. ?The in-cabin cameras that we know Tesla has on their cars, are those just monitoring you all the time? are they monitoring your GPS data and mining that or selling that? We don?t know.”

Of course they’re collecting and selling that data with minimal oversight. The United States still lacks any meaningful privacy laws for the modern era, in part because many of these same companies have opposed such legislation. Because it’s hard for the auto industry to honestly admit it wants to monopolize repair, drive up consumer costs, and obfuscate the wholesale hoovering up and sale of your data, they’ve apparently concocted a grotesque bullshit narrative that the legislative updates will somehow aid sexual predators. Stay classy, Alliance for Automotive Innovation!

Filed Under: auto industry, cards, drm, freedom to tinker, independent repair shops, massachusetts, predators, right to repair
Companies: alliance for automotive innovation