"Every time you get behind the wheel, your car is collecting data about you. Where you go, how fast you're driving, how hard you brake, and even how much you weigh. All of that data is not typically available to the vehicle owner. Instead, it's gated behind secure restrictions that prevent anyone other than the manufacturer or authorized technicians from accessing the information. Automakers can use the same digital gates to lock owners out of making repairs or modifications, like replacing their own brake pads, without paying a premium for manufacturer service."
"The Repair Act, a piece of pending legislation discussed in a subcommittee hearing at the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, would mandate that some of that collected data be shared with the vehicle owners, specifically the bits that would be useful for making repairs. "Automakers are trying to use the kind of marketing advantage of exclusive access to this data to push you to go to the dealership where they know what triggered this information," Nathan Proctor, senior director of the campaign for the right to repair at PIRG, says. "Repair would actually be quicker, cheaper, more convenient if this information was more widely distributed, but it's not.""
Modern vehicles continuously collect detailed telemetry, including location, speed, braking behavior, and occupant weight. Much of that data remains restricted to manufacturers and authorized technicians behind secure digital gates. Automakers can leverage exclusive access to telemetry to steer owners to dealership service and to limit independent repairs or modifications. The Repair Act would require automakers to share repair-relevant telemetry with vehicle owners and third-party repair shops. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing examined the bill amid broader conversations on road safety, autonomous vehicle regulation, and catalytic-converter theft prevention, producing contentious debate over mandated data access.
Read at WIRED
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