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Government Transportation

Voters Overwhelmingly Pass Car Right to Repair Law in Maine (404media.co) 37

Posted by BeauHD from the right-to-repair-victories dept.
Jason Koebler reports via 404 Media: Voters in Maine overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure Tuesday that enshrines the right to repair cars, a major win for consumers and a blow to auto manufacturers who have spent millions lobbying against similar legislation and fighting against it in the courts. "Question 4," which enshrines consumers' data access to car diagnostics for the purposes of repair, passed by a margin of 84.3-15.7 in Tuesday's election with 94 percent of the votes tallied. The yes/no question was simple: "Do you want to require vehicle manufacturers to standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical data to owners and independent repair facilities?" "Maine residents have won the right to control their destiny when it comes to car repairs," Tommy Hickey, director of the Maine Automotive Right to Repair Coalition, told 404 Media. "There's a new technology in cars, they've become computers on wheels, and with this law owners in Maine will be the gatekeepers of that information."
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Voters Overwhelmingly Pass Car Right to Repair Law in Maine More

Voters Overwhelmingly Pass Car Right to Repair Law in Maine

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  • And neither are dups!!

    We voted down the state government takeover of the the power company [slashdot.org] though.
  • Even though I live nowhere near Maine, and in fact not even in the US. If enough places do this, it will be easier for thee auto makers to just make all the xcars the same, and we all win.

  • We have always had... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @07:22PM (#63991693)

    ...right to repair for our entire history, until now when scumballs found a technological way to take it away
    We don't want new rights, we want rights we have had for thousands of years

  • I have felt for some time that connected cars should have a website where vehicle diagnostics are displayed.

    CANbus is a piece of shit without a tool capable of interpreting registers. Modern vehicles can achieve far more with modern LVDS interconnectivity. Of course, there is no point standardizing this if the car can provide a web page to access and even alter data. Maybe requiring a JSON API and Swagger support would be smart.

    The real issue is aftermarket parts. In modern cars, this may not make sense

  • Does this have any loopholes? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Thursday November 09, 2023 @12:52AM (#63992259)

    There was a guy on YouTube fixing a Porsche and Porsche refused to sell him certain parts (claiming that the parts are only available to authorised repairers) with said individual then traveling to the UK to buy the parts in question.

    Will this law mean manufacturers like Porsche are forced to sell people like him all these parts or can they still keep selling, say, body panels or structural components to authorised repair shops only?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      There was a guy on YouTube fixing a Porsche and Porsche refused to sell him certain parts (claiming that the parts are only available to authorised repairers) with said individual then traveling to the UK to buy the parts in question.

      Will this law mean manufacturers like Porsche are forced to sell people like him all these parts or can they still keep selling, say, body panels or structural components to authorised repair shops only?

      Does it matter? If Porsche doesn't want to sell to you, forcing them doesn'

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