[Themaintainers] Themaintainers Digest, Vol 56, Issue 1 right to repair
Dave Lukes
dave.l at mac.com
Sun Oct 18 19:45:17 EDT 2020
There's only 1 thing wrong with that article: a completely incorrect set
of assumptions.
The stuff about time to implement is reasonable but all the rest is wrong.
Replace "car" by "bank customer", replace "manufacturer" by "bank" and
think about it.
Banks have been connecting to each other and to their customers over a
single network (the Internet) using a standardised set of protocols
(HTTPS, SSL/TLS etc.) for years and it all works well.
Can you imagine the hideous mess if each bank built its own network with
its own protocols?
To say nothing of how difficult fixing problems would be?
Banks would just do what companies always do when there is a problem and
deny it to avoid liability.
If we have common protocols, we have common fixes for problems,
available to everyone.
We also have many sets of eyes looking at the same set of protocols and
their implementations.
Another thing to consider...
Given how much networking and other code is off-the-shelf these days,
the idea that a proprietary network is somehow less susceptible to
common security issues is, to a large extent, bogus.
Manufacturers don't want open data for many reasons. Here are a few.
1. Customer lock-in.
2. Profitability.
3. It will initially create more work for them,
although, like the banks, it will be easier in the end because they
won't have to maintain their own networking code,
but I doubt they see that far ahead.
4. Deniability:
if we don't know what's going on in their networks, they can blame
faults on driver error or 3rd party repairs even when they know it's
not (see below).
5. It will, ultimately, give 3rd parties access to data like failure
rates, which will inform consumer groups and others exactly how
(un)reliable their vehicles are and in what ways.
6. Given previous experience, they don't have a shining record in IT
security:
if you got the tiniest glimpse into how shoddy and badly implemented
their private networks are and how bad their IT security is,
you might decide that you'd rather crawl naked over broken glass
scattered on a minefield than travel in their vehicles.
If you see those FUD ads about open data and really think that motor
vehicle manufacturers have your best interests at heart,
look at how many times they have denied that genuine safety problems
existed and blamed driver error until they were forced to do a recall
because the evidence was undeniable.
Just like with right to repair in general, one of the reasons that
manufacturers don't want us seeing the insides of their stuff is because
then we could all see how truly awful some of it is.
Dave
16/10/2020 14:57, JoAnne Yates wrote:
>
> You just about convinced me until I read this piece by Hiawatha Bray
> (a good tech columnist) in the Globe this morning:
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/12/business/whats-tech-behind-question-1/?et_rid=970972583&s_campaign=wklystoriesmissed:email.
>
>
> *From:*Nathan Proctor <nproctor at pirg.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, October 16, 2020 9:32 AM
> *To:* JoAnne Yates <jyates at mit.edu>
> *Cc:* themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Themaintainers] Themaintainers Digest, Vol 56, Issue 1
> right to repair
>
> I suggest voting yes.
>
> I don't think it's fair to call this a "right to repair" issue, it's
> more about data. I would much prefer if it just totally handed data
> control to the owner, including the ability to turn it off. But
> creating what amounts to an open platform for data access (limited to
> maintenance data), with access controlled by the car owner, offers
> some utility (an app that can tell you if you need washer fluid, etc),
> and the security risk is not that significant (most of the
> extreme security problems they reference in those horrible ads are the
> problems that ALREADY exist, and are not impacted by access for third
> parties to your washer fluid levels).
>
> So I see this as a slight pro for the consumer, which could be a
> bigger win if it's successful, and people realize the value of having
> data access, control and monitoring for other things.
>
> On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 9:23 AM JoAnne Yates <jyates at mit.edu
> <mailto:jyates at mit.edu>> wrote:
>
> Jonathan—
>
> I’ve read both articles, but am still not sure which way to vote.
> Any advice?
>
> JoAnne
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Oct 16, 2020, at 7:00 AM,
> "themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu
> <mailto:themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu>"
> <themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu
> <mailto:themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu>> wrote:
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> > Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. Mass. auto right-to-repair ballot issue (Jonathan Coopersmith)
> >
> >
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2020 21:26:06 -0500
> > From: Jonathan Coopersmith <j-coopersmith at tamu.edu
> <mailto:j-coopersmith at tamu.edu>>
> > To: Themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
> <mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>>
> > Subject: [Themaintainers] Mass. auto right-to-repair ballot issue
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <CABrYC9c6aZLRw29ngHFmGrjnR7EMzc884-Gp8Xx0uEUO85SuFA at mail.gmail.com
> <mailto:CABrYC9c6aZLRw29ngHFmGrjnR7EMzc884-Gp8Xx0uEUO85SuFA at mail.gmail.com>>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > (copying this, not original with me: an important issue).
> >
> > Car right to repair is on the ballot again. This time about
> access to car
> > telematics data. Here is more information about the ballot
> question..
> >
> > Ballot questions
> > https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/IFV_2020.pdf
> >
> > Making sense of Question 1, the return of the Massachusetts
> right-to-repair
> > debate
> >
> https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/09/29/massachusetts-question-1-right-to-repair-2020-ballot-measure/
> >
> > Mass. has been pummeled by ads on Question 1. They veer into
> exaggeration
> > and ?fearmongering,? experts say
> >
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/21/metro/massachusetts-has-been-pummeled-by-ads-about-question-1-they-veer-into-exaggeration-fear-mongering-experts-say/
> >
> >
> > Stay sane, keep washing those hands, and practice social
> solidarity as well
> > as physical distancing,
> >
> > Jonathan
> >
> > Jonathan Coopersmith
> > Professor
> > Department of History
> > Texas A&M University
> > College Station, TX 77843-4236
> > 979.291.2925 (cell)
> > 979.862.4314 (fax)
> >
> > *Vote early (not often), and help others vote*:
> >
> https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/a-citizens-guide-to-defending-the-election/616574/
> >
> > Engineering elections:
> >
> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/security/engineering-principles-us-election
> >
> > Racial disparities in waiting to vote:
> > https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-long-time-to-vote-141267
> >
> > *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins
> University
> > Press)
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> --
>
> Nathan Proctor
>
> Director, U.S. PIRG Campaign for the Right to Repair
>
> O: (857) 413-2534
>
> C: (203) 522-3860
>
>
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