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4xe Issues and Right to Repair Legislation

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Sjbiss 
#1 ·
I've been around along enough to remember the battles against fuel injection and then against OBDII and it all feel familiar as we move into drive/brake/steer by wire and EV controls. People with tools and skills have figured out ways around OEM lockouts and figured out how to reprogram, diagnose, and repair our own cars. FCA/Stellantis seems to have been particularly aggressive lately with the security gateways blocking access to the system modules, and now governments like CA are trying to make it illegal to even attach programmers to your cars.
While it won't help in the near term, I'm hopeful that enough people will get behind some form of right to repair legislation that will open up these systems so that individuals and non-OEM shops can have access to the documentation, tools, and systems needed to diagnose and repair these ever-evolving systems. The long term benefits of cars like the 4xe are incredible and it would be amazing to know technical details about the life and health of these battery packs, modify drive modes for better economy or off roading, or even swap-in denser battery packs. Better yet, we should be able to diagnose if a bad seatbelt body control module on the CAN bus is causing the drivetrain to shutdown without having to take it to a dealership for weeks.
This is my first Jeep, but it's in no way my first car, and I'm more concerned about the overall trend of manufacturers locking customers out of their own cars and mandating dealership visits/payments than I am about teething problems with this car.
I'll be curious to know what you all think about right to repair. I'm obviously a proponent, but there are other viewpoints.
 
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#2 ·
I don't think the future in general looks good for pro-consumer legislation. The manufacturers can just out-lobby. Tesla is good at providing access to data at least.

As for the security gateway, I think that's partly because FCA doesn't fully understand their own systems and how they interact with telemetric systems. It's partly to cover a hot mess with the added benefit of blocking 3rd party products.

At least it's easy to bypass with nimble enough fingers.
 
#5 ·
As I understand the issue, it's less about whether you can or should repair things yourself or with a service provider of your choosing, it's about whether you have the right to do so. The argument is that, if you purchase and own something, you have the right to repair or modify it (within safety and other regulations). I'm in no way making a political statement or choosing a party here, but it's a current debate in government that I feel impacts all of us in some way. I was curious if anyone else was following it. We all love innovation, which is why this forum dedicated to a single car exists, but we tend lament the increasing opacity of technology and feel more helpless about it. Right to repair is important to getting some of that control back, IMO.

Here's one of many articles on the topic for a refresher. https://cleantechnica.com/2021/07/14/its-complicated-biden-right-to-repair-deere-tesla-apple-you/

Now back to figuring out how to hack into the car for launch control!
 
#6 ·
I'm firmly behind any (sane) right-to-repair policy. Keeping things running instead of throwing them away is good for the environment and the owner, and it keeps independent repair-ers employed. It also puts control over tech back in the hands of users where it belongs.
 
#7 · (Edited)
It is an interesting question, especially since there is so much software used today in addition to hardware. I’ll have to read up more on it. It makes me wonder what “own”’really means since often times software is licensed. Wonder why they aren’t required to disclose a EULA.
 
#8 ·
I haven't found the overall vehicle EULA, but the "connected services" terms state that they can use the vehicle telematics to track you down for payments. thought that was funny!

Location of Your Vehicle in Connection with Lease/Finance. If You lease or finance Your Vehicle through FCA or one of its affiliates, and You breach any of the terms of the agreements governing such lease or finance, we may use the Services to locate You or Your Vehicle for the purpose of communicating with You and/or recovering Your Vehicle. YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THE USE OF THE SERVICES IN THIS MANNER.
 
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