Issues with the computerization of cars
 

Has anyone run into this? Do you think it's a right-to-repair issue, or simply time marching on?

In the linked story, a woman had her Nissan's brakes replaced, but they wouldn't function correctly without the car's software being reset. The catch is, only the Nissan dealer has the ability to do that.

https://www.dailydot.com/news/mechanic-not-allowed-to-fix-nissan/

That’s terrible for the customer on so many levels.

What if your nearest dealer is 100 miles away and you need to leave it at the dealer for a “dealer only” repair? Hopefully this backfires on them.

That's seriously FUBAR.

Wow!

I use a body shop for alignments on my El Camino. They have an old grey that understands old cars alignment.

Anyway, last time I was in there some lady was upset on the delay on her car getting fixed after she rear ended someone. They were explaining ONLY the dealership has the setup to align the parking sensors and collision sensors, and they were waiting on the dealership to do that step.

Most new cars have to have the computer reset if you mess with the brakes, bleeding et you’ll trigger the abs, traction control, ebrake.
Fortunately there are aftermarket computers that can do it, people just don’t know about them.

I long for the good old days.

Generally, I support the "right to repair" movement. What I know about it is from my friends with farm tractors and some of the things you need software for are just ridiculous.

OTOH, ABS and Traction Control are pretty sophisticated systems, and I wouldn't want someone who wasn't well trained in messing with them messing with them. Fixing the brakes on a modern car is more complicated that "...just take the damn tire off, get to the rotor and flip the pads or something."

Auto manufacturers picked up on the 'leasing/licensing' not 'owning' movement from the computer software industry.

NHTSA started making vehicles 'safe' by requiring all sorts of airbags/crumple zones/etc which is very expensive and cuts into mfr profits for every vehicle design change.
And vehicle changes mean new parts sold. No more junkyards full of interchangeable bug spare parts. Every year and variation needs new parts.
They begin to make their big money on the printer ink service instead.

The PIPA/SOPA infringement laws started being used against shops and aftermarket parts to monopolize and capture the entire vertical chain and force consumers into dealerships.

'Connected' software (like GM OnStar) (mandatory 2013?) allows the mfr to change vehicle systems remotely.
And not a peep from the consumers who keep buying them.

Now they decided that quietly installing surveillance software is profitable as long as the customer doesn't know. That's the next thing.
Collecting 'profiles' and 'consumer use data' is a nice way of saying 'spying 24/7'.

Things like ADAS sensor systems need legitimate callibration when installed, that is tricky or expensive to standardize.


Porsche Sucks for things like this. You cannot even reset the oil light or replace the battery without proprietary software. Thankfully aftermarket has you back relatively cheaply. Completely egregious though would be so easy to just program those reset features into the cars normal functions.

We are about a decade from cars being completely disposible like the industry wants

We're there now. There was a post in an earlier thread here about a $30k+ Audi that was totaled buy a rodent chewing through the wiring.

Yep. Can change the oil in my Giulia but can't reset the oil light without the dealership so I end up just going there for the service anyway. Extremely frustrating.

At least the brakes do have a service mode that's owner operable, and can be reset with disconnecting the battery.

The future is ass when it comes to cars.

How about Audi making you subscribe for heated seats, or BMW’s no oil drain plug. My brother in law has a brand new ford f150 rodents chewed the main harness and nobody wants to repair it.

You can reset the oil light on a Giulia.

I have a Nissan rogue here. Main harness melted a few wires together . The client is just stunned that I have zero desire to repair it . I told him it will be a financial disaster for both of us.

My '08 boxster once a year says "needs service". I'd love to be able to turn that off. I know that I can buy something to turn it off, but I think it's several hundred dollars. What a PITA to spend that much to turn off a warning.

And some folks wonder why I have a thing for Free/Open Source software ....

Hard to comment on this without getting political..here in the "land of the free"..

Its funny how technology has made everything better, while simultaneously making everything worse

The tech is good and evil. Evil is the parts like the Nissan brake issue. The good is its nice to tweak the timing or richen/lean the AFR with a couple clicks in the tune and never open the hood.