"Right to Repair" would hopefully mean that instead of that diagnostic tool being a BMW proprietary exclusive there would be some open source tool with the same functionality that you could load on your phone and connect to the $10 ODBII reader you bought off of eBay to solve the problem.
Already there are tools that do most of the basic ODBII functions, but some brands are bad about hiding away specific codes in $50k+ tools as a way to extract money from shops and funnel customers to the dealers.
The tool is actually already available (maybe a gray market thing though…), but it’s windows-only and a little pricey. I’m not convinced that “right to repair” will result in custom open source software for every smart fridge in existence, and I don’t really trust average folks to make good decisions if everything was open to all anyway.
ODBII codes are exactly the sort of thing that a community will form around to keep their tools useful though. Already the open source tools are pretty good except where the manufacturers are deliberately keeping them private. If the right to repair meant each car company had to publish a CSV or something similar with all of their proprietary codes I guarantee that they would be incorporated into all of the tools pretty much instantly. That is a textbook Right to Repair move.
It also shows why Right to Repair isn't going to happen anytime soon. Those codes are worth money to repair shops and implementing something like that is a direct threat to the revenue stream.
Comments
"Right to Repair" would hopefully mean that instead of that diagnostic tool being a BMW proprietary exclusive there would be some open source tool with the same functionality that you could load on your phone and connect to the $10 ODBII reader you bought off of eBay to solve the problem.
Already there are tools that do most of the basic ODBII functions, but some brands are bad about hiding away specific codes in $50k+ tools as a way to extract money from shops and funnel customers to the dealers.
The tool is actually already available (maybe a gray market thing though…), but it’s windows-only and a little pricey. I’m not convinced that “right to repair” will result in custom open source software for every smart fridge in existence, and I don’t really trust average folks to make good decisions if everything was open to all anyway.
ODBII codes are exactly the sort of thing that a community will form around to keep their tools useful though. Already the open source tools are pretty good except where the manufacturers are deliberately keeping them private. If the right to repair meant each car company had to publish a CSV or something similar with all of their proprietary codes I guarantee that they would be incorporated into all of the tools pretty much instantly. That is a textbook Right to Repair move.
It also shows why Right to Repair isn't going to happen anytime soon. Those codes are worth money to repair shops and implementing something like that is a direct threat to the revenue stream.