Does this mean I can go to Washington to tune my Audi S5 that protects the TCU with encryption?
034 Motorsport can't help you with that?
The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
91–100 of 177 posts
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
IDK about "at cost" but shouldn't _some_ price regulation of spare parts be included? With no limits, any manufacturer might say "The price for any spare part is the cost of the original item + a significant additional fee, because our process will be to pull a complete new unit from the warehouse, and have someone disassemble it and send you the one part."
Manufacturers can already legitimately say the additional price for 1 spare part for a $5 part is actually $250,000 dollars because the last mould has worn out…? Typically nobody would actually go through with placing any orders beyond that point, unless they’re the pentagon.
They might want to talk to their legal departments before claiming such a thing if it isn't actually true. Lawsuits involve discovery.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
The overwhelming majority of consumers are also employees. What's better, low prices and low wages, or high prices and high wages? The "Chicago school of macroeconomics" holds the first position. I'm highly critical of that position. Even if you do agree with the Chicago school, there is a problem: by vertically integrating the repairs market, you take away the consumer's ability to repair their own products. The con…
Consumers can still by products they can repair themselves if they value such an aspect of a product. I'd it is an extra cost than that gives a competitive advantage to other products who aren't vertical integrated like that.
That's only true of there aren't market implications to this newly-introduced rent-seeking model.
If your position is that market competition is what will overcome the negative implications of anticompetitive behavior, your position is logically incoherent.
The reality is that the only way to be competitive on price (and thereby survive as a business) is to do your own rent-seeking. We can all plainly see that this is how it has played out in reality. No business can actually rely on the promise of right-to-repair obsessed consumers to keep them afloat.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Large generators are fuel-injected, which requires a microcontroller with software. In the 1990s that software was write-once, non-upgradeable, and bug-free because it was trivial. But it hasn't been that way for a long time. "Fuel injection requires software" turned into an exploit vector for feature creep.
To be needlessly pedantic, fuel injection does require a micro. I only say this because I deal with classic Bosch K-Jet systems often.
Detroit diesel two strokes were entirely mechanical. As were cummins engines like b5.9 with a bosch p-pump. In fact all diesel engines have fuel injection, and they were all mechanical up to the 80s/90s.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Idk about the commercial units, but my portable inverter generator has a bunch of schmoo (highly technical industry term) that covers the entire electronics board. If a component on that board fried, I'm not able to repair it without replacing the whole board. The rest is fairly simple ICE like you say.
Conformal coating? That used to be the norm way back in the day for all kinds of electronics. Kind of a dick move, now, unless there is an environmental reason.
Normal on anything that has to work outside. Also, hardly an impediment to repair. I've done it myself on a car ECU: open case, scrape off conformal coating, desolder blown IGBT, replace with IGBT salvaged from junkyard unit, spray on new conformal coating, done - been working like that now for 5 years.
Parts pairing is also a/the reason you can't just swap in the junkyard unit even though it came from a car with the same engine. We tried it - did not work.
Potting within a brick of epoxy is the real dick move, but also not impossible to repair either.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very interesting, there's a carveout for video game consoles: > Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require any original manufacturer or authorized repair provider to make available any parts, tools, or documentation required for the diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of a video game console and its components and peripherals. Wonder if Valve/Xbox/Nintendo asked for that, this being Washington State.
Given the support valve provides for the steam deck I'd be surprised if it was them. They seem much more interested in having a viable alternative to keep Microsoft from walling windows in such a way to kill steam than caring that they make the actual devices. I would 100% percent expect both Microsoft & Nintendo to have had a hand in that though.
I've often wondered how much cross-talk there is between the two companies, given that the Nintendo America HQ is smack in the middle of the sprawling Microsoft campus. There's got to be some, I should think.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#97I wonder if the scope of "diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of digital electronic products" is extensive enough to be usable for requesting protocol documentation for purposes of integrating products with systems from different vendors (such as DIY). Plenty of IoT stuff has proprietary "hubs" or "cloud services" (that frequently pose reliability, privacy and security problems), and I'm really curious if this law could be used to repair this design defect.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Manufacturers can already legitimately say the additional price for 1 spare part for a $5 part is actually $250,000 dollars because the last mould has worn out…? Typically nobody would actually go through with placing any orders beyond that point, unless they’re the pentagon.
They might want to talk to their legal departments before claiming such a thing if it isn't actually true. Lawsuits involve discovery.
How does this relate to my comment or any other comment in the chain?
I don’t think anyone suggested manufacturers could get away with lying all the time.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
This law does not apply to tractors or game consoles. It's neutered as all fuck. From the article: Of course, these wins come with carve-outs. HB 1483 exempts: Video game consoles Medical devices Motor vehicles Agricultural and construction equipment Security systems and alarm equipment Internet and TV equipment from ISPs Off-road recreational vehicles Large-scale energy storage and solar gear Low earth orbit broadba…
Everything you listed is what the typical Washington resident will WANT to repair. How is this law even worth celebrating? And how did these companies obtain these exemptions?
.. just like every other carve out exception. Bribes.
Re: The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's purpose is to legally force other companies to serve the interests repair shops over consumers. Instead of letting the free market, consumers, dictate what aspects of a device are important repair shops want to be able to profit off of every device and stay relevant even if it results in worse products for the consumer.
The free market arguably hasn't worked like that in ages.
Thats because there isn't one and there hasn't been for a long time, and I'm not talking about libertarian fever dreams. Regulatory capture and legislated protection for big corporations at the expense of smaller ones are rampant. They don't want real competition and they don't want real regulation, only regulation that will make it hard for others to enter the market without significant cost.