NHTSA Has Been Asleep On Self-Driving Fatalities, But Had The Time To Help Automakers Derail MA’s Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Law

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

The auto industry has spent several years trying to dismantle efforts in Massachusetts to make auto repair more affordable and convenient. And they just got help from US auto safety regulators.

Techdirt has obtained a copy of a letter sent by the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to major auto manufacturers, effectively giving them the greenlight to ignore Massachusetts’ recently passed “right to repair” law, which required that all new telematics-equipped vehicles be accessible via a standardized, transparent platforms that allows owners and third-party repair shops to access vehicle data via a mobile device.

The auto industry has spent several years falsely claiming that the law creates serious new privacy and security risks to consumers, even going so far as to run sleazy ads claiming the updated law somehow aided sexual predators. Major car makers also sued to kill the law; a case that’s still ongoing.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell had indicated that the state would begin enforcing the law while the case wound its way through the courts, but in its letter, NHTSA parroted numerous false claims that the new law would create “unreasonable” security threats to U.S. car buyers, insisting federal authority pre-empts state lawmakers attempts to dismantle the auto industry’s repair monopoly:

“While NHTSA has stressed that it is important for consumers to continue to have the ability to choose where to have their vehicles serviced and repaired, consumers must be afforded choice in a manner that does not pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.”

The problem is that every industry that’s attempting to monopolize repair to boost their own revenues claims that more accessible, affordable repair provisions create unique security and privacy threats.

Apple claims that more affordable, diverse repair options will turn states into “meccas for hackers.” Companies from Sony to John Deere similarly claim that the ability to affordably, conveniently repair everything from game consoles to tractors will similarly result in a vast parade of terrible security vulnerabilities.

But the claim that right to repair reform somehow makes consumers less safe simply isn’t true; a 2021 FTC report on right to repair issues noted that manufacturers routinely over-emphasized or manufactured such concerns for lobbying impact.

“The record contains no empirical evidence to suggest that independent repair shops are
more or less likely than authorized repair shops to compromise or misuse customer data,” the FTC found.

Unsurprisingly, right to repair activists weren’t impressed by NHTSA’s last minute attempt to protect the automotive industry under the pretense of consumer safety. Especially given the agency’s continued inaction when it comes to the increasingly fatal impact of misrepresented and undercooked self-driving technology by companies like Tesla.

“After doing basically nothing to stop manufacturers from beta testing with 2000 pound machines driving through school zones everyday, now NHTSA says its too risky if I can look at the data myself?” lamented PIRG right to repair campaign Director Nathan Proctor.

Proctor argues that automakers have built and continue to protect a lucrative repair monopoly under the pretense that doing absolutely anything else poses a unique safety risk, an argument he says is nonsensical given the industry’s own, repeated habit of implementing sloppily built over the air auto updates and subscription features that can just as easily cause consumer harm.

“Is it now the position of NHTSA that we need a benevolent monopoly on access to data transmitted from cars, and we should just trust them?” Proctor asked. “Why is our government trying to regulate a monopoly into force?”

Filed Under: automakers, massachussetts, nhtsa, privacy, right to repair, security