holiday homework Senators blast carmakers over right-to-repair opposition OEMs also called out for selling data they collect on drivers. Jonathan M. Gitlin Dec 20, 2024 11:09 am | 0 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreYesterday, US Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Joshua Hawley (R-MO) sent letters to the heads of Ford, General Motors, and Tesla, as well as the US heads of Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen, excoriating them over their opposition to the right-to-repair movement."We need to hit the brakes on automakers stealing your data and undermining your right-to-repair," said Senator Merkley in a statement to Ars. "Time and again, these billionaire corporations have a double standard when it comes to your privacy and security: claiming that sharing vehicle data with repair shops poses cybersecurity risks while selling consumer data themselves. Oregon has one of the strongest right-to-repair laws in the nation, and thats why Im working across the aisle to advance efforts nationwide that protect consumer rights."Most repairs arent at dealershipsThe Senators point out that 70 percent of car parts and services currently come from independent outlets, which are seen as trustworthy and providing good value for money, "while nearly all dealerships receive the worst possible rating for price."OEMs and their tier-one suppliers restricting the supply of car parts to within their franchised dealership networks also slows down the entire repair process for owners as well as increasing the cost of getting one's car fixed, the letter states.As Ars noted recently, more than one in five automotive recalls are now fixed with software patches, and increasingly the right-to-repair fight has centered on things digitalaccess to diagnostics, firmware, and connected services. The percentage of non-hardware recall fixes will surely grow in the coming years as more and more automakers replace older models with software-defined vehicles.But proponents of the right to repair have faced stiff opposition from automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on cybersecurity grounds. In 2023, NHTSA went as far as telling OEMs not to comply with an expanded state law in Massachusetts that requires an open data platform for telematics, something the voters of Mass. were overwhelmingly in favor of.The Senators argue that in fact, allowing third-party access "is consistent with the FTC's data security guidance," and point out that an attempt by Mercedes-Benz to use the same argument against independent repairs in Germany was shot down by the German court, which told the company that it was no "excuse to restrict data access to suppliers."Shoddy software is the risk, not third-party accessRather than the availability of diagnostic tools and repair information, the cybersecurity threat instead comes from "the poor quality of deployed software and the poor state of device security," according to expert testimony given to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.The Senators also highlight the dichotomy of automakers claiming in one breath to be concerned about the risks of data leakage as a result of allowing access to vehicle software while at the same time packaging and sharing driving data, collected by their connected cars, with third parties like data brokers, and insurance companies, often without the driver's consent.The automakers that received the letter are going to have a busy holiday season collating data, for they have been tasked with answering a series of questions by January 6, including: how much income each makes from car repairs, what user and driving data it collects, whether and how it obtains consent for that data collection, with whom it shares that data with (including specifics), as well as data protection and cybersecurity practices to protect its customer's sensitive information. Additionally, each automaker is asked about its lobbying activities against the right-to-repair movement.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 0 Comments