Who owns the data generated by your car? And who controls access to it?
For almost a decade, right-to-repair activists, automakers, parts manufacturers, auto repair shop owners, technicians, and regular people who own cars have fought over those questions. How they are answered could radically change the cost and convenience of owning a modern camera-studded and cloud-enabled car—and, some say, the future of the increasingly tech-heavy auto industry.
Last week, a few trade groups announced they had finally figured it all out. In a letter to the US Congress, three industry organizations that together represent the major automakers and thousands of repair shops said they had signed a “memorandum of understanding” on the right to repair. In the agreement, the automakers commit to giving independent car repair shops access to the data, tools, and information necessary to diagnose and repair vehicles—the data, tools, and information provided to the automakers’ own dealership networks. “Competition is alive and well in the auto repair industry,” the letter said.
Right-to-repair advocates—who contend that consumers should be able to fix the products they buy—aren’t so sure. They say the agreement doesn’t give car owners full and unfettered control of the streams of data generated by the latest cars’ cameras and other sensors, which log data on location, speed, acceleration, and how a vehicle’s hardware and software are performing.
The advocates worry the new agreement gives automakers and automaker-associated repairers room to squeeze out smaller, independent shops and at-home tinkerers in the future, making it more difficult for car owners to find places to quickly and affordably fix their cars. And they say there are no enforcement mechanisms to guarantee automakers follow through on their promises.
“In terms of how automakers behave and whether vehicle owners or repair shops will get access to information—I don’t think this will change anything,” says Paul Roberts, the founder of SecuRepairs.org, an organization of IT and cyber professionals advocating for the right to repair.
Notably, the new agreement didn’t include the Auto Care Association, the largest US trade group for independent repair shops and aftermarket parts suppliers. The group’s chair, Corey Bartlett, says the agreement doesn’t address some of the major barriers facing consumers looking to get a tech-heavy car repaired.
Smaller and especially rural repair shops sometimes can’t fix the newest models, because they can’t pay for the expensive tools, subscriptions, and training needed, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. As cars get more complex, and move more services into apps and onto the internet, they fear access will shrink. “We want easy and affordable access to that information for the independent repair shop,” says Bartlett, who is also president and CEO of Automotive Parts Headquarters, which sells aftermarket auto parts to repair shops across the northern and midwestern US.
DIY car repair and auto shops independent of automakers are a long-established tradition in car culture and the auto industry. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the trade group representing most global automakers, says that even today, 70 percent of their own certified networks of collision repair shops aren’t owned by dealers.
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