• tuxrandom@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    1 year ago

    And now you’ve got carmakers looking to charge by the month for features.

    When I reach the point at which I am forced to buy a car like that, I’d just find out from where the feature gets controlled and hack in my own controller and a good 'ol switch.

    • ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      1 year ago

      Right now it’s your right to do what you want to your car as long as it still passes vehicle inspection, but it appears that car makers want new laws that prevent you from modifying your own car.

      If we just sit on our hands now, well likely move into a future where we will be forced to either pay subscription or take public transit, which requires subscriptions.

      • tvarog_smetana@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        The Library of Congress added “software that runs land vehicles” to their copyright exceptions somewhat recently. That’s why farmers are legally allowed to use cracked software from Ukrainian grain farmers to run/repair their tractors

      • sznowicki@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Even allowed now I would never ever modify my car firmware due to huge liability in case of any incident. Literally any insurance company figuring out you tempered with car software would try to take all the money paid for damages back from you.

        • aesopjah@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          You can inject CAN bus commands if you can sniff what they’re sending. No firmware modification necessary. Not saying it’s a good idea to do so, but it is possible to do so.

      • loobkoob@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        At least public transit is an ongoing service. I’m far less opposed to subscriptions when I’m actually being provided with something for them.

        Car manufacturers trying to charge subscriptions for features in the car you own feels like racketeering. They’re not providing an ongoing service, they’re asking me to keep paying them to not remove a feature.