TheTherapist

... and how much simpler is a GM to work on than a Merc.. ? Eh... ya hearin me..?

On a serious note though - this is serious!

http://news.boldride.com/2015/04/gm-...illegal/76702/

Ls1toAMG

I would never buy Anything I'm not allowed to fix myself. It's yours not theirs.

IMO sales would drop 20-50 percent the first 5 years..

PaulE550

Just another attempt to micro-manage the consumer. Their view is "You can buy whatever you want, as long as we have total control over what is available for you to buy in the first place and we can limit what you can do with it after you've bought it in the second place". This mentality is unfortunately spreading and gaining momentum.

JoeNobody

Read the article. Mercedes is included in the list of automakers onboard.

PaulE550

Yes as most of the major auto makers are.

carguyshu

Mercedes are already pretty difficult to work on without a STAR tool. This is taking that concept of making you come to the dealer for everything one step further. It makes sense, though, as dealers essentially break even on most car sales and make their real money on the service side.

hardcandy

Cant have autonomous driving cars if people fiddle **** with the electronics..

TheTherapist

I think you hit the nail on the head here.

StarvingArtist

I'm surprised they can't just keep us out with code. I was told there are levels of my cars' computer that even the dealer can't access.

carguyshu

On my honda aquatrax jet ski (1500cc turbo) there is no way to modify the stock computer. In order to get any tuning capability, you have to throw on an aftermarket ECU to control everything.

stockC43

It's true, and frustrating at times. It's not like it was 5-10 years ago when you could code just about every control unit how you wanted. Other than developer mode coding obviously. Now everything is coded automatically online per vin. No or limited individual coding (row for example) is possible on some of the new cars. It's good and bad. It keeps people (tech's) from making mistakes however there coding (MB) isn't always perfect either.

Mr. CVE

Well, I never knew that pirating music in my tractor was illegal
I may have to stop doing it now !

draggbody

i never can seem to find the like button, lol...

draggbody

i never can seem to find the like button, lol...

e500slr

They can such a big phat one and go ***** themselves. Nobody will buy their sh*te and they can ********** themselves to bankruptcy.

TheTherapist

Interesting perspective though surely not their corporate strategic direction...
I'm certain bankruptcy is on their agenda though as they consider the implications of driverless car accidents and culpability.

Zymol75

Every time I read about this subject, I have visions of Demolition Man and the Olds 442 that runs on regular gas and the auto drive Cop car that can't compensate for the "mid-drive change" in driver's voice from Sly to Snipes.

We can't even get local gov'ts to keep shared county line roads maintained to the same level of disrepair. If one county has a breakdown in the Comm units required to operate such a system, the highways system would shut down in mass casualty and death. There is no way our chaotic mess of 50 states will agree to, and implement national, enforceable laws, disallowing manual driving cars and forcing the turnover of keys to every vehicle older than 3 to 5 years to allow the creation of an autonomous vehicle nation. Auto loans are longer than that. Can you imagine the length of time to finance a 150k car that is fully autonomous?

As well as, it would outlaw motorcycles and bike/trikes, and all classics and kit cars, and have so many far reaching implications... We can't even agree and implement laws on marriage and who should vote where. Technology is great but we are nowhere near the age of Skynet.

jpohl402

That is an absolutely crazy notion, WOW!!

PaulE550

As for self-driving cars. The first time a self-drive vehicle is involved in a serious accident or death in this country, whether or not the self-drive vehicle is to blame, the resulting mega millions lawsuit against the auto manufacturer of the self-driving car will quickly put an end to the notion of autonomous vehicles. Lawyers will naturally gravitate to the party with the deepest pockets and the auto manufacturers will be the prime target. How many multi-million dollar jury verdicts do you think it will take to get auto executives to start dropping their autonomous vehicle plans?

TheTherapist

I want to continue to drive and work on my own car as much as anyone here but unfortunately sometimes you cant fight progress. The only constant in life is change...

Ironically I think the reason you cite for autonomous cars not coming to fruition will actually be a pivotal factor in their implementation. Integrated within vehicles will be numerous safety layers including advanced error correction which will ensure the margin for physical damage will be essentially non existent - especially once human fallibility is removed from the equation.

Consider the safety and reliability of current autonomous technologies. Keep in mind even though these current technologies already operate efficiently they will look positively antique compared to the advancements in 15 or 20 years when self driving transport will most likely be the norm.

1. The Google Cars - have travelled 1.7 million miles and been involved in 11 accidents - all from other human error. For instance 7 of them were from being rear ended.

2. All commercial aeroplane flights are essentially piloted autonomously - for safety reasons.

It is a major revolution that beckons around the corner with repercussions impacting many areas within society.

e500slr

There's a difference between autonomous cars and not being allowed to modify your car. I would LOVE to have a self driving car which I can switch to me driving when I want. That way I can sit back and relax when I'm commuting and then have fun driving myself when I want. I HATE traffic, I hate normal day to day driving, I LOATHE it. It's such a pain in the ***. A self driving car would be GOD send.

Now not being able to work on the car or modify it, good luck keeping anyone from doing that. It's a delusional and unrealistic goal.

Sir-Boost-a-Lot

iTrader: (1)

I wonder what kind of reaction time the robot pilot car could cut at the drag strip?

PaulE550

Agreed! I have no problem with the concept of autonomous driving for the mundane, day to day commuter driving in the city. However in order to make autonomous driving wide-spread or universal, I keep hearing several advocates of it saying that would "of course mean we would have to ban people driving their own cars". Which is where I, and I suspect a lot of other people, would have a problem. The argument is that banning people driven vehicles would be needed to minimize any potential lawsuits resulting from accidents against the autonomous car manufacturers. I'm sure this discussion will be ongoing for years before it is ultimately resolved.

I also agree that autonomous driving is completely separate from the original issue of manufacturers trying to completely ban any modification of their products by the consumers who purchase them. Anyone who values performance will always want to try and modify their vehicles, whether or not the car companies want it. I would be interested to hear what the various tuner companies that exist in the marketplace think of this action to potentially criminalize such modifications.

MJ50

doubt it's gonna happen...

IF IT DOES:
RENNteh, Weistec, etc will go out of business...
imagine how many other shops for BMW, VW, toyota, GM, etc will be affected...
no more SEMA...

stockC43

It's too big of a industry for this to happen. Not to worry, SEMA's lawyers are already all over it. SEMA does a lot for our industry and our hobby.

https://www.sema.org/sema-enews/2015...campaign=eNews