this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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It's interesting to me that Game Consoles get an exception... Not sure whats up there, other than straight up ~~bribery~~ lobbying.
HVAC makes sense when you consider environmental concerns (some refrigerants are really terrible pollutants).
Medical equipment, particularly equipment in public health care should be held to high standards. Authorized, properly trained repair; peoples lives depend on it.
Energy storage when attached to public infrastructure (you back-feeding the grid) can be a saftey concern for workers and the supply/load needs to be balanced to prevent damaging that infrastructure and other private equipment attached to it. Not sure preventing repair is the right move here; you can still buy and install new without oversight. Perhaps it's again a saftey concern (for the person performing repair).
Vehicles, farming or otherwise, I'm on the fence about; there's an argument to be made for public saftey/roadworthness, but I'm not sure that's enough of an argument to prevent home-repair. Again seems more to do with lobbying than anything else.
The farming equipment exemption smells like John Deere's lobbies have been involved.
Oh definitely.
There are lots of loyal green customers who are really pissed about the ability to not be able to repair their own stuff, but yet keep buying it. (Similar to a lot of iPhone users)
Probably because they'll keep repairing it themselves anyway. Making it legal would just make it easier for them to repair it without triggering the tractor's version of DRM (can't remember what it's called).
That is getting really hard to do. Seems like someone could make a market in controllers that replace the factory ones but hook to the factory sensors.
John Deere probably ~~bribed~~ lobbied hard for that carve out. It was their practices that helped drive the right to repair movement. Giving them a pass really diminishes the accomplishment.
Smaller farms are going to get screwed over with all the fees and mandatory maintenance that can be imposed.
Everyone gets angry about printers needing a debit card on file but manufacturers like John Deere do similar stuff. If they think you've tinkered with it, they can disable the equipment remotely.
Cars have been home repaired since cars existed. It has never been a notable safety concern. Somehow it suddenly is?
It's always been a concern; just not enough of one to explicitly forbid working on a vehicle without specific training/licensing. Hence vehicle inspections/roadworthy tests; someplaces more strictly than others.
It's possible that concern was part of the justification for not requiring manufacturers to make it easier. Spitballing.
As I said, I'm on the fence about it myself. Thing is, a vehicle on public roads has a lot of opportunity to injure or kill someone if a repair was made incorrectly. It's about more than just a person and the thing they own.
One thing I've notice is you can't modify the software "because of safety", but breaks, fuel pipes, ignition systems, that all fine to modify!
HVAC makes no sense to me considering the only real hazard in there is the actual refrigerant gas.
unless they manage to pair the gas, im sure they would if they could
You joke but we're almost there. Refrigerants are getting more and more proprietary. I work in the industry and with the push to go to lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants manufacturers have developed their own formulas here. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer even amongst almost identical equipment. Getting the right refrigerant will only become more and more expensive the more boutique it is. The equipment can already tell what kind of refrigerant is in there based on the system pressures and temperatures.
I've been watching Hyperspace Pirate on Youtube and he talks about how hard it is to get commercial access to some basic refrigerants (like ethylene) as someone who isn't a Pro HVAC tech, and he uses it as an excuse to to create them himself for part of his content.
I'll have to check out the channel. Sounds interesting!
I work for a medical device manufacturer and you are missing a important reason for that exception. Yes human lives are on the line. In addition WE (meaning my company) are responsible for finding out why it broke and how we will prevent other devices we make from breaking.
We make a device and say it will last 10 years, 2 years later it stops. We have to replace it, We have to investigate to the best of our ability, We have to report our findings to the government, if several cases happen We need to come up with a prevention for the future dailures(or prevention if severe enough). We have entire departments for this. It is our burden not the consumer and it's our burden so we have enough evidence to determine root cause and final solution so we can prevent further failures.
As long as you offer a 10 year replacement warranty that's perfectly fine. Tandem was great about replacing my daughter's failed insulin pump.
Lots and LOTS of lobbying.
Let your representative know that that is not ok with you.
There's no excuses for any of these. None.
The refrigerant wouldn't have anything to do with parts pairing though. This is just the electronic components.
Parts pairing is just one piece of the puzzle; this is more broadly about access to parts, which would include proprietary refrigerants.
Didn't Apple try and class their iPhones as game consoles a couple months back?
HVAC also makes sense because some idiots do things like using propane as a refrigerant in systems not designed for it, and then get a literal flamethrower next to their house.
People were able to do that before this law so what's changed?
Honestly I tried to summarize what right ti repair is, but you’ll be better off actually looking into what this bill does.
Basically, for this application nothing changes. That’s kinda the point.
Aside from maybe HVAC dealing with refrigerant needing a licensed tech to work on, the rest of these not being included is such a scam.