The manufacturer should include protection from lawsuits if the firmware executing on their car hardware is not certified. You break it, you're responsible for the consequences. It worked fine when it left the manufacturer.
29 posts for someone to cut through the hysteria and point out that this isn’t really an issue of allowing people to “wrench” on cars as much as it is a software copyright issue.
The software/firmware is the intellectual property of the software supplier. They don’t want people making derivative works.
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The case in point is that this company making diagnostic readers also makes machines that can write data , the data files are often part of recalls (anti-lock brake software updates for instance) and are bought by mechanics on a subscription basis ... Cars aren’t like your windows PC ... maybe you’re using your truck offroad and the DEF system needs to be disabled for fire safety reasons (tall grass etc.) , I have no problem with the manufacturer setting a flag that lets them know if changes have been made but they cannot make a car unusable ... and by forcing people to ONLY get their cars serviced , if it’s a software fix , at the dealership , that is against federal laws already.. unless they intend to do the repairs for free.