I don't know about cars, but this has been a battle with tractors for a while. The car industry is actually just playing catch-up. http://www.npr.org/sections/

I don't know about cars, but this has been a battle with tractors for a while. The car industry is actually just playing catch-up. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/17/432601480/diy-tractor-repair-runs-afoul-of-copyright-law http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/17/432... EDIT: The outcome of this was that the current DMCA exemptions includes language to circumvent such "protections" (including Tesla's here) for the purposes of repair and modification. See section III-6: https://www.copyright.gov/1201/ https://www.copyright.gov/1201/