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In the early days, farm tractors were pretty simple, and many farmers did a lot of their own work. As machines got bigger, most used local repair shops that co
by dbcurtis 7y ago
In the early days, farm tractors were pretty simple, and many farmers did a lot of their own work. As machines got bigger, most used local repair shops that could always order from parts depots. But as electronics has invaded tractors (for many good reasons) it has gotten to the point where you really need the diagnostic equipment.
So this is a lot like what auto repair was in the early days of the diagnostic plug-in port. It took legislation to allow my local mechanic to buy a diagnostic machine that allowed him to reset the whiney "time for an oil change" message when he serviced my car. That was all about lock-in. This is all about lock-in for farm machinery, using proprietary ports and protocols and keeping documentation secret.
I could go on at length with anecdotes from family history but I shall spare you.
Right-to-repair needs to happen for all of us. Farmers just happen to have a lot of money on the line here and are leading the charge.
- kaffeemitsahne 7y agoI still don't get from your description what the point or motive would be. Who is locking in whom, for what purpose?
- jrrrr 7y agoThe manufacturer of the complicated machine is withholding diagnostic tools, locking out owners and independent repair shops, in order to protect their own dealership/service business. From the article: > A Crain’s Chicago Business article reported that dealers make five times the profit margin off repair than they do off the sale of new equipment.
- taftster 7y agoDeere is controlling the marketplace for "repairs." If a farmer is required to use service centers exclusively provided and controlled by Deere, then they are inhibited from using the free market. The right to repair is essential for farmers to be able to choose the best repair options for their situation (self-made repairs, local non-affiliated repair shop, Deere certified). Some people take their cars to the dealer for all services. They do this because they value the expertise and depth that the dealers can [sometimes] provide. Other people take their cars to the local quick lube or brake repair shop. To each his own for car repairs. And so too it should be for any equipment repairs.
- magduf 7y ago>They do this because they value the expertise and depth that the dealers can [sometimes] provide. You mean the expertise they claim to provide. Dealership mechanics are generally junior mechanics; the really good, highly-experienced mechanics, go work at or start their own independent shops where they get much better pay. The big reason that you'd want to visit the dealer rather than an independent mechanic is because you really, really, like spending more money than you have to. There's a reason they're called "stealerships".
- taftster 7y agoI mean, I don't personally disagree with you. But I was trying to keep the framing of my opinion a little more neutral. There are definitely some times when you want to go to the dealer; especially in rural areas, where the local repair shop has a lot of breadth, but not enough depth, to help with hard problems.
- nerdponx 7y agoManufacturer locking end users in to the manufacturer's chosen parts and maintenance shops. Like how Apple tries to pretend the only place you can repair a Mac is at the Apple Store.
- robertoandred 7y agoApple Authorized Service Providers are shown as an option everywhere an Apple Store is.
- alt_f4 7y agoBut are actually allowed to do a very small amount of very basic repairs. For everything else, they have to send it to Apple and they tell you that.
- nokcha 7y agoThe manufacturer can charge higher prices for repairs if it can exclude third parties from performing repairs.
- ChicagoBoy11 7y agoIt's actually much worse. All of the electronics also causes the machine to collect quite a bit of data on how/when it is used. WRT to the individual farmer, that data now has value and the manufacturer can extract that value by requiring the customer to pay to have access to it. At scale, that data can be sold off to hedge funds and other wall street shops to help inform data trading algorithm on grain futures and the like, so that too is an incentive to try and prevent joe schmo from having access to it.
- harikb 7y agoThis is an excellent point. There must also be some right and/or control for the owner generating this data, so that they can access it independently, at least in some raw form. I wonder if this qualifies under GDPR like law. If my cookie is private data, why can't the movement of my truck be?
- asdff 7y agoSeems like a good opportunity for a white hat to crack the probably shitty security and give this data to farmers for free.