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Short answer: Yes. The car industry is going more and more towards closed systems that your local mechanic can't repair without getting licensed and buying spe
by Joakal 16y ago
Short answer: Yes.
The car industry is going more and more towards closed systems that your local mechanic can't repair without getting licensed and buying specialised readers to understand the car systems.
One possibility is that companies could make cars cheaper with poor quality code. This has higher maintenance costs and they get more from licensing/tools sold to repair. The consumer won't realise the extra burden until after purchase or reviews.
- thematt 16y agoThe fact that your local mechanic can't repair things like they used to is not necessarily because the manufacturer elected to write complicated code. It's the environmental regulations that play a huge part in necessitating the hardware (and sometimes software) technology. Much of the technology is needed to get the vehicle within compliance of emissions regulations. Such technology doesn't come cheap -- and is increasingly complex, which necessitates the need for specialized skills and tools to deal with. This is not the type of thing manufacturers can just choose to shortcut, at least not if they want to sell their vehicles in certain countries.
- Joakal 16y agoI was referring to the nature of proprietary diagnostic tools that only work with certain cars. Hardware and software is great, but not the consumer is forced to go to a limited supply of only approved dealers who can only diagnose certain software (those software can easily be put out of date by the next generation of cars). Vendor lock-in.