I think every single new car from the past decade requires proprietary software to reset all the anti-theft features which would block you from changing the eng

I think every single new car from the past decade requires proprietary software to reset all the anti-theft features which would block you from changing the engine or ECU. Some manufacturers are more willing to share this software than others. I don't really know when exactly we're crossing the line where it becomes deliberate DRM instead of just poorly available proprietary software. The end result is the same. Another interesting situation is when you lose all of your car keys. Usually it's easy for your authorized repair shop to fix this, although they might need to have the manufacturer do it remotely(!). For independent shops it's not necessarily as easy as just plugging in a laptop, often they'll have to actually physically replace parts of the car in order to pair their new keys. Of course, there's a huge market for reverse engineering all this stuff so the indie shops continue to thrive despite many repairs now requiring extensive software reverse engineering.