State of Repair is Motherboard's exploration of DIY culture, device repair, ownership, and the forces fighting to lock down access to the things you own.
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judge to participate in the court proceeding and declining."Numerous cybersecurity officials have also vetted the Massachusetts law and have suggested that it does not meaningfully make consumers less safe."Plaintiff’s preemption argument amounts to a claim that any sufficiently complex regulatory system is a free pass to monopolize the market for repair services and deny consumers full enjoyment of the things that they own," a series of nonprofits, security experts, and repair advocates told the court in a 2021 brief obtained by Motherboard. "There is no principled reason to give manufacturers this dead-hand control that could extend to numerous industries far afield from automobiles, and particularly in a manner of questionable cybersecurity. To give manufacturers this control would do a disservice to the electorate of Massachusetts that voted to protect their right to repair."A group of cybersecurity professionals who advocate for the right to repair have also repeatedly said that the law does not meaningfully impact cybersecurity. Last summer, Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the issue. The NHTSA letter seemingly puts the agency at odds with the rest of the Biden administration and many cybersecurity experts.“A malicious actor here or abroad could utilize such open access to remotely command vehicles to operate dangerously, including attacking multiple vehicles concurrently. Vehicle crashes, injuries, or deaths are foreseeable outcomes of such a situation,” it said in its letter to manufacturers.What the NHTSA doesn't mention is that determined hackers have been breaking into cars for years. Many cars are already insecure, and hackers are selling wireless devices disguised in old Nokia cell phones and Bluetooth speakers that can unlock and start cars, often wirelessly. Some cars are so easy to steal that it became a viral social media trend, resulting in surging car theft rates in many U.S. cities and multiple lawsuits.