No, there isn't a difference. You vastly underestimate the ability of an idiot to screw up a mechanical system. I mean, OK, a literal brick would be deliberate, but that was hyperbole. Something like an improperly-tensioned throttle cable or an improperly-bled brake system, on the other hand, is very likely to happen by accident.

The point is, claiming that "on a computer!!!" makes working on a car more dangerous is as bunk as claiming "on a computer!" makes an invention suddenly new again, or that "on a computer!" turns (e.g.) fraud into some kind of new and different crime.

Auto mechanics has always required knowledge, skill, and personal responsibility, and nothing has changed!

Sorry, you are wrong. You can be free or not. You can't guarantee safety, regardless of your degree of freedom.

Good point! I stand corrected. Let me amend my statement:

We have two choices: we can be free, or we can throw away our freedom pointlessly.

The ECU (engine control unity) has nothing to do with the infotainment unit.

That's what you think. In reality, in modern cars they're both hooked to a CAN bus with no security whatsoever, so misbehavior by the infotainment unit actually could plausibly screw up the ECU. Besides, even if they weren't automakers would use that as an excuse and un-technical bureaucrats wouldn't know the difference.

Sorry but I dont want to be driving down the road with some backyard genius who has "tweaked" their ECU and ABS in such a way as it disables the breaks and locks the throttle open.

Well then you'd better fucking quit driving, because any backyard genius has always been able to do that with a fucking brick on the pedal (or under it, as applicable)!

What part of "correct" did you not understand? I may not be able to stop my country from fucking up, but I don't have to like it!

Who the fuck cares?! I can make up ridiculous "what if" scenarios all day long that would seem to justify making every goddamn thing illegal until all that's left is to lock yourself in a padded room with a straight jacket on. But that's stupid, because you'd be acting completely disproportionately to the risk.

And that's what you're doing here too. So fucking what if the modded ECU might cause a fire? So might spilling some gasoline when you fill the car up! So might a short in the wiring! So might a stuck brake caliper! So might crashing into something! There's bunches of different things that could "possibly" go wrong, but they're all perfectly acceptable risks and ECU tuning is no different. Maybe the manufacturer might get blamed for something that was the vehicle owner's fault. Or maybe the owner will get blamed for a crash that was actually caused by a manufacturing defect. Sometimes life isn't fair. Boo fucking hoo; deal with it!

But that's all beside the point, because modding an ECU sure as HELL isn't dangerous enough to justify destroying the concept of ownership of property and replacing it with corporate serfdom, which is what this evil abortion of a policy would do!

You have no clue. On many cars -- especially the increasingly-common turbocharged ones -- ECU tuning is the first, best-bang-for-the-buck, easiest* mod you do.

(* "Easy" in the sense that you pay a tuner who's already broken the DRM and correctly modified the boost map, so all you have to do yourself is plug the ECU-flashing tool into the ODB II port.)

BULLSHIT. This is about using computers -- via copyright -- as the excuse to subjugate vehicle owner's actual property rights to manufacturers Imaginary Property rights, using "safety!" as the emotional red herring that they hope will distract people enough to let them get away with it.

The manufacturers want exactly one thing: post-purchase control, so that they can restrict vehicle owner choice and freeze out independent mechanics. They want to be able to say "oh, you want to pair your new phone with the infotainment system? Sure, that'll be "only" $1000, and no, you're not allowed to hack it yourself or get a cheaper third party to do it. It's all because of 'safety,' not profit -- we swear!"

Then there are the special cute things that can go wrong, like an injector that sticks open instead of pulsing properly. That will turn it into a blowtorch that will burn right through the top of the piston.

Don't forget engine runaways caused by oil leaks in the turbo!

Of course, isn't that all just part of the fun of owning a TDI?

There was plenty of shit in the early nineties, too. OBDII was actually a blessing because you could read your car's codes without a manufacturer's specific tool.

I haven't tried it out yet, but apparently the '90 Miata I recently bought is supposed to beep diagnostic codes at me.

not have copyright to modify the software

This is where all this copyright bullshit is getting out of hand.

There is one essential thing that copyright is supposed to require: making a damn copy!

Unless the owner is doing that -- and people modifying their own cars won't be -- then copyright has no fucking business kicking in to begin with.

Well, somebody needs to play Devil's Advocate here, so I will. What if onboard vehicle computers truthfully are (or soon will become) so complicated - and so integral to the functioning of the vehicle - that an untrained hobbyist screwing with it could cause injury or death?

Fuck, man, brakes have been like that for a hundred goddamn years!

Stop letting "buh-buh-buh-computers!" be an excuse for corporate sociopaths and nanny-state asswipes to destroy your rights. Seriously.

We have two choices: we can be free, or we can be safe. These are mutually exclusive. And in the United States of America, the only correct choice is to be free. Sniveling infantile cowards who think otherwise can fuck off and die.

I have to wonder if we are getting to the point the drive speed just isn't a factor, that the other components like CPU, GPU, and RAM will be bottlenecking before the drive, because no matter how faster you get the data off the drive you still gotta process it.

Fundamentally, that doesn't make sense because if it were true, we'd just use SSDs instead of RAM.

Do you think that there should be an RFC before the protocol is fully baked?

Do you know what the acronym "RFC" fucking means?!

If you have no intention of accepting "Comments" suggesting changes to your protocol, then WTF is the point of submitting a "Request For" them?

(people who burried themselves in 2000, you can come out now.)

That's what They want you to think!!!

At that location they are so far above us in speed. It's sad when the middle of nowhere in a useless state has access about eight times faster than us for about a tenth of the cost. I wish Seattle would catch-up so the shithole of South Carolina.

Gee, it sure sounds to me like it's Seattle that's the shithole!