Comment Re:In other words, (Score 1) 13
Deere has been the most famous poster child of sticking it to the consumer and locking them in for a very long time. So it is startlingly good news that anything is happening... but it sounds like very little compared to their gains and damage caused. Also I don't get why just 10 years, these things last a long time. This kind of equipment can cost a lot of money per hour of downtime. (Caveat: I've worked on afterservice parts software for a big mining and construction machinery manufacturer... afterservice parts is like the razorblades business model multiplied by lots of expensive time constraints and logistics) Tldr; but what is needed is a law about afterservice parts. Are the owners of the equipment going to be able to buy parts from based on like Cummins parts catalog and run telemetry if that is a thing in Deere? After 10 years if their model's parts and software is no longer supported will they open source it, provide 3D design files or equivalent parts in major catalogs? Will they be able to only provide windows binaries that work with windows 11? Can machines and support packages be transferred? New machines need to become as maintainable as old machines, for as long as the materials last. Probably, they probably have a lot of ways left to fuck with people and still have a big incentive to do so. Not doing so will cut into potential profit.