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Submission + - Tesla does not allow people to repair their own vehicles (newrepublic.com)

smooth wombat writes: A decade ago, Rich Benoit bought a used Tesla at auction. The car had been flooded and he thought he'd repair it. When he reached out to Tesla to buy parts, they said no.

“They literally just said no,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a lot easier: ‘Hey, I’ll just buy a battery, put a battery in, put a new motor in, you know, buy some new interior parts.’ They literally said no. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I think that’s what started the journey for me.”

Benoit’s professional background was in I.T., but this launched a new career in fixing electric cars, and he also runs a now 10-year-old YouTube channel with co-founder Carl Hewitt about his work, called Rich Rebuilds. He says nearly every electric vehicle company has responded the same way Tesla did. So his new career intersected quickly with the right-to-repair movement, which argues that companies shouldn’t be allowed to refuse access to the information and equipment people need to make repairs on the products they’ve purchased.

At least nine states have passed right-to-repair laws—most of them blue, along with Texas and Kansas—and every state has debated similar laws that would require at least some manufacturers to provide the tools people need to make repairs on their products. A federal bill is sitting in the House, waiting for potential consideration in the lame-duck session, but it’s unlikely to rise to the top of Congress’s long to-do list. For Benoit, though, this is about much more than just fixing cars. “This kind of encompasses a larger overarching theory that the corporations own what you have,” he said. “You don’t own anything. You just rent it.”

Comment Re:Geez, total BS they can'y fix it themselves ! (Score 1) 135

And this is where the federal legislation has to go. I can easily see Congress making the requirement only for military agencies, in which case, the only companies bidding for the "right of repair" will be companies willing to forgo a repair monopoly. A repair monopoly or a ban on product repair is as damaging to consumers as a standard monopoly. And all this corporate repair practices stem from "intellectual property" laws which never was implemented to aid product monopolies. Just tell these "intellectual property" zealots to go burn in hell.

Comment Re:National sales tax (Score 1) 268

Companies should be hating the idea of tariffs. It's like a tax, that is collected before even receiving any revenue

It also makes it more difficult to ensure a profit. The company has to "front" even more money (tariff) before they can start selling the item. If they overestimate the product's sales desirability, it takes away available operating credit to do other things.

, at a higher rate than any sales or income tax.

It also depresses sales, because the tariff raises the price of the item to consumers, who subsequently may become less "carefree" about their spending patterns. An income tax doesn't affect consumer purchasing perception; the absence of tariffs surcharges do not trigger "hesitation" towards a purchase, based on price. Finally, tariffs end up suppressing the money raised for state and local sales tax; they need revenue as well.

Comment Re:There goes tourism (Score 1) 70

> not that they'd have the money to travel to begin with.

The reality is that as relatively important international tourism is for NYC, the overwhelming amount of tourist dollars is domestic. NYC is a lot cheaper way to see "the world" than actually flying to those places. Especially now with the utterly unnecessary inclusion of US tourism in the tariff war...

I'm not here to defend MAGA retardation. I just don't believe good discourse is served by presenting pro or anti bubble, factually flawed arguments. While on one hand, I can understand the rationale for the US to initiate tariff actions, in order to "holistically" encourage domestic investment in manufacturing. But its being done in the most incompetent way imaginable, thanks to our "Dear Leader".

Comment Re:There goes tourism (Score 1) 70

You forgot medical and pharmaceutical advances. the US lets the pharmaceutical industry rape its customers to provide the 0.1% the bleeding edge medical tech and treatments, and then lets the rest of the world access it for a lower price than Americans. Granted, one can blame American voter stupidity for that, but it doesn't change the overall point.

Comment And I say... (Score 1) 79

Lucas has little sympathy for those who want to see his first version of the film, telling the Associated Press in 2004, "I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be."

Fuck you for Jar-Jar. You cratered your esthetic directorial reputation with your arbitrary desire to constantly revise your cinematic works.

Comment Any Science Geek Knows... (Score 1) 132

If you're not completing a full orbit around the Earth, you're just on a "vomit comet". Any pencil pusher can say "62 miles means you're reached "outer space". The Laws of Physics determines that one can't complete a full orbit around the Earth and not have reached "outer space".

Comment Re:There goes tourism (Score 4, Informative) 70

> The final death rattle of US-bound tourism, as if it wasn't terminally ill to begin with.

Speaking for New York, we're part of a nation of 335 million people. Domestic tourism alone can keep NY's tourist industry propped up. Its just that the tourist that required a visa usually have more spending money and superior manners.

Comment Re:I don't believe the number is only 5.7% (Score 1) 113

You're not "entitled" to be employed at a job at an "acceptable" salary. You have a certain level of skill and productivity; its up to the capitalist employer to determine if they will choose to hire you and pay your salary. Even the capitalist does not have an absolute choice as to whether to pay you a certain level salary; its up to market supply in your field to determine whether you should be paid more or less.

Does this mean capitalists have a legitimate right to manipulate the worker supply or information through laws or business practices? No, inefficient laws are no different than corrupt laws, and colluding with competitors to lowball workers are monopolistic in nature. But that's about all you'll get from (American) society helping you out with getting a job and setting a "good" wage.

This economic law of the jungle always applied to low skilled factory labor, so why should IT and "professional" educated workers be any different? Automation is merely the advancement of technology disrupting the current paradigms in place in society today. If you want to benefit from technology in terms of productive gain and improving everyone's standard of living, it has to be adopted.

The question you really should be asking is whether capitalism is still a valid philosophy to structure a society's economy and laws, or somehow a new economic paradigm along with government must be devised and implemented. (Socialism has already been tried, and it appears to have similar disadvantages to capitalism as "pure" communism.)

Comment Re:The year is 3099- (Score 1) 269

The 82 million estimate is on the high side. Some estimates are half that.

Oh come on! Of course the 82 million people estimate is ridiculous. Even 41 million AM listeners is ridiculous. 8 percent of the nation are not long haul truckers. Hell, even 1 out 8 *rural* residents aren't AM radio listeners. Almost everyone with a phone is streaming through it, or using it as a music player.

The AM radio manufacturers and the AM broadcast companies don't want to close shop because "its not possible to find AM receivers anymore". It also makes for an "emergency" information/dictation broadcast system for the federal and state gov't. But hell, they may as well mandate FM and AM HD & digital FM while they're at it. We're all sheep made out of money...

Comment Re:That’s a good thing (Score 3) 28

Discovering a flaw in your data collection which could distort the results (and thus conclusions) is not scientific misconduct. If the paper is actively cited, retraction is the most effective way for the paper to not be erroneously used to base future research, as opposed to a "correction".

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