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Some Good News: ‘Right to Repair’ Notched a Major Election Day Win
The future of automotive repair just got brighter—and it may shine a light on your smaller gadgets, too
Voters in Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to amend a significant “right to repair” law, paving the way to a greener future where consumers and independent shops have more control over the maintenance of their cars.
The measure, which will require automakers to share more data about the vehicles they produce, is significant in the context of a larger fight for repair laws in the consumer tech industry. Though your iPhone may appear to have little in common with your SUV, both are machines whose inner workings are closely guarded by manufacturers. That level of control means that it’s not always possible for individuals to access the information they need to fix their equipment, resulting in costly repairs from shops that are anointed by the manufacturer, or reducing a device’s overall lifespan. When you can’t fix something that you need, you have to replace it.
And actually, there is more shared DNA between your phone and your car than you might imagine. Question 1, as the ballot measure is known, deals explicitly with data generated by a car’s “telematics systems”—that is, information about a car wirelessly communicated to a manufacturer, similar to how Apple uses diagnostic software to assess issues with your iPhone. Car manufacturers will now have to make this data available to owners and independent repair shops via a mobile app.
Advocates have characterized Question 1, which passed in an absolute landslide, as a bellwether for future right to repair laws that would more directly impact the smaller gadgets in your life.
“This is a huge precedent for the entire technology industry, and it’s not just about cars,” Kyle Wiens, the CEO of repair organization iFixit, tells Debugger. “I expect many states will follow up with broad electronics right to repair bills.”
This fight has been ongoing for years. Massachusetts’ initial right to repair bill passed in 2012 and a handful of states have taken up the cause since then. (I’ve reported on it since 2016.) At its root, right to repair challenges the notion of…
