https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-for...160000229.html

Piggybacks all the way if this gets traction. License violation to change the code in the ECU. Always has been with computers.

 

Yea that would definitely suck if it happened. We do more than sell parts we sell a lot of ECU flashes as well, it would definitely cut into what we could do for you guys.

So now would be the perfect time to get yours before it's illegal to do it lol.

-RyanG

 

Well it wouldn't be illegal per-se, you would sign some kind of license agreement as part of the car sale I would think and the owner would be in violation of the car purchase agreement. So it would be OK on cars already in production or not bought under a license agreement I would imagine. This article is vague but it does highlight the point that the manufacturers are not in favor of mods. Dealers are a different animal.

 

Proving damages to the manufacturer would be difficult. Flashing already impacts the warranty for parts affected by the flash. I would think manufacturers LIKE the fact that owners flash the ECU - powertrain warranty gone = no more liability. I doubt Mitsubishi has ever had to pay a powertrain warranty claim on an Evo............

 

While IANAL, my understanding of the DMCA also allows for action to be taken against makers of "tools" that allow for such "hacking" activities. This could be very bad news for the companies that write software flashes or make hardware allowing one to "tamper" with their car's software.

With all of that said, I don't support any of it. I think car OWNERS should be able to do anything they see fit with something they OWN. However, as a business owner, I atleast understand a manufacturers desire to limit their liability in these situations.

 

I highly doubt that this will ever take place. First I've never seen an article with SO many hypotheticals in it! From a legal standpoint it would be a nightmare for car manufacturers to try and "piggyback" in on this Act/law. Look at this quote alone from the article, "Listing the vehicle as a “mobile computing device." So now we are talking about changing how a vehicle is classified. This opens a hug can of worms. Does this mean a vehicle doesn't fall under the department of transportation anymore? What would this mean for boat owners, are those mobile computing devices? How about airplanes? I can't see any way possible that this could happen with how laws are today. I'm not even getting into how the hypothetical argument of you really don't own the car! That's absurd and I couldn't imagine it standing up in any U.S. court of law. Just because manufacturers are interested or would like to do something doesn't mean it will happen. Manufacturers would face class action law suits here in the U.S. and worldwide. The litigation costs alone would be enormous. For this to actually to become a possibility they would have to pass new legislation here in the U.S. And I'm guessing through the world. I can't see this happening in the U.S. My personal feeling this is just an article written to get a response. Something like this is massively complex, with state/federal laws and agencies involvement. Way too many hypotheticals in this article!

 

You don't own the software that runs your computer, you license it and I think that this is mostly going to be applied to ECUs and the software that controls them. The writers of such articles are usually not totally cognizant of all the facts or leave them out for sensational effect.

 

they can just void the warranty?

 

It would depend on whatever agreement you sign in the future when buying a new car. Right now I don't believe the law allows them to simply void the warranty. This is a hypothetical article just posted to let people see where the car companies are going and what they are thinking about.