Category Archives: Vehicles

American Farmers Win Right to Repair their John Deere Tractors -Sort of

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The media’s reporting that the American Farm Bureau Federation signed a Memorandum of understanding -or MoU) with the maker of JOHN DEERE tractors to facilitate maintenance and repair of that kind of equipment in the future, without necessarily going through authorized dealers and technicians.

In today’s world, farm tractors are complicated bits of machinery which can no longer be repaired on-site by farmers themselves. All too often, the documentation, information and specialized tools required to perform requisite maintenance or repairs just isn’t available at large, so that the only possibility for farmers is to obtain the services of technicians authorized by John Deere itself. Contrary to how it used to be, a farmer can no longer hope to service his (her) tractor himself (herself), this is simply no longer possible; even calling upon a local mechanic to do so may be problematic as he (she) may not even have all the information, documentation and tools to get the job done.

Now, further to execution of the recent MoU, the manufacturer should make available to John Deere tractor owners documentation, information, specifications and specialized tools (like software) which may be require to allow or facilitate maintenance or repairs on tractors of that make.

Interestingly, the MoU states it does not force John Deere to disclose any confidential information or trade secrets, something that may very well end-up gutting the right to repair, some feel. After all, little prevents a company from claiming things like detailed specifications and documentation are proprietary and/or confidential or secret.

It will be interesting to see how John Deere goes about this, in practice, and the extent to which this kind of right to repair arrangement may spread to other manufacturers, industries or activities, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere like in Canada. In the meantime, at the very least, this is a step in the right direction.

And Just Who Really Controls that New Shiny Connected Device of Yours?

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With a little help from a friend, I happened on 3 different stories in the news this week and that all relate, to some degree or another, to connected devices, including IoT devices and vehicles. If you ask me, it’s hard not to conclude that these 3 stories aren’t symptomatic of a trend. See for yourself:

The first story from this article relates to BMW, in South Korea, that now offers drivers access to certain functionalities installed in their new cars subject to the payment of subscription fees. The article mentions as an example heated seats which may only be used once the user agrees to fork over monthly fees. Failing this, BMW deactivates (or does not activate) the functionality remotely, so that, even though the vehicle technically includes it, it is inoperable. You read this right: you buy the car but not everything works off the bat, until you agree to pay monthly fees, in addition to your purchase price. After all, you just paid $80,000 for that car, what’s $20 per month?

The second story on that theme comes from this article  and relates to JOHN DEERE tractors. As you may have read recently, with the war in Ukraine, Russian forces are not only destroying things but also looting, including production and property found on farms. This happened to a bunch of tractors (a couple of millions dollars worth, apparently) which the Russians “confiscated” and quickly sent back to Russia as spoils of war. Unfortunately for them, once the tractors made it to their new home, Russian forces realized the machines has been (remotely) deactivated by the manufacturer, after they were reported stolen. As Russia just learned, it today’s world, yup, even farm equipment is connected, big time.

I happened on the third story through this article which deals with one of Amazon’s subsidiary admitting, this week, that it sometimes provides police with images from RING cameras (installed at customers’), without either consent from those owners or any warrants. Given this is done to help maintain order and ensure safety in our communities, why bother with such trivialities, right?

All three cases are symptoms of the control that manufacturers of connected devices and equipment do retain nowadays. This may be used for good or ill, but the bottom line is that we, as buyers of technology, can no longer assume we will retain control over OUR things, not total control anyway. In the age of the Internet of Things, the truth of the matter is that control will often rest elsewhere, something that can be so even though we may have bought a thing outright.

Next time you buy something that is connected, do ask yourself (and whoever’s selling it to you) to what extent the manufacturer may interact with it remotely, not only to update its firmware but also to disable it or do other things. The answer may surprise you.

Eh Dude, Your Car’s Leaking. No, Not Oil: Data

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The online magazine The Intercept recently published an interesting piece entitled YOUR CAR IS SPYING ON YOU, AND A CBP CONTRACT SHOWS THE RISKS which I highly recommend. If you didn’t know it, yes, your car does generate a lot of data and even downloads some of it from mobile devices which connect to it over time. In a sense, nowadays, a car is a sort of mobile computer, shock full of data. What may not be apparent to the layperson is that a car in this day and age generates and retains A LOT of data pretty much any time a human interacts with it.

Though the article at issue focuses on the use of your vehicle’s data by law enforcement (when investigating crime), if you ask me, the true story actually goes quite beyond that, including the use of such data by private businesses.

Surprisingly, accessing the data held by a modern-day vehicle isn’t actually this complicated—you just need the know-how and the right tool. If you’re really determined to do so, plugging into a car these days and extracting troves of data is apparently pretty straightforward. For example, in case of accident or other incident with an insured vehicle, the insurer may send an investigator armed with the right tools to download the car’s data, which can then be analyzed at leisure, including to try and find out why the insured’s claim should be denied. Almost any car on the road today includes such capabilities and functionalities akin to a plane’s black box.

The article specifically discusses one particular tool called iVe, a product by a company called Berla. The iVe toolbox includes both hardware and software components, and even has its own mobile app, so as to make things easier for investigators in the field.

This particular tool may be used to siphon all data contained in a vehicle’s circuits, for example to further an investigation either by the police or an insurer. The product then facilitates identifying, accessing and analyzing various types of information found in modern-day vehicles—you’d be surprised how much there may be. The company’s website claims its product can be used to uncover things like:

  • Geolocation data, including what roads or streets the vehicle was driven on, etc.;
  • Events which the vehicle encountered and recorded through any of its sensors;
  • Media files (content) that a user downloaded or accessed using the on-board infotainment system (music, podcasts, etc.);
  • A list of the specific mobile devices that users connected to the vehicle over time, etc.

In practice, it seems one may even go so far as to obtain a copy of the list of contacts from mobile devices that users connected to the vehicle, the history of SMS and emails on those devices, the list of incoming and outgoing calls, the list of songs played through the on-board infotainment system, etc.

Incident which a car records may, of course, include accident-like events, but also things that the average driver may not realize are being recorded, including:

  • The speed at which the car is travelling at any given moment;
  • The changing of gears and the engine’s RPMs at any given moment;
  • Sudden acceleration or breaking;
  • The fact that the headlights were either turned on or off;
  • The opening or closing of doors; etc.

So, you were listing to PARANOID by Black Sabbath and texting your friend Mike while driving down this country road at 163 km/h, and then lost control? Yeah, your insurer can find out, for sure. In fact, almost any action taken by the human operator of the vehicle may be recorded (even more so if you plugged in your cellphone), something the average driver may not realize. The fact that this is generally not clearly disclosed to the public does play into the hands of insurers and law enforcement, as it does make their job somewhat easier when investigating incidents involving vehicles.

If it may provide some measure of comfort to you, iVe does not come cheap. The article to which we’re linking above mentions purchasing that tool for tens of thousands of dollars. At that price, your insurer (or its investigator) probably bought one, but not your next-door neighbour, even if he’s really into cars.

This is a good example of the behind-the-scene changes turning everyday objects, like cars, into electronic gizmos. If you thought a car was still just a car, you are very much mistaken it seems. In today’s world, accessing the data in that car can reveal a whole lot about you, your driving habits, including where you’ve taken that car, and how. And contrary to what some people may think, it does NOT require a whole team of CSI-like investigators merely to connect to your car.