Tractor Haxtors - Ukranians can help you fix your Tractor

[wvjohn]

Longish, with pics.

Summary - New John Deere tractors come with a software license agreement that requires JD Techs to service your ride. But software is software...

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part."

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... n-firmware

[FlyingPenguin]

Heh. If anyone can hack that stuff, it's the Ukrainians. When civilization falls and all our electronics stop working because they can't phone home anymore or get licensed, Ukrainian hackers will become a world power

[Pugsley]

It is so true. I am surprised that the farmers let it get to this point, but you cant just not buy a tractor and every manufacture is just as bad as the others when it comes to this shit.

[FlyingPenguin]

Some people don't understand how bad this is. They assume it's like ignition controls in cars. It's much MUCH worse. I can imagine a day when automakers do this - especially an autonomous vehicle.

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part."

[normalicy]

They've been doing this in the forklift industry for over ten years now. Yale & Hyster forklifts in particular require authorized service software to connect through their proprietary connection in order to do anything on the forklift. This software can not be bought and as of yet, I can't find a way to obtain a pirate version... never the less an adapter. Once, we had to pay $250 to have a tech come out to clear a code for a headlight that went out (which we replaced). Toyota is also now on the bandwagon because they no longer will sell their service tools to anyone but a dealer.

[Err]

[quote="FlyingPenguin"]Some people don't understand how bad this is. They assume it's like ignition controls in cars. It's much MUCH worse. I can imagine a day when automakers do this - especially an autonomous vehicle.

I could understand on an autonomous vehicle IF we pass laws making the manufacturer assume all liability for an accident. However, they should be limited so that we are still able to reset the blasted oil change light and other such warnings.