[ale] Android Tablets

[William Fragakis]

Mazda reset:
http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-t7586_ds37297

Other cars often have some sort of trick like holding in a button for a
certain period of time, etc. Car companies may not be keen on telling
customers how to do this for liability reasons as well. As the Toyota
case showed, while Toyota totally effed up, there were cases where
someone was doing 90 when stopped by the police and tried to blame
Toyota. Investigation afterwards showed no signs that the brakes were
even applied. Similarly, with a check engine light, it's not
inconceivable that someone would ignore the "Check engine" light, run
the engine dry of oil, reset the light and blame the manufacturer that
they had no idea it was running low on oil.

As mentioned earlier, car manufacturers can not require you to use only
their repair services to keep the car in warranty. (Magnuson-Moss
Warranty Act)

Of course, a shop is going to charge you for reading the error codes.
They have to use an expensive device plus the time of a mechanic who
generates $150-200 hr plus your car is occupying a bay that could be
used for other work. Would you expect your lawyer to review a contract
or you doctor to read the results of a lab test for free? They may do it
out of the goodness of their heart, or decide to do you a favor,  but
it's taking away time they could be earning a living. Repair shops that
offer "free brake inspections", etc. seem to find something wrong every
time - even if nothing is. 

I don't know if car companies "retain the rights to their embedded
systems" but I haven't seen any filing patents for remotely disabling
your car if you mod it.

Now, let me put my nomex suit back on... :-)

wf


On Mon, 2010-08-23 at 09:16 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Jerald Sheets wrote:
> > I know they do on my Ford.  I have a specified interface into the
> > systems on-board, and they tell me that I void my warranty if I try
> > and interface other than the specified way.  Further, I have to bring
> > my car in to the dealer (ONLY...no other repair shops) to fix it and
> > since I voided my warranty I then have to pay full price for the
> > service for them to re-flash my on-board computer.
> 
> This approach started years ago.  My 1999 Mazda pickup has an engine 
> check light that comes on at preset mileage points.  Mazda will not tell 
> you how to turn the light off without bringing the vehicle in and paying 
> them to do so.
> 
> I've since found that 3rd party vehicle repair companies have the 
> ability to do the same, but, they still charge you for the service. 
> It's likely I could find an independent who would do this, but I'm 
> simply not interested in spending the calories.
> 
> > 
> > --j
> > 
> > 
> > On Aug 20, 2010, at 10:11 AM, Calvin Harrigan wrote:
> > 
> >> On 8/20/2010 9:49 AM, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> >>> That sort of misses the point.
> >>> 
> >>> What if you bought a car and the manufacturer told you they
> >>> retained ownership rights in all the embedded systems?
> >>> 
> >> Not sure if that analogy would hold.  Doesn't the car company still
> >> own the embedded systems, at least the software that runs on them? 
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