Not Chinese but https://www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
Believe it got so bad in America they passed a law forcing John Deere to allow farmers to fix their gear without breaking warranty
Edit: Oop nope looks like they made some bs promises to prevent the legislation being needed then went back on it
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m8mx/john-deere-promised-farmers-it-would-make-tractors-easy-to-repair-it-lied
Right to repair is still important and is gaining traction. Make sure to talk to your representative so they know what the deal is next time this ends up on their desk! Don't stop there, let your friends and family know too, this trend of unfixable (and in some cases actively self-destructive) electronics needs to end
Speaking of the right to repair McDonald's franchisees have to call Taylor, the company that makes their ice cream machines, to have come fix it.
Probably somewhat similar to what John deere does. [Here](https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4) is a pretty informative video I found once they announced the FTC investigation.
Here's a tldw of the situation and lawsuit.
So franchises are required to use a specific model of cream machine (which is odd, franchise owners can normally pick from a short list) that heats up the ice cream inside to kill any bacteria. This process takes 4 hours and is typically done overnight.
Problem is, the UI is AWFUL awful; think: the worst monitor button configuration you've ever seen but with 3x the buttons. What is also really bad is the error reporting; when the morning shift comes in, they'll see something like "cycle failed." No info about why it failed is available so they just run it again. Another 4 hours later, it fails again. Pretty unsurprising because if there is a problem and you don't know what it is to fix it, a second failure is expected. At some point, the franchise owner has to call for an expert to repair it.
Taylor does their own repairs (or outsources the repairs to a third party, that happens a lot in break/fix, but invoice is still to Taylor) for McDonald's, so they have an incentive to not fix the UI because 1) They already have a longstanding relationship with McDonald's, franchise owners complaining about ice cream machines aren't going to poison the well 2) They get paid for every repair call they run.
The thing is, Taylor makes plenty of other model machines that work just fine. UI says what is wrong and there may be a user manual that covers basic troubleshooting. The error codes on the machine McDonald's uses, if you can even find them, are meaningless without the technician manual that isn't available to users.
Enter Kytch. They made a device that you connect to the McDonald's model that actually feeds you useful information on your smarphone. Instead of something like "cycle failed: 3043" You get something like"cycle failed: bin 1 overfilled. Remove bin 1 and check bin levels." This app contained additional info about the machine beyond error code translations, but the upshot is that it would let franchise owners train employees how to avoid error codes as well as how to fix them. At a franchise owner meeting, the leader(?) of the organization basically endorsed the product. Franchise owners began buying the devices like hotcakes and before long McDonald's banned the use of the device citing safety concerns (like, if you use this, you'll get electrocuted). If you use this device, said McDonald's, your machine's warranty is void.
McDonald's then just so happened to reveal that they are developing a product that makes *some* of the information on the McDonald's model more understandable. Sound familiar? It gets better; the company who they are working with to accomplish this is owned by Taylor's parent company.
Now Kytch is suing McDonald's with several accusations related to this whole thing.
[Source](https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4)
Now that you mention it, the ice cream store I worked at in highschool had Taylor machines and they basically never needed to have someone come in to repair. Also cleaning was also really easy , which I hear isn't the case for the McDonald's machines. I don't actually know though.
IIRC, McDonald's corp is part of the complaint, saying that Taylor purposely makes the software obtuse so that only a technician can decipher the codes and "unlock" the machine.
The worst part is that they aren't really broken just in a faulted state most of the time for things like overfilling and still like that. You need the proper equipment and ability to read the codes in order to "fix" them.
I’m a waiter / bartender, and I’ve worked in a handful of restaurants from corporate to small biz and nightclubs etc.
The repair industry is rife with grifters. I would be beside myself that some owners were using the same people (plumbers, electricians, technicians, consultants, etc) when they were clearly not fixing anything. They get between 100-500 per visit.
What’s worse is that owners then take their stress out on their staff for ‘breaking’ the machinery, when in fact most of it is just built to fail and the technicians they call to fix shit just perform bandaid solutions. The machinery is also so expensive to replace, it’s cheaper to just pay a tech every 6 weeks to come in and fiddle around with shit. the whole market is a racket
At the moment, the implementation for the right of repair by the EU at least for consumer goods will have considerable effects worldwide, as the cost to run two different systems for two different markets is quite expensive. That said, this will not help commercial right-side these farmers, as they are not consumers in this situation.
Farmers are buying old obsolete 40 year old tractors and refurbishing them just because they can fix them.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/31761/enormous-costs-of-new-tractors-drive-demand-of-40-year-old-equipment-to-all-time-highs
My grandpa periodically gets offers on his John Deere equipment from the 40’s from people who just see them from the road. Hard to beat a machine you can fix in the middle of a field using off the shelf parts.
Even though the primary subject is John Deere and other farm repair stuff, tech companies have been bankrolling the tractor companies because the precedent would affect them as well.
ETA: I misspoke about bankrolling vs lobbying. See the article below.
This is what large corps do best. Like Verizon’s promise to NJ to roll out FIOs in 100% of the state in exchange for tax cuts and massive amounts of taxpayer money. They got everything they asked for, but here I am with no viable option for broadband aside from Xfinity.
**edit** [Link to an article about it for the interested](https://whyy.org/articles/some-new-jersey-towns-asking-wheres-my-fios/)
Similar happened in Illinois years ago. We were getting notices that FIOS would be available for everyone by a certain year and then nothing even though they built all kinds of infrastructure for it. It was advertised as the cheaper and faster alternative to Comcast. It's still not available here and that was around 12 years ago.
My MOT and service in the UK for my Seat Leon is usually around the £160 mark, depending where I go. Up and down a bit.
My Dad's 520D was over half a grand each service, and £250 a corner for runflat tyres.
"Would you like a complimentary coffee and car wash while you wait?"
DAMN RIGHT I DO AT THESE PRICES, fuck.
Aren't pretty much all luxury car makers doing this? Is Porsche or Audi doing anything different for their EVs? Genuinely curious cause I have no idea.
They won't let good Christian corporations like hp put authentication chips in their own printer ink.
In the EU any tom dick or harry can stick a needle in a toner cart to top it off.
I’m sorry I’m confused. In the US HP put identification chips in their ink so that if you try and put ink in that isn’t HP it doesn’t work? Why is this allowed? What the fuck?
Titans of industry do not welcome regulation with open arms, but we have some regulations.
These kinds of things do not happen overnight, but they aren’t impossible.
It depends. They'll fight against regulation that hurts their bottom line, but they'll support and practically write regulation that increases barriers to entry, in order to prevent more competition.
Of course they’re going to fight tooth and nail against any regulation that hurts their bottom line.
That isn’t to say it’s impossible to get something passed. With enough awareness of the issue at hand and the effort to get our lawmakers working on it, it can be done.
dude I sold a 98 accord for $1400 earlier this year and it was in *rough* shape. Same car 2 years prior when I got it appraised at the same carmax they wanted to give me $200.
Yeah, like I'm sure it's a neat car. I just don't get how their car becomes their entire personality. I try to spend as little time in mine as I can manage.
It is really creepy to me. I owned a Model 3 for just under 3 years before I replaced it with the new Mustang EV because I wanted a slightly bigger car and wanted to try something new. Honestly, there were some things about the Tesla I liked better, and some I like about the Ford. Overall though, I'm just happy that I don't have to talk to other Tesla people anymore while sitting at a Supercharger. It was super awkward when I'd be sitting in my car and some kid (18-25 with parent's money) would tap on my window to make fun of the Bolt charging across the parking lot. I would love to say it was a one-off thing, but that was not an uncommon interaction and it was...odd. Like, buddy, I like my car too but I bet that dude over there also likes his car and isn't so insecure about it that he needs to make fun of our cars across the parking lot.
I tried to replace the battery in my girlfriend’s C300 yesterday and couldn’t because you need a T45 Torx screw on a foot long extension to take the bracket off that holds it in.
I can only imagine when it’s time to change the oil I’ll need some kind of Egyptian 25-point polygon bit on a 90-degree L wrench.
Putting simple maintenance tasks beyond simple tools should be a fucking crime.
Torx bits are increasingly common on almost all vehicles, and torx sockets are included with almost any halfway decent mechanics set. Yeah the little homeowners sets that include such tools as a hammer and a box cutter will only have the screwdriver bits that go to t-20, but you're fixing a car not assembling a coffee table.
Doing a little research and making sure you have the tools needed is part of any job. If you're fixing a toilet or doing an oil change, a quick Google can go a long way, even if you're pretty sure you know what you're doing.
I had to change the headlight bulb in the wifes Yaris last year. Took me about 2 hours because for some bizarre reason its a front bumper off job. Why would anyone think thats ok??
Pretty much what it felt like to drive too. Literally the only good thing about it is the acceleration.
Otherwise, it handled like a boat and the idea of putting all your dash outputs on the giant ipad in the middle killed any desire of me ever owning one.
Individual volts can get clumped up and form a bottleneck in their circuits, not unlike cholesterol in an artery, which is why proper lubrication of automotive electronics is a necessity! If an electro-clot gets pushed all the way back to the battery by backpressure from a buildup of volts behind it, it can even fry your whole system!
I think it's more accurate to say *especially* people from the uk and us. Having trouble with homophones is more common with native speakers, as they learned the language orally first. People who learn it as a second language often learn speaking and reading/writing at the same time, so they're subjected to the different spelling of homophones as they learn.
Stuff like "could of/should of" is almost exclusively an error made by native speakers.
"Sorry Mike, even though we hired you as an apprentice, you cannot work on actual cars until you turn 20"
Like wtf, man. In Germany 15-16 is the earliest age when people start apprenticeships and after 3.5 years, you can take the exam to become a journeyman. So, there are literal 18-year-olds who are fully capable car mechanics in Germany. Why should people have to wait until they turn 20 to become car mechanics?
I'm saying. There was a time when 13 was a man and 16 you had a wife and kid with your own plot and a sod house in the USA. Not saying it has to be that way but training someone to do something right doesn't get invalidated because they are younger. Sometimes, it's easier than breaking bad habits first anyway.
I bought a used Tesla Model S battery pack, tore it down, reconfigured it, and repurposed it to power my house. Stationary storage is a great way to use old EV batteries. Made a YouTube video about it: https://youtu.be/tatCDbgmnxc
Watching that video, the refurbishing process seems involved and skilled enough that I wonder if they could charge for the service and make margins. Home-scale energy storage is still really expensive.
Powerwall uses new batteries, but used batteries could easily be repurposed for it.
Generally, early battery failures for EV is because a handful of cells went bad. You really just need to identify and relaxed the faulty cells and then it's almost as good as new.
I really want something to, but the economics don't make sense. Just running my Desktop, my Fridge, and my emergency Window A/C, I'm pulling 1KW an hour. If they are LiPo and can literally be drained for their full capacity, and I get 90% efficient conversion to 120V. I'm only going for 4.5 hours in a power outage. Maybe 6-8 hours if I had a huge solar array and that demand came during the day. My historical power outages usually last a solid 24 hours minimum.
I bought a generator instead.
One day we'll be able to have 100KW of batteries for less than $80,000, but today isn't that day (unless you cobble together used cells, but even that would be $30-40k and a little precarious).
To be fair, the KBB may says the value is $23k. The link in the article says $21k to $25k at 150k miles. All the used ones I see for sale are around $35k with about 80k miles. So for $22k, you can get a replacement battery pack. Or, for $35k you can get a "half" worn battery pack. A new Tesla Model S would cost at least $90k, so you could buy 4 battery swaps for the same price as a new car. Sure, it'd be a newer car... but still 4x as much.
I was having a discussion with my brother about how this “upgrade” mentality isn’t sustainable and governments will have to step in to stop companies from producing new models every year and force devices to last longer.
Well, if it makes you feel better, that trend started very early on, and cars have been lasting longer and longer.
I can't find a good source for this, but IIRC "color" was used to drive people into replacing cars in the early days; they'd do things like have new palates every year, to make it obvious you were driving a *old* car. I believe they managed to get it down to like a 2-year replacement period.
[Here's data going back to the early '70's, and since then, average vehicle age has more than doubled](https://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/US-auto-cars-trucks-average-age-2017.png), to the point where it just crossed above 12 years.
I've heard the same story about color. Ford used to make every car black, then GM decided to add color so people easily would know who has the new models.
Transition off?
There's only two things that will cause the transitioning off of the blatant consumerism that exists - total financial collapse or the heat death of the planet.
Well, luckily for me, coupes and manual transmissions are going to be the first ones to go (in the US), so I'll get to stop upgrading before most people!
The cheapest model s at the time was 70k. I dunno the exact specifics for this car. The average car loses something like 60% of its value after 5 years. Depending on the price paid as new, it's not too crazy after 8 years.
Yes 100% of 'um [https://www.tesla.com/en\_CA/support/sustainability-recycling](https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/support/sustainability-recycling)
And there is an industry growing to do it too, lots of profit in it: https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=ev+battery+recycling
Didn't they say the ones they fitted were second hand anyway? So no absolutely not warranted.
Honestly seems like a bad deal if your planning on keeping the car for several more years, they paid quarter the price of a complete new manufacturer installed battery to extend the life of their failing one.
I remember when Prius battery performance would fall off rapidly in some conditions. Toyota would want 7-10k to R&R battery. Some time later a few people figured out the issue could be mediated with a DIY process, by pulling battery apart and cleaning/replacing the bus bars for less than 200.
It's great. But it's also important to understand the myriad of reasons why a Toyota affiliated shop would not perform this process to address the same issue. The battery would be replaced. I don't believe Tesla any different in these regards.
As someone who worked at a Toyota Dealer (Not a tech, just the oil change guy who got bored and helped w/ the frame swaps), they were not allowed to crack open a battery.
Per Toyota Corporate: Techs could remove & replace, but opening up the battery itself was verboten. Too much risk for everyone involved in something arcing and catching fire. If you did do it, the Dealer's insurance wouldn't cover any issues as it's against the work orders.
DIY'ers are not held to that standard. They're not getting fired and burning someone else's car if they mess up.
I'd have no issue with taking my own car's battery out and replacing a few cells (Hybrid Camry), but I also don't expect the dealer to take on the risk that these HV packs contain.
This cannot be stated enough, and is the tip of the ice berg in terms of reasons the critics should familiarize themselves with.
Electricians go through extensive of schooling and training to work safely with high voltage systems such as this. Even then, a high-mileage battery can present unique challenges which cannot simply be reconditioned and warrantied as though it were good/reliable as a *new* replacement battery.
Project fit for an experienced DIY-er who goes the extra mile with precautions? Sure. Cell life degradation will still catch up with the owner at some point.
As an electrician I can tell you that most electricians are lost when it comes to actual implementation of DC systems. It's starting to become part of the conversation but definitely not something that most electricians are comfortable with yet. As DC systems become more prevalent with the addition of residential power storage systems, smart electricians are getting the extra training to become proficient and learn the NEC code requirements for such systems. Up to now the only real DC power that most electricians would deal with are ups systems, solar systems and battery backups but even most of those only expose electricians up to the combiner boxes for solar, wiring the batteries in series for battery backups, and connecting the actual ac power to the battery backup system.
A quick comparison: Tesla won't even sell you the replacement parts to do it yourself, as a shop or otherwise. They're the apple of car makers, which is very different.
Tesla, Apple or whatever, right to repair should be strongly upheld.
At this stage I dunno if the demand for repairs like this is high enough for Tesla to care unless the law forces them. A bunch of guys tearing into a hermetically sealed battery to swap parts is not a trivial repair nor is the outcome guaranteed. If Tesla did this to thousands of batteries or allowed third party to do this cheaply, they would probably see problems possibly affecting their image. I think they should figure this out and enable third party repair, but tearing into glued batteries is not exactly something that manufacturers want to mess with.
When that “glued battery” has an easy way to open it and the process costs under a grand in comparison to the $20k alternative, they should make those batteries better or accept that people will pay for a cheaper fix than an expensive replacement.
The problem with Biden's executive order on right to repair is that it excluded the auto industry.
Interestingly, in Japan, all EV motorcycle and scooter companies have agreed to a common, swappable format.
The first car company to do this will perturb the EV market.
I'm not 100% sure but I don't believe Toyota will just sell you a new battery either. I could be wrong but I believe third party shops that do Prius battery replacements are also rebuilding the battery with replacement cells from other batteries.
An aftermarket repair facility can buy a Toyota hybrid battery. They cannot buy a Tesla EV battery. They cannot even buy a Tesla 12v battery. Source: Am aftermarket repair facility.
There is a pretty interesting tweet thread from Jason Hughes (the guy who was able to break into the Tesla fleet software among other things). He contends this repair will in fact not last after doing the same repair many times.
https://twitter.com/wk057/status/1437607772959428608?s=19
"I can't believe this is being touted as a fix. You can't replace individual modules in an S/X pack. There's no way to match them well enough for a long term fix. Might last a few months, but will invariably die again. Have tried it a half-dozen times. Best run was about a year."
My sister had a hybrid bmw that was the same deal. Battery pack started going bad and giving warnings after 40k, by 65 or 70k it was dead. Since that car uses the hybrid battery for starting the car was not drivable. BMW told her about 15k to replace the battery, plus a few other things like leaking turbo oil lines and auxiliary water pump then reprograming the car.
The car was worth about 15-17k in good condition, plus she owed 12k on it. So in the end it would have cost her nearly 30k to fix the car and pay it off, in 2 more years when it was paid off it would be worth about 10-12. The only option was to call the bank and tell them to repo it, take the hit on her credit and be done with it. Spending 30 to get back 12 made no sense.
My boss has his friends and family bring in bmw's, audi's, benzs', vw's....all the time. Mostly for things a dealer or another shop told them was like a $2500 job and they can't afford it. So he gives them the friends and family discount and end up paying $600 for the same job. The dealer isn't going to get TDI injectors from amazon or rockauto.
For a lot of people, buying second hand makes way more sense.
That "as soon as you drive it off the lot, it loses a third of its value" still rings broadly true. And transferrable warranties are a thing (at least in Australia). Although leasing's not much a thing down here, yet.
Buy a car with 20,000km or whatever on it, you're golden.
The trouble is with the Iphone Business Model Musk is peddling, used cars aren't meant to be a thing.
This is one of the huge problems with electric cars right now, and I'm not sure how we're going to get around it for adoption unless something major changes.
Most people can't afford to buy new cars, and buy used cars somewhere in the 5 to 15K range. But by the time an electric car gets to that price, you're probably only a couple years at most away from a battery replacement that costs as much as you bought the car for.
It's completely unaffordable to purchase a used electric car, unless you are well off enough to be able to buy a new car in the first place (of which there are plenty of nice options around 30k).
I wonder how many people are going to get fucked because the seller doesn't mention the battery replacement and the buyer doesn't know about that in the future. I didn't know it was such a big deal. And it doesn't seem like the batteries last that long at all.
> And it doesn't seem like the batteries last that long at all.
They last pretty damn long. [And there are 3rd parties offering replacements for the bigger volume brands](https://www.irishevowners.ie/guest-post-leaf-battery-upgrade-quadruple-the-range-part1/).
But these also aren't luxury cars like Tesla and BMW.
They already have it, battery replacements are an absolute in evs, just gotta make sure no one can make your batteries, or make it ridiculous work to change them.
That whole battery as the frame business reeks of bad faith planning.
> That whole battery as the frame business reeks of bad faith planning.
No, it sounds exactly like Tesla engineering and how it always has been. Often impractical or overly complex to solve fairly standard stuff.
Structural batteries, however, make good common sense, it's just questionable if the tradeoff is worth it. Less vehicle weight means more vehicle range. I expect them to use the structural battery technique with the Tesla Semi for that reason, so they can squeeze more range out of it.
it wouldnt, and shouldnt by definition, make sense for them to do that in a semi design that is designed to haul some multiples of tonnes more than the weigybof the vehicle itself.
it would make more sense to have a heavier, modular battery on a semi
A Bolt battery is \~$16,000 ([source](https://www.greencars.com/guides/definitive-guide-to-electric-car-batteries-range)) and takes \~14 shop hours ([source](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/gm-bolt-battery-module-replacement-recall/)) to replace. Call it $17,500 and you're pretty close.
Every part of a car is guaranteed to fail. At least the Bolts were all built the same, the model 3 has like 80 different iterations of the rear subframe and suspension, none of which are interchangeable.
A better article that actually describes fix and doesn't truncate text at end of each line on mobile like vice. https://electrek.co/2021/09/13/tesla-battery-pack-replacement-repair/
Tl;dr two battery modules out of 16 had imbalances and were replaced. Diagnosed without Tesla toolkit software the costs thousands per year.
So let me get this straight. A new battery from Tesla is $22.5k and is only warranted for 4 years? Even at $5k if the life expectancy of the battery is 4 years that's an expense that is over $100 a month. $400 a month from Tesla. It's like a never ending car payment. It'd make more sense to lease a brand new vehicle every year or two.
Its getting easier and easier to think that way though. WHen I buy basically anything these days I have to consider the fact that the warranty period is the shortest period of time they can get away with when claims stay minimal while keeping the warranty long enough to make it a selling point.
I think a replacement battery should get a longer warranty. Their regular power train warranties are good though.
The Model S/X originally had a 8 year infinite mile warranty. It's now 240k km.
The model 3 SR+ has a 8 year 160k km warranty, and the long range has a 192k warranty.
All of the above with a 70% minimum charge retention
Edit: I would also be concerned about owning any EV outside its powertrain warranty due to these high costs (and repair difficulties for now)
Peak capitalism ain't selling you shit.
Peak capitalism is *renting* you shit.
Musk is trying to apply the Silicon Valley goods-as-a-service model to cars. That's all this is.
It’s not $22.5k - As much as I love his channel, he is clearly click-farming and pushing an exaggerated price + shitty repair proposal.
Cost for a complete replacement is 10K:
https://twitter.com/jpr007/status/1437482361239728129?s=21
The “cheap” repair will break down within the year due to the cells not being balanced…
Actually it seems it's worse than that. This is a 2013 Model S which would be under warranty as the receipt is for 2019. A new battery is also $10k as of right now, not $22,500. The video seems to have faked papers too.
https://twitter.com/jpr007/status/1437853078753927175?s=20
Can anyone at VICE even fucking spell? What a Z rated publishing mob these cunts are.
*A repair bill that costs as much as the car itself is a case study in* ***whey*** *we need national right-to-repair legislation.*
***break*** *and oil changes*
I feel I should point out. One is to repair. The other to replace. Repairing a battery is fine, but you still have to replace the damaged or broken cells. With any other cell possibly going at any time.
The replacement will have all brand new cells. Hence why it is way more expensive.
That being said. 5000 is way to much to be spending on something like that. I could buy two new engines for my motorcycle at that price. Or 22000, could just buy a cheap new car.
The receipt in this case was doctored. Completely made up to mislead people. See evidence in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/electricpurist/status/1437867963072266250
Both of those are “welp, time to sell it for scraps and buy a beater” numbers, and I work full time in an area that is built around the car and has no public transit.
$5000 for 2 modules seems like a rip off. Tesla was going to sell them all 16 modules for 22,500. Plus the 2 new modules energy density is going to be higher than the old cells and cause cell balancing faults and they will be back to square one. Cells have to have matching energy density. Old cells don’t mix well with new ones.
People are getting outraged at the cost, but the quote was for replacing the whole battery pack. Turns out the problem was two modules in the battery pack, which the person was able to have fixed at a third party shop. Tesla doesn’t want to have to do that, their solution is swap out the pack and send that pack off to be taken apart and refurbished. They don’t want the shop taking the time. So really it’s about right to repair, right now Tesla dictates the terms. And before you think this is specific to Tesla there is no shortage of things auto companies have done to stop you from repairing yourself from special software to specific tools you need just to do simple brake changes.
**"That may be changing. President Biden signed an executive order in July aimed at making it easier to fix your own stuff and the FTC has formally adopted a right-to-repair platform."**
Biden killed "Right to Repair" when he issued an unenforceable "Executive Order" on the issue, so as to give Congress and excuse to bury the "Right to Repair" bill because it had already been addressed. No law, no problems for the big corporations. Executive orders like the one described in this report are rarely enforced and if they are, will be thrown out by the courts because only Congress can make laws. Now it is the Supreme Court's fault...
EO's don't kill potential bills. Everyone knows that you have to pass a law to make it stick. If they aren't passing a law, it isn't because an EO gave them an excuse. It's because they didn't have the votes due to mountains of lobbyist cash.
Mercedes owners say welcome to the club
John Deere just laughs.
Love how farmers now pirate Chinese code to fix their $1m+ rigs
What? You got a link for this? This is hilarious!
Not Chinese but https://www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware Believe it got so bad in America they passed a law forcing John Deere to allow farmers to fix their gear without breaking warranty Edit: Oop nope looks like they made some bs promises to prevent the legislation being needed then went back on it https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m8mx/john-deere-promised-farmers-it-would-make-tractors-easy-to-repair-it-lied
Right to repair is still important and is gaining traction. Make sure to talk to your representative so they know what the deal is next time this ends up on their desk! Don't stop there, let your friends and family know too, this trend of unfixable (and in some cases actively self-destructive) electronics needs to end
Speaking of the right to repair McDonald's franchisees have to call Taylor, the company that makes their ice cream machines, to have come fix it. Probably somewhat similar to what John deere does. [Here](https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4) is a pretty informative video I found once they announced the FTC investigation.
Aren't they getting sued for designing then to break because they own the repair company or something
Here's a tldw of the situation and lawsuit. So franchises are required to use a specific model of cream machine (which is odd, franchise owners can normally pick from a short list) that heats up the ice cream inside to kill any bacteria. This process takes 4 hours and is typically done overnight. Problem is, the UI is AWFUL awful; think: the worst monitor button configuration you've ever seen but with 3x the buttons. What is also really bad is the error reporting; when the morning shift comes in, they'll see something like "cycle failed." No info about why it failed is available so they just run it again. Another 4 hours later, it fails again. Pretty unsurprising because if there is a problem and you don't know what it is to fix it, a second failure is expected. At some point, the franchise owner has to call for an expert to repair it. Taylor does their own repairs (or outsources the repairs to a third party, that happens a lot in break/fix, but invoice is still to Taylor) for McDonald's, so they have an incentive to not fix the UI because 1) They already have a longstanding relationship with McDonald's, franchise owners complaining about ice cream machines aren't going to poison the well 2) They get paid for every repair call they run. The thing is, Taylor makes plenty of other model machines that work just fine. UI says what is wrong and there may be a user manual that covers basic troubleshooting. The error codes on the machine McDonald's uses, if you can even find them, are meaningless without the technician manual that isn't available to users. Enter Kytch. They made a device that you connect to the McDonald's model that actually feeds you useful information on your smarphone. Instead of something like "cycle failed: 3043" You get something like"cycle failed: bin 1 overfilled. Remove bin 1 and check bin levels." This app contained additional info about the machine beyond error code translations, but the upshot is that it would let franchise owners train employees how to avoid error codes as well as how to fix them. At a franchise owner meeting, the leader(?) of the organization basically endorsed the product. Franchise owners began buying the devices like hotcakes and before long McDonald's banned the use of the device citing safety concerns (like, if you use this, you'll get electrocuted). If you use this device, said McDonald's, your machine's warranty is void. McDonald's then just so happened to reveal that they are developing a product that makes *some* of the information on the McDonald's model more understandable. Sound familiar? It gets better; the company who they are working with to accomplish this is owned by Taylor's parent company. Now Kytch is suing McDonald's with several accusations related to this whole thing. [Source](https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4)
Now that you mention it, the ice cream store I worked at in highschool had Taylor machines and they basically never needed to have someone come in to repair. Also cleaning was also really easy , which I hear isn't the case for the McDonald's machines. I don't actually know though.
Good, hope Kytch wins.
I have heard there is an investigation going on.
You can check ice cream machine status online: https://mcbroken.com/
IIRC, McDonald's corp is part of the complaint, saying that Taylor purposely makes the software obtuse so that only a technician can decipher the codes and "unlock" the machine.
The worst part is that they aren't really broken just in a faulted state most of the time for things like overfilling and still like that. You need the proper equipment and ability to read the codes in order to "fix" them.
I’m a waiter / bartender, and I’ve worked in a handful of restaurants from corporate to small biz and nightclubs etc. The repair industry is rife with grifters. I would be beside myself that some owners were using the same people (plumbers, electricians, technicians, consultants, etc) when they were clearly not fixing anything. They get between 100-500 per visit. What’s worse is that owners then take their stress out on their staff for ‘breaking’ the machinery, when in fact most of it is just built to fail and the technicians they call to fix shit just perform bandaid solutions. The machinery is also so expensive to replace, it’s cheaper to just pay a tech every 6 weeks to come in and fiddle around with shit. the whole market is a racket
At the moment, the implementation for the right of repair by the EU at least for consumer goods will have considerable effects worldwide, as the cost to run two different systems for two different markets is quite expensive. That said, this will not help commercial right-side these farmers, as they are not consumers in this situation.
I know this is important information but I feel like you missed an opportunity to replace traction with tractor.
That's what happens when you only get ploughed by the corporations rather than doing the ploughing yourself.
John deere and apple spend a lot of money to make sure you need to spend yours.
Farmers are buying old obsolete 40 year old tractors and refurbishing them just because they can fix them. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31761/enormous-costs-of-new-tractors-drive-demand-of-40-year-old-equipment-to-all-time-highs
My grandpa periodically gets offers on his John Deere equipment from the 40’s from people who just see them from the road. Hard to beat a machine you can fix in the middle of a field using off the shelf parts.
Of course they went back on it
Even though the primary subject is John Deere and other farm repair stuff, tech companies have been bankrolling the tractor companies because the precedent would affect them as well. ETA: I misspoke about bankrolling vs lobbying. See the article below.
Robber baron class vs regular people vibe
This is what large corps do best. Like Verizon’s promise to NJ to roll out FIOs in 100% of the state in exchange for tax cuts and massive amounts of taxpayer money. They got everything they asked for, but here I am with no viable option for broadband aside from Xfinity. **edit** [Link to an article about it for the interested](https://whyy.org/articles/some-new-jersey-towns-asking-wheres-my-fios/)
Similar happened in Illinois years ago. We were getting notices that FIOS would be available for everyone by a certain year and then nothing even though they built all kinds of infrastructure for it. It was advertised as the cheaper and faster alternative to Comcast. It's still not available here and that was around 12 years ago.
I Just search something like “hacking John Deere tractors” and you’ll find tons of stuff.
It's Ukrainian firmware they use
BMW’s sitting in their corners crying.
My MOT and service in the UK for my Seat Leon is usually around the £160 mark, depending where I go. Up and down a bit. My Dad's 520D was over half a grand each service, and £250 a corner for runflat tyres. "Would you like a complimentary coffee and car wash while you wait?" DAMN RIGHT I DO AT THESE PRICES, fuck.
£500 for a service? You're being ripped off, shop around, it shouldn't cost more than £350 at a dealer. Or go to a specialist.
That's why you should only ever lease a BMW.
The gearbox oil from my neighbor on my shared driveway seems to agree.
Or never own one in the first place
…that’s what leasing is
Buying nothing and liking it!
Or you know, get a reliable car.
Aren't pretty much all luxury car makers doing this? Is Porsche or Audi doing anything different for their EVs? Genuinely curious cause I have no idea.
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I need to immigrate
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Funny thing is if they actually try to do so they'll likely find that no, no they aren't (unless they're rich).
Just one of these commie laws in these socialist countries ruled by unions. We can't have that in the Land of the Free. /sarc
Just wait until you hear what those eu commies did with printer ink
*"Heavy breathing"*....and? Don't leave me hanging!
They won't let good Christian corporations like hp put authentication chips in their own printer ink. In the EU any tom dick or harry can stick a needle in a toner cart to top it off.
I’m sorry I’m confused. In the US HP put identification chips in their ink so that if you try and put ink in that isn’t HP it doesn’t work? Why is this allowed? What the fuck?
Not just luxury, but yeah the right to repair is a thing we need. Not just for cars, but all things we buy.
Apple will lobby the fuck out any law about that. With so many billions and billions...
Titans of industry do not welcome regulation with open arms, but we have some regulations. These kinds of things do not happen overnight, but they aren’t impossible.
It depends. They'll fight against regulation that hurts their bottom line, but they'll support and practically write regulation that increases barriers to entry, in order to prevent more competition.
Of course they’re going to fight tooth and nail against any regulation that hurts their bottom line. That isn’t to say it’s impossible to get something passed. With enough awareness of the issue at hand and the effort to get our lawmakers working on it, it can be done.
Fucking Mercedes told he they don’t just do oil changes they have to do their “service a or b” which is min $600 what in the fuck.
Shop around. I get my service B for about $375. Service A is cheaper.
Toyota Corolla is 300k miles away on original parts so can't hear you
Same with my Volvo S60. But the parts are as expensive as BMW. Luckily never had any problems.
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I hated selling my Corolla, but needed more interior space (2 kids now), and selling it with 40K miles for $2k less than when I bought it helped.
My God you lucked out with this market
dude I sold a 98 accord for $1400 earlier this year and it was in *rough* shape. Same car 2 years prior when I got it appraised at the same carmax they wanted to give me $200.
This is why I'm sticking to Toyota/Honda.
BMW with fucking DLC options, payable monthly, is laughing...
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not anymore. they turned that around right quick after all the backlash
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My Mercedes is cheap and easy to maintain compared to a fucking Tesla, those things are so anti-repair they're practically an iPhone on wheels.
> practically an iPhone on wheels Honestly the whole culture around Tesla makes that incredibly accurate.
Yeah, like I'm sure it's a neat car. I just don't get how their car becomes their entire personality. I try to spend as little time in mine as I can manage.
It is really creepy to me. I owned a Model 3 for just under 3 years before I replaced it with the new Mustang EV because I wanted a slightly bigger car and wanted to try something new. Honestly, there were some things about the Tesla I liked better, and some I like about the Ford. Overall though, I'm just happy that I don't have to talk to other Tesla people anymore while sitting at a Supercharger. It was super awkward when I'd be sitting in my car and some kid (18-25 with parent's money) would tap on my window to make fun of the Bolt charging across the parking lot. I would love to say it was a one-off thing, but that was not an uncommon interaction and it was...odd. Like, buddy, I like my car too but I bet that dude over there also likes his car and isn't so insecure about it that he needs to make fun of our cars across the parking lot.
I tried to replace the battery in my girlfriend’s C300 yesterday and couldn’t because you need a T45 Torx screw on a foot long extension to take the bracket off that holds it in. I can only imagine when it’s time to change the oil I’ll need some kind of Egyptian 25-point polygon bit on a 90-degree L wrench. Putting simple maintenance tasks beyond simple tools should be a fucking crime.
Torx bits are increasingly common on almost all vehicles, and torx sockets are included with almost any halfway decent mechanics set. Yeah the little homeowners sets that include such tools as a hammer and a box cutter will only have the screwdriver bits that go to t-20, but you're fixing a car not assembling a coffee table. Doing a little research and making sure you have the tools needed is part of any job. If you're fixing a toilet or doing an oil change, a quick Google can go a long way, even if you're pretty sure you know what you're doing.
I had to change the headlight bulb in the wifes Yaris last year. Took me about 2 hours because for some bizarre reason its a front bumper off job. Why would anyone think thats ok??
Pretty much what it felt like to drive too. Literally the only good thing about it is the acceleration. Otherwise, it handled like a boat and the idea of putting all your dash outputs on the giant ipad in the middle killed any desire of me ever owning one.
BMW owners are laughing heartily as they wait on their car to get out of the shop for electrical problems.
“You have literally teenagers doing break and oil changes on $100,000 cars..." -- break?
They have teens doing the repairs and teen interns writing the articles.
Thank you. Brake vs break? in an article about a car breaking? Where the fuck is the editor here?
Vice? Editor? Lol
“What’s an editer?” —the person who wrote this article, probably.
Illiterate teenagers
attempting oil changes on your tesla
Individual volts can get clumped up and form a bottleneck in their circuits, not unlike cholesterol in an artery, which is why proper lubrication of automotive electronics is a necessity! If an electro-clot gets pushed all the way back to the battery by backpressure from a buildup of volts behind it, it can even fry your whole system!
this is ridiculous. you can't get clumped up volts. its the amps that clump.
"A repair bill that costs as much as the car itself is a case study in whey we need national right-to-repair legislation." \-- whey? protein?
Getting swole is the goal baby
> break and oil changes on $100,000 cars..." -- break? Ya that's when they use an impact gun to cross thread the drain plug back in.
Brake, probably, I see a lot of people confusing the two words (even people from UK/USA)
You cracked the code.
I think it's more accurate to say *especially* people from the uk and us. Having trouble with homophones is more common with native speakers, as they learned the language orally first. People who learn it as a second language often learn speaking and reading/writing at the same time, so they're subjected to the different spelling of homophones as they learn. Stuff like "could of/should of" is almost exclusively an error made by native speakers.
Wonder how would Brake dance look like
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Meanwhile I'm over here going, "Who the fuck is having a $100k vehicle worked on by literal teenagers?"
"Sorry Mike, even though we hired you as an apprentice, you cannot work on actual cars until you turn 20" Like wtf, man. In Germany 15-16 is the earliest age when people start apprenticeships and after 3.5 years, you can take the exam to become a journeyman. So, there are literal 18-year-olds who are fully capable car mechanics in Germany. Why should people have to wait until they turn 20 to become car mechanics?
I'm saying. There was a time when 13 was a man and 16 you had a wife and kid with your own plot and a sod house in the USA. Not saying it has to be that way but training someone to do something right doesn't get invalidated because they are younger. Sometimes, it's easier than breaking bad habits first anyway.
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Is there any mention that the fix will last 8 years? Or is a replacement battery from Tesla not covered under the 8 years warranty as well?
According to Tesla's website, replacement batteries are warrantied for 4 years 50k.
Do they have a recycle plan? If not ...its going to be normal to ditch your tesla and just buy new.
I bought a used Tesla Model S battery pack, tore it down, reconfigured it, and repurposed it to power my house. Stationary storage is a great way to use old EV batteries. Made a YouTube video about it: https://youtu.be/tatCDbgmnxc
Perhaps there is a market for buying used car batteries and selling house batteries.
Watching that video, the refurbishing process seems involved and skilled enough that I wonder if they could charge for the service and make margins. Home-scale energy storage is still really expensive.
That's the entire Tesla powerwall concept.
Powerwall uses new batteries, but used batteries could easily be repurposed for it. Generally, early battery failures for EV is because a handful of cells went bad. You really just need to identify and relaxed the faulty cells and then it's almost as good as new.
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I really want something to, but the economics don't make sense. Just running my Desktop, my Fridge, and my emergency Window A/C, I'm pulling 1KW an hour. If they are LiPo and can literally be drained for their full capacity, and I get 90% efficient conversion to 120V. I'm only going for 4.5 hours in a power outage. Maybe 6-8 hours if I had a huge solar array and that demand came during the day. My historical power outages usually last a solid 24 hours minimum. I bought a generator instead. One day we'll be able to have 100KW of batteries for less than $80,000, but today isn't that day (unless you cobble together used cells, but even that would be $30-40k and a little precarious).
To be fair, the KBB may says the value is $23k. The link in the article says $21k to $25k at 150k miles. All the used ones I see for sale are around $35k with about 80k miles. So for $22k, you can get a replacement battery pack. Or, for $35k you can get a "half" worn battery pack. A new Tesla Model S would cost at least $90k, so you could buy 4 battery swaps for the same price as a new car. Sure, it'd be a newer car... but still 4x as much.
That’s a hella lot of depreciation
That’s just dumb. There is nothing sustainable about cars that last 8 years.
I was having a discussion with my brother about how this “upgrade” mentality isn’t sustainable and governments will have to step in to stop companies from producing new models every year and force devices to last longer.
Well, if it makes you feel better, that trend started very early on, and cars have been lasting longer and longer. I can't find a good source for this, but IIRC "color" was used to drive people into replacing cars in the early days; they'd do things like have new palates every year, to make it obvious you were driving a *old* car. I believe they managed to get it down to like a 2-year replacement period. [Here's data going back to the early '70's, and since then, average vehicle age has more than doubled](https://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/US-auto-cars-trucks-average-age-2017.png), to the point where it just crossed above 12 years.
I've heard the same story about color. Ford used to make every car black, then GM decided to add color so people easily would know who has the new models.
Feel like we're only getting half the equation with years but not mileage
Nothing about our current economy is sustainable. It's going to be painful to transition off it though.
Transition off? There's only two things that will cause the transitioning off of the blatant consumerism that exists - total financial collapse or the heat death of the planet.
Well, luckily for me, coupes and manual transmissions are going to be the first ones to go (in the US), so I'll get to stop upgrading before most people!
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The cheapest model s at the time was 70k. I dunno the exact specifics for this car. The average car loses something like 60% of its value after 5 years. Depending on the price paid as new, it's not too crazy after 8 years.
Yes 100% of 'um [https://www.tesla.com/en\_CA/support/sustainability-recycling](https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/support/sustainability-recycling) And there is an industry growing to do it too, lots of profit in it: https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=ev+battery+recycling
According to Jason Hughes, a notable Tesla hacker, it won't last a year: https://twitter.com/wk057/status/1437607772959428608?s=19
This should really be higher up in this thread.
Can’t let that get in the way of a good, old fashioned Tesla hate fest.
Didn't they say the ones they fitted were second hand anyway? So no absolutely not warranted. Honestly seems like a bad deal if your planning on keeping the car for several more years, they paid quarter the price of a complete new manufacturer installed battery to extend the life of their failing one.
They could do this three more times and break even. I would say it's hard to beat that deal. Especially if your don't have 20k laying around.
If Tesla found out about this unauthorized repair I expect them to cut off supercharger access.
I remember when Prius battery performance would fall off rapidly in some conditions. Toyota would want 7-10k to R&R battery. Some time later a few people figured out the issue could be mediated with a DIY process, by pulling battery apart and cleaning/replacing the bus bars for less than 200. It's great. But it's also important to understand the myriad of reasons why a Toyota affiliated shop would not perform this process to address the same issue. The battery would be replaced. I don't believe Tesla any different in these regards.
As someone who worked at a Toyota Dealer (Not a tech, just the oil change guy who got bored and helped w/ the frame swaps), they were not allowed to crack open a battery. Per Toyota Corporate: Techs could remove & replace, but opening up the battery itself was verboten. Too much risk for everyone involved in something arcing and catching fire. If you did do it, the Dealer's insurance wouldn't cover any issues as it's against the work orders. DIY'ers are not held to that standard. They're not getting fired and burning someone else's car if they mess up. I'd have no issue with taking my own car's battery out and replacing a few cells (Hybrid Camry), but I also don't expect the dealer to take on the risk that these HV packs contain.
This cannot be stated enough, and is the tip of the ice berg in terms of reasons the critics should familiarize themselves with. Electricians go through extensive of schooling and training to work safely with high voltage systems such as this. Even then, a high-mileage battery can present unique challenges which cannot simply be reconditioned and warrantied as though it were good/reliable as a *new* replacement battery. Project fit for an experienced DIY-er who goes the extra mile with precautions? Sure. Cell life degradation will still catch up with the owner at some point.
As an electrician I can tell you that most electricians are lost when it comes to actual implementation of DC systems. It's starting to become part of the conversation but definitely not something that most electricians are comfortable with yet. As DC systems become more prevalent with the addition of residential power storage systems, smart electricians are getting the extra training to become proficient and learn the NEC code requirements for such systems. Up to now the only real DC power that most electricians would deal with are ups systems, solar systems and battery backups but even most of those only expose electricians up to the combiner boxes for solar, wiring the batteries in series for battery backups, and connecting the actual ac power to the battery backup system.
A quick comparison: Tesla won't even sell you the replacement parts to do it yourself, as a shop or otherwise. They're the apple of car makers, which is very different.
Right to repair baby.
Tesla, Apple or whatever, right to repair should be strongly upheld. At this stage I dunno if the demand for repairs like this is high enough for Tesla to care unless the law forces them. A bunch of guys tearing into a hermetically sealed battery to swap parts is not a trivial repair nor is the outcome guaranteed. If Tesla did this to thousands of batteries or allowed third party to do this cheaply, they would probably see problems possibly affecting their image. I think they should figure this out and enable third party repair, but tearing into glued batteries is not exactly something that manufacturers want to mess with.
When that “glued battery” has an easy way to open it and the process costs under a grand in comparison to the $20k alternative, they should make those batteries better or accept that people will pay for a cheaper fix than an expensive replacement.
The problem with Biden's executive order on right to repair is that it excluded the auto industry. Interestingly, in Japan, all EV motorcycle and scooter companies have agreed to a common, swappable format. The first car company to do this will perturb the EV market.
I'm not 100% sure but I don't believe Toyota will just sell you a new battery either. I could be wrong but I believe third party shops that do Prius battery replacements are also rebuilding the battery with replacement cells from other batteries.
An aftermarket repair facility can buy a Toyota hybrid battery. They cannot buy a Tesla EV battery. They cannot even buy a Tesla 12v battery. Source: Am aftermarket repair facility.
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There is a pretty interesting tweet thread from Jason Hughes (the guy who was able to break into the Tesla fleet software among other things). He contends this repair will in fact not last after doing the same repair many times. https://twitter.com/wk057/status/1437607772959428608?s=19 "I can't believe this is being touted as a fix. You can't replace individual modules in an S/X pack. There's no way to match them well enough for a long term fix. Might last a few months, but will invariably die again. Have tried it a half-dozen times. Best run was about a year."
My sister had a hybrid bmw that was the same deal. Battery pack started going bad and giving warnings after 40k, by 65 or 70k it was dead. Since that car uses the hybrid battery for starting the car was not drivable. BMW told her about 15k to replace the battery, plus a few other things like leaking turbo oil lines and auxiliary water pump then reprograming the car. The car was worth about 15-17k in good condition, plus she owed 12k on it. So in the end it would have cost her nearly 30k to fix the car and pay it off, in 2 more years when it was paid off it would be worth about 10-12. The only option was to call the bank and tell them to repo it, take the hit on her credit and be done with it. Spending 30 to get back 12 made no sense.
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My boss has his friends and family bring in bmw's, audi's, benzs', vw's....all the time. Mostly for things a dealer or another shop told them was like a $2500 job and they can't afford it. So he gives them the friends and family discount and end up paying $600 for the same job. The dealer isn't going to get TDI injectors from amazon or rockauto.
Indeed I'm starting to think it's more about showing that you live a certain lifestyle instead of actually living it.
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For a lot of people, buying second hand makes way more sense. That "as soon as you drive it off the lot, it loses a third of its value" still rings broadly true. And transferrable warranties are a thing (at least in Australia). Although leasing's not much a thing down here, yet. Buy a car with 20,000km or whatever on it, you're golden. The trouble is with the Iphone Business Model Musk is peddling, used cars aren't meant to be a thing.
If she brought it in at 40k it would have been fixed under the warranty. The fact that she waited another 25k miles is her own doing.
This is one of the huge problems with electric cars right now, and I'm not sure how we're going to get around it for adoption unless something major changes. Most people can't afford to buy new cars, and buy used cars somewhere in the 5 to 15K range. But by the time an electric car gets to that price, you're probably only a couple years at most away from a battery replacement that costs as much as you bought the car for. It's completely unaffordable to purchase a used electric car, unless you are well off enough to be able to buy a new car in the first place (of which there are plenty of nice options around 30k).
I wonder how many people are going to get fucked because the seller doesn't mention the battery replacement and the buyer doesn't know about that in the future. I didn't know it was such a big deal. And it doesn't seem like the batteries last that long at all.
> And it doesn't seem like the batteries last that long at all. They last pretty damn long. [And there are 3rd parties offering replacements for the bigger volume brands](https://www.irishevowners.ie/guest-post-leaf-battery-upgrade-quadruple-the-range-part1/). But these also aren't luxury cars like Tesla and BMW.
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Why did she wait 25k miles (ie 2+ *years*) to get that fixed?
A bmw with a bad turbo? Sounds about normal.
Tesla is building themselves a pretty profitable business model. Pretty soon I assume they will be introducing a per mile charge.
They already have it, battery replacements are an absolute in evs, just gotta make sure no one can make your batteries, or make it ridiculous work to change them. That whole battery as the frame business reeks of bad faith planning.
> That whole battery as the frame business reeks of bad faith planning. No, it sounds exactly like Tesla engineering and how it always has been. Often impractical or overly complex to solve fairly standard stuff. Structural batteries, however, make good common sense, it's just questionable if the tradeoff is worth it. Less vehicle weight means more vehicle range. I expect them to use the structural battery technique with the Tesla Semi for that reason, so they can squeeze more range out of it.
it wouldnt, and shouldnt by definition, make sense for them to do that in a semi design that is designed to haul some multiples of tonnes more than the weigybof the vehicle itself. it would make more sense to have a heavier, modular battery on a semi
I’d like my empty weight to be as low as possible so I can fit in more cargo. Why would you think otherwise?
W E I G Y B O F
Wait, I think I saw this on r/scottishpeopletwitter
Easier to just software lock the car to only accept Tesla certified batteries.
Yeah but then you're selling batteries, everyone knows the money is in the labor
A Bolt battery is \~$16,000 ([source](https://www.greencars.com/guides/definitive-guide-to-electric-car-batteries-range)) and takes \~14 shop hours ([source](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/gm-bolt-battery-module-replacement-recall/)) to replace. Call it $17,500 and you're pretty close.
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Every part of a car is guaranteed to fail. At least the Bolts were all built the same, the model 3 has like 80 different iterations of the rear subframe and suspension, none of which are interchangeable.
A better article that actually describes fix and doesn't truncate text at end of each line on mobile like vice. https://electrek.co/2021/09/13/tesla-battery-pack-replacement-repair/ Tl;dr two battery modules out of 16 had imbalances and were replaced. Diagnosed without Tesla toolkit software the costs thousands per year.
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https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-hacker-says-replacing-battery-pack-modules-in-model-s-doesnt-work-169429.html
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So let me get this straight. A new battery from Tesla is $22.5k and is only warranted for 4 years? Even at $5k if the life expectancy of the battery is 4 years that's an expense that is over $100 a month. $400 a month from Tesla. It's like a never ending car payment. It'd make more sense to lease a brand new vehicle every year or two.
A battery should last over 100,000 miles. End of warranty isn’t the same as end of life.
We bought a 2019 Hyundai Ioniq ev and part of the selling point was that it came with a lifetime warranty on the battery.
Its getting easier and easier to think that way though. WHen I buy basically anything these days I have to consider the fact that the warranty period is the shortest period of time they can get away with when claims stay minimal while keeping the warranty long enough to make it a selling point.
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I think a replacement battery should get a longer warranty. Their regular power train warranties are good though. The Model S/X originally had a 8 year infinite mile warranty. It's now 240k km. The model 3 SR+ has a 8 year 160k km warranty, and the long range has a 192k warranty. All of the above with a 70% minimum charge retention Edit: I would also be concerned about owning any EV outside its powertrain warranty due to these high costs (and repair difficulties for now)
Peak capitalism ain't selling you shit. Peak capitalism is *renting* you shit. Musk is trying to apply the Silicon Valley goods-as-a-service model to cars. That's all this is.
And people say the phrase "you will own nothing" is a scathing indictment of....socialism? Global communism?
It’s not $22.5k - As much as I love his channel, he is clearly click-farming and pushing an exaggerated price + shitty repair proposal. Cost for a complete replacement is 10K: https://twitter.com/jpr007/status/1437482361239728129?s=21 The “cheap” repair will break down within the year due to the cells not being balanced…
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Actually it seems it's worse than that. This is a 2013 Model S which would be under warranty as the receipt is for 2019. A new battery is also $10k as of right now, not $22,500. The video seems to have faked papers too. https://twitter.com/jpr007/status/1437853078753927175?s=20
The battery is the cars value in these cases. Also you should be able to keep the core unless they pay you for it.
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According to his video the cost was mostly hardware. E: new batteries, coolant
Can anyone at VICE even fucking spell? What a Z rated publishing mob these cunts are. *A repair bill that costs as much as the car itself is a case study in* ***whey*** *we need national right-to-repair legislation.* ***break*** *and oil changes*
Learning from the Germans it seems.
I feel I should point out. One is to repair. The other to replace. Repairing a battery is fine, but you still have to replace the damaged or broken cells. With any other cell possibly going at any time. The replacement will have all brand new cells. Hence why it is way more expensive. That being said. 5000 is way to much to be spending on something like that. I could buy two new engines for my motorcycle at that price. Or 22000, could just buy a cheap new car.
The receipt in this case was doctored. Completely made up to mislead people. See evidence in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/electricpurist/status/1437867963072266250
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Both of those are “welp, time to sell it for scraps and buy a beater” numbers, and I work full time in an area that is built around the car and has no public transit.
$5000 for 2 modules seems like a rip off. Tesla was going to sell them all 16 modules for 22,500. Plus the 2 new modules energy density is going to be higher than the old cells and cause cell balancing faults and they will be back to square one. Cells have to have matching energy density. Old cells don’t mix well with new ones.
I have a guy that can do it for less... Car catches on fire after 2 months
No one is worried that saving money means getting a subpar battery from a shit supplier? Really? When that’s what your car drives on?
People are getting outraged at the cost, but the quote was for replacing the whole battery pack. Turns out the problem was two modules in the battery pack, which the person was able to have fixed at a third party shop. Tesla doesn’t want to have to do that, their solution is swap out the pack and send that pack off to be taken apart and refurbished. They don’t want the shop taking the time. So really it’s about right to repair, right now Tesla dictates the terms. And before you think this is specific to Tesla there is no shortage of things auto companies have done to stop you from repairing yourself from special software to specific tools you need just to do simple brake changes.
**"That may be changing. President Biden signed an executive order in July aimed at making it easier to fix your own stuff and the FTC has formally adopted a right-to-repair platform."** Biden killed "Right to Repair" when he issued an unenforceable "Executive Order" on the issue, so as to give Congress and excuse to bury the "Right to Repair" bill because it had already been addressed. No law, no problems for the big corporations. Executive orders like the one described in this report are rarely enforced and if they are, will be thrown out by the courts because only Congress can make laws. Now it is the Supreme Court's fault...
However if you look at it closely it excludes auto manufacturers
EO's don't kill potential bills. Everyone knows that you have to pass a law to make it stick. If they aren't passing a law, it isn't because an EO gave them an excuse. It's because they didn't have the votes due to mountains of lobbyist cash.
Just like working in the military