As cars have evolved over the years, the technology aboard has become more and more advanced, making it nearly impossible for some independent mechanics to properly diagnose a problem in a car and correctly identify what repair needs to take place. For this reason some automakers are lobbying to have the repair and maintenance of these advanced vehicles limited to only dealerships and protected by the U.S. Copyright Office as an intellectual property. Doing this would put many independent mechanics out of business and allow dealerships to charge much higher prices for maintenance and repair, which is already very expensive.
Older models have been cars that many of us who enjoy turning a wrench or working with our hands have found solace in by fixing them up. Nothing gives many gear heads a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure more than hearing the rumble of an engine as it comes to life for the first time, but we really aren’t discussing kit cars or older models that can still be rebuilt and restored by any one of us in our home garage, we are instead talking about the newer models that have so many computerized systems is nearly impossible to fart in the car without a fresh scent deodorizer kicking into action.
What Does the Future Look Like?
The frightening part is without proper training independent mechanics will quickly be out of business if a protection is passed that makes car maintenance and repair a thing of the past for them and dealerships will then gain all the business. Local mechanics like Lyndhurst NJ auto repair have a strong track record of fixing cars inexpensively and with precision. Even though that is a bit scary from a business standpoint, even more frightening is the notion that these independents won’t be able to handle the repairs anymore, which is most likely the case. As computers have taken over the systems of the car the next step seems to be having the car actually connect and communicate on the cloud.
Currently that particular part of the equation still seems to be far off as there will be a necessary litany of firewalls and security protections before a car can be linked to any digital cloud or internet. Not only will this connection be difficult to complete, but only certain systems will be able to be connected. One example of a fearful scenario would be if the braking system was connected and downloading an update when in the middle of this update you need to brake and are unable to because the system is off line at the time; that would be treacherous indeed.
How to Stay in Business
Until the way cars can be connected to a cloud system and have updates downloaded to them is not only fully protected from security breaches but also from the ability to cause delays, we should not expect our vehicles to be connected to a cloud system, but it could be occurring very soon. In the meantime, the independent mechanics need to be protected in some way and proper training needs to be put in place to not only provide healthy competition for the service departments of dealerships, but also to help keep them in business which might legitimately overrun a dealership service department should the independents have to close down.
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