I watched that one earlier today, What stood out for me was all the information the systems gather and send to JD about yields and such. The farmers information is no longer just in his books, but in JD's servers as well. So not only do the systems not allow 3rd party access for repairs, but they gather information for marketing use without compensating the farmers. When your $150K combine just shuts down halfway through harvest on a Friday night with a storm coming and you need to harvest the field before it gets covered in snow, you won't get a tech out for quite some time and just for the tech to show it's $1000, plus hourly, plus diagnostic fees, plus parts, and if parts are not in stock, you a SOL.
Thats the gist of the whole issue right there. At least on our cars and truck, it throws a standard code that is industry wide standard, and there is plenty of information on the webs to self diagnose and repair it. The JD software diagnostics wont GIVE a code, but tell the operator to call the dealer for service. That is Bullshiznit of the highest level.
Yes..but there is a corollary in the modern auto systems… For example, if you authorize it in almost all cases….and in the newest vehicles even if you don’t authorize it…. Data is gathered to be used by Insurance underwriters to “rate” your risks and premiums.
For now, most insurance underwriters will offer you a “discount” for “safe” driving habits if you’ll allow them to access your vehicle software support system. For example, if you live in a rural area and never visit the big-city you may be offered a lower premium.
Conversely, if your very-recently-equipped vehicle is activated, your habit of consistently driving 30 in 20 mph school-zones and 75-80 on the hwy …as well as your “route chosen” …. will be observed.
If you are in an accident…the sim-card in your vehicle may be accessed by the police, the insurer, and the courts to determine culpability or place blame.
When I bought my 2012 Pickup in Jan ‘13 it was equipped with a “theft-deterrent“ system which would “ping” into the cell-phone-tower network allow me to “track” my vehicle if it moved more than 100 meters…as well as to allow law-enforcement to track a thief. That system was promoted by the dealer as one of the “perks” of buying that truck over other brands/models.
I told the dealer I wasn’t interested in that and wouldn’t pay the extra ($180-? if I recall correctly).
He next told me “Yes, but if your teenage daughter or wife is out where you don’t want her you’ll be able to know about it.”
I told ”Mo”….that I didn’t need to worry about untrustworthy women family members in my family. (I noticed He had a Persian-prayer-rug along the Eastern wall of his office.… Perhaps his attitude toward trustworthiness of women was different than mine.)
Anyway… I bought the truck and got it home (300 miles South) …and decided that if I were a dealer worried about needing to re-possess a financed-vehicle …or one that had moved off my dealership-lot… perhaps getting a “ping” about its’ location might be useful…. But I didn’t like the idea of anyone tracking me in my own vehicle.
So I called the device-mfr’r and asked them for information on how to disable it. (Contact info was in the vehicle owners’ packet.) The device mfr’r representative told me in Firm Tones that the device was permanent, and not to be tampered with…. and refused to give me information on it. (The vehicle instruction-pkg also described how to activate the GPS On-Star type of customer-service feature of the device by pressing the small cell-phone-icon button beside the steering-column.)
I asked his name and he gave it…. and I then told the mfr’r-representative that “I am the OWNER of this vehicle.… I paid FULL price for this vehicle…including ownership of the device… and I wanted to have the entire serivce/technology/repair info package on the device. He told me it would require a ”properly trained and equipped electronics-technician” to make any repairs or alterations and that could only be accessed back thru the dealership and that if I tampered with it my vehicle would become disabled and require a tow-truck to the dealership.
I then told him I was an aircraft avionics technician… (a lie) … and I fully understand such devices and unless he wished his company sued and himself personally NAMED in the suit that he should provide me with the repair/service package on the device.
He folded…and told me the device was hidden beneath the glareshield, just above the steering column, behind the instrument cluster…and emailed me the PDF file containing the installation instructions.
If you’re still reading this long-winded story…. I got upside-down and using a mirror found the GPS antenna and little “black box” that drove the system and followed its wiring-harness down to the OBDII-reader plug…where it replaced the OEM reader-plug …and had the OEM-reader-plug inserted into the device-harness. (They had simply stuck the device reader-plug into the OEM bracket and then plugged the OEM plug in-series to the device harness.) It was a simple “plug and play” installation…just in a hidden area.
I removed that device completely…the OBDII plug, harness, black-box, and GPS/Cell antenna…and threw it in the trash…. and re-installed the factory OBDII plug by snapping it back into it’s original factory bracket just-beneath the dash.
Just another example of what’s happening in the world these days.
