---
title: "Right to repair reaches cars and runs into the software"
description: "Independent garages have spent decades adapting to new hardware. The obstacle now is data: on many electric vehicles the diagnostic information flows back to the manufacturer, and the aftermarket cannot see it."
category: "Companies"
category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies
author: "Sofia Marchetti"
published: 2026-07-19T11:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-19T11:00:00.000Z
canonical: https://boursel.com/article/right-to-repair-reaches-cars-and-runs-into-the-software
tags: ["right-to-repair", "automotive", "electric-vehicles", "aftermarket", "regulation"]
---
# Right to repair reaches cars and runs into the software

Independent garages have spent decades adapting to new hardware. The obstacle now is data: on many electric vehicles the diagnostic information flows back to the manufacturer, and the aftermarket cannot see it.

The right to repair argument began with phones and laptops, over access to parts
and manuals. In cars it has moved to a harder question, and one with more money
attached: who gets to see the data the vehicle produces.

[Fortune reports](https://fortune.com/2026/07/19/right-to-repair-vehicles-evs-car-manufacturers-technology/)
that while advocacy has concentrated on mechanical parts and hardware, the
unresolved issue is software, and that automakers can currently block access to
repair data generated by their vehicles.

## A screw as a statement of intent

The clearest illustration is a small one. BMW filed a patent with the German
Patent and Trade Mark Office in 2024 for a screw whose drive structure
incorporates the shape of its logo, requiring BMW-specific tools to turn.

The patent is explicit about the purpose. The design, it states, provides "a
screw which has a specific drive structure which cannot be tightened and/or
unscrewed, or can only be tightened with a small number of standard screwdriving
tools," and the shape "prevents the screw from being loosened or tightened using
common counter-drive structures by unauthorized persons."

BMW has not put the screw into production. As a signal of where manufacturers
would like the boundary to sit, it is hard to improve on.

## Where the law stands

The main federal vehicle proposal is the Repair Act, introduced in 2023 and
reintroduced in 2025. It would require manufacturers to provide vehicle owners
and independent repair facilities with the same diagnostic repair information
and tools already available to franchised dealerships, and would direct the
Federal Trade Commission to enforce against manufacturers that fail to comply.

It is a bill, not a law, and that distinction is worth holding onto given how
often proposed legislation gets described as though it were already in force.

## The shift that changes the stakes

What makes this urgent now is electrification, and the reason is not obvious.

"We've always been able to adjust, but now what we're beginning to find is that
the data that we need to be able to repair those vehicles is not being made
available through conventional means," said Bill Hanvey, chief executive and
president of the Auto Care Association. "Now, with many of these EVs, all of
that repair and maintenance data is transmitted systematically back to the car
manufacturer, and it's not being made available to the consumer."

For most of automotive history, a car's condition was legible to anyone who
opened it. Diagnostic ports narrowed that, but the information was still
obtainable at the vehicle. When telemetry flows continuously to the
manufacturer's servers instead, the manufacturer becomes the gatekeeper of
something a garage needs to do its job, and no amount of skill or equipment at
the roadside substitutes.

## The commercial stakes

Dealer service and parts are among the more profitable parts of the automotive
business, which is the context for any argument about repair access.

A study commissioned by the Auto Care Association, an interested party in this
debate, found that 51 percent of independent repair shops reported sending up to
five vehicles a month to a dealer because of vehicle data restrictions. Hanvey
argues aftermarket repair can be done for up to 36 percent less than at a
dealership.

Independent analysis points the same way on price. A Congressional Research
Service report noted that many automakers limit the software made available to
outside parties for competitive reasons, and that price increases for auto
maintenance and repair have been running ahead of inflation for parts, new cars
and used cars. "The increases may reflect the power of suppliers in a
concentrated market to raise prices above a competitive rate," it said.

## The manufacturers' case is real

The counter-argument is not merely self-interested, and this piece would be
dishonest to present it as such.

Opening vehicle systems to third parties widens the attack surface on a machine
that carries people at speed. Louay Abdelkader, director of product management
at QNX, framed it as a trade-off rather than an absolute: "There has to be a
fine balance between giving the consumers the ability to do certain things with
a car and at the same time also ensure the integrity of not just the data, but
the car itself."

That concern is not hypothetical, as our recent reporting on over-the-air
updates and vehicle security showed. Any regime that opens repair data has to
answer how access is authenticated and revoked.

## What happens when the manufacturer disappears

The sharpest argument for the aftermarket has nothing to do with price.

Fisker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, less than a year after
beginning deliveries of its Ocean SUV. Owners were left holding vehicles whose
software depended on a company that no longer existed. Some of them, organised
as the Fisker Owners Association, brought in independent experts to
reverse-engineer the software and keep the cars running.

That is the scenario nobody plans for. A vehicle is a ten-to-twenty year asset;
a startup automaker may not be. If the ability to maintain a car depends
entirely on the continued existence and goodwill of its manufacturer, then the
buyer has purchased something more contingent than they probably realised.

## Sources

- ['Right to repair' is coming to cars, but there's still this big blind spot as consumers demand more autonomy](https://fortune.com/2026/07/19/right-to-repair-vehicles-evs-car-manufacturers-technology/)