Tesla asks customers to vote against Right to Repair

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Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean-energy company. It designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy-storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services.

Massachusetts Question 1

In 2020, the Vehicle Data Access Requirement Initiative (the "Right to Repair Law") was placed before voters as Ballot Question 1. The initiative was designed to enhance the existing 2013 Motor Vehicle Right to Repair Law by including vehicles that used telematics systems, thereby ensuring broader access to repair data

Voting 'Yes'

A "yes" vote supported requiring manufacturers that sell vehicles with telematics systems in Massachusetts to equip them with a standardized open data platform beginning with model year 2022 that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access to retrieve mechanical data and run diagnostics through a mobile-based application.

Voting 'No'

A "no" vote opposed requiring vehicles beginning with model year 2022 to be equipped with a standardized open data platform that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access to retrieve mechanical data and run diagnostics through a mobile-based application, thereby maintaining that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access mechanical and diagnostic data through a personal computer.

Tesla's letter to voters

One Reddit user claiming to be a Massachusetts resident reported that they received the following email from Tesla:

Hello,

As you go to the polls this fall, Tesla asks that you vote no on Question 1. Tesla has long applied an open source philosophy to our patented intellectual property for electric vehicles. In this spirit, we provide public access to our service, parts, and body repair manuals, wiring diagrams, service bulletins, labor codes and times, and other information used to perform mechanical, electrical, and collision repair work on our vehicles.Question 1 goes well beyond what is necessary to perform this work, and it potentially jeopardizes vehicle and data security. The requirements, pushed by two national auto shop lobbying groups, would make vehicles more vulnerable to cyberattacks and would make successful attacks more harmful. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency tasked with vehicle safety and security, had to say about Question 1:

• "As this testimony will further elaborate, it is our view that the terms of the ballot initiative would prohibit manufacturers from complying with both existing Federal guidance and cybersecurity hygiene best practices. NHTSA is also concerned about the increased safety-related cybersecurity risks of a requirement for remote, real-time, bi-directional (i.e., read/write capability) access to safety-critical vehicular systems. Given the multi-year automotive product development cycle, the deadline for compliance appears impossible for manufacturers to meet in a responsible manner, risking removal of existing cybersecurity controls over wireless access into vehicles as the ballot initiative directs, which increases the risk of cybersecurity attacks that could jeopardize public safety. Further, the requirement to establish universal and standardized access requirements increases the scale of risks of any potentially successful cybersecurity attack...
• "NHTSA has grave concerns with any proposed policy that would effectively prohibit wireless access controls in motor vehicles sold in the United States. This would raise substantial safety risks for American families. "

Tesla agrees with NHTSA’s assessment of the risk posed by Question 1, and we ask that you vote against it. The full letter from NHTSA can be found here. Please consider sharing this with your friends and family.Thank you,Tesla Policy Team

An additional user on Tesla Motors Club - a community of Tesla enthusiasts - states they've also received this letter, and dozens of users on both Reddit and Tesla Motors Club claimed to be residents who have received the email.

Why it is a problem

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