Hacking John Deere Tractors: Farmers Don't Own Their Tractors?

[Deleted User]

I just read an article that I figured you Tempers would find really interesting:
"Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware"

An excerpt:

"A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.

"If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me. "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic—he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part.""

I'm not very active here anymore because I don't have time to keep up with hacking news and I have no need to hack anything I have now. But having been here as long as I have, I thought this was very relatable. I don't have too much to say on the subject other than I think this makes more sense than Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft securing their consoles, however. For these farmers, it's their life. For us, it's a hobby. I'd still like to be able to do what I want with what I bought. In the end, the fears for these companies is piracy, whereas John Deere, well... when you figure out how to download a tractor, let me know.

 

[FAST6191]

It has been building for some years now. Edit. I see the article is 2017 as well.

Not so many car companies earn the big money on sales, don't know if they are loss leaders but it would not surprise me much for some models. Parts, installation thereof and servicing? There we go.

Similarly most of the agreements I read were more that they almost lease/hire the thing under a contract and thus you are not necessarily free to do what you want. Sucks, enough that I am quite angry at the notion. Don't know what I can really do on the matter -- most of these new pieces of equipment are crazy semi automated combination affairs which take many thousands of engineering hours to pull off, and probably a parts run too. I could recreate older gear no longer covered by patents, maybe with a slight modern twist to make it work better but still be compatible, and do similar things for cars from time to time but not much I could do for industrial scale stuff. Dear John can go fail though.

 

[zomborg]

Stupid evil, greedy morons. I hate huge companies doing things like this to farmers just trying to make a living. Maybe farmers can go with an alternative tractor company? I think if I could get away with using older equipment, I would.