How do you all feel about this idea?
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If you canât open it, and fix it, you donât own it. Good on these guys.
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Wow. Never really thought about this, to be honest. I was around for some of the battles with automobile manufacturers and SEMA, among other entities over whether independents could, should, and would be locked out of the electronic controls. This is ongoing, as far as I know, and as far as I can tell, always will be. Back when I was more involved, there was legislation coming before US Congress to (force, effectively) require manufacturers to sell schematics, diagnostic information, etc. to independent supply chains. Both sides make some valid arguments. Hereâs an article written in 2017 about the saga: The car of the future is threatening to kill the independent auto repair shop
The really stupid part, I always thought, is that, without independent shops doing the repairs they do, the auto industry would fail. Dealerships CANNOT do all the work. And the consuming public CANNOT support âkeeping it under warrantyâ. These models are simply unworkable. And everyone knows it. So they play these games of trying to keep back juuuust enough that you either pay the manufacturer for a new car, or pay the dealership to fix it. Or, oh yeah, I guess you can go to Midas, where theyâre only about 4 years behind on the data and tools they can buy, and can only service 65% of the cars on the road because the others are âoutliersâ and not worth the investment to {Snap On, etc.} to hack, buy, or otherwise develop salable solutionsâŚ
Here is an article about this kind of thing for âelectronicsâ in general: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/fight-right-repair-180959764/
I like the statement from Deere:
âThis complicated issue impacts all equipment manufacturers with embedded software in their products. Customers, dealers, and manufacturers should work together on the issue rather than invite government regulation that could add costs with no associated value.â - Ken Golden, Director, Global Public Relations, Deere & Company
I think itâs very valid, and wonder what kind of outreach programs they have. It seems to me like they should probably consider finding a sweetspot for selling their stuff to independents at least, and, possibly, the public. They could probably make more money that way than trying to keep the seal intact.
But I think, being not a farmer, that Mr. Schwarz pins the whole thing neatly by pointing out: they STILL use their old tractors. He goes on to wonder if theyâll still do that when the current models âare that oldâ. All this makes me curious: why do farmers today NEED all these giant tractors with computer controls and GPS, etc.? Why not just go back to using the old stuff to do it that way? I have my theories about why they âhave no choiceâ, but Iâd love to hear from a farmer exactly why they need a half dozen computerized tractors to farm the same land their ancestors did for the last 8 generationsâŚ
Iâm now thinking about starting my own business de-computering todayâs tractors so they can continue to be used âafter their useful lifeâ⌠Thatâs not hacking, is it?
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Cough apple cough.
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Many large farmers rely on GPS enabled smart tractors to help boost efficiency and crop yield. If you are farming only a few hundred acres it is not that big of a deal but when you are plowing, planting and harvesting several dozen square miles of farmland on a large commercial farm it is a huge help. Farmers can plot out how they want the field plowed and the tractor will drive itself with little input from the driver. As someone who has spent hours on a tractor plowing I can speak from experience that doing it the old way takes a lot of concentration and physical effort to not drift around and keep your rows straight and not missing spots or drifting over previously plowed rows. The typical farmer operates on such low profit margins due to the equipment, seed, land, fertilizer, and all the other expenses and the fact that the price paid for the crop is very low. Those thin profit margins can make or break a farmer financially if there is one bad storm, fire or bugs/blight that affects the crops. Modern commercial farms grow more food and feed more people with less manpower than how farming used to be done before modernization. If you go out to west Texas or up into Kansas you can find commercial farms that are 20-30 square miles. Some of the larger commercial smart tractors and combines can cost upwards of $500,000 to $1,000,000 to purchase and have some pretty high operating costs to keep them running. Farming will break and wear out things you never though possible as fast as you can fix them.
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Itâs rent-seeking, which is a temptation that industry is perpetually drawn to.
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Andrew,
Iâd like to know why todayâs driving public have become so dumb / ignorant that they âneedâ things like : lane change warning, back up warning, back up cameras, automatic braking, blue tooth, GPS, and a host of other unnecessary crap that should all be options so that those of us that know how to operate a motor vehicle responsibly would have the option of a basic less expensive car optionâŚbut noâŚ
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Itâs CNC on a larger scale.
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Itâs because theyâve become too busying enjoying the in car entertainment system that costs $3k up to replace that they canât be bothered to pay attention to their surroundings. 
Manufacturers after discovering this needed to add all of that gadgetry in order to ensure that the operators of their products donât kill themselves in car accidents, otherwise only those of us who knew how to drive would be left. And they know we wonât be buying new cars just because the power window no longer worked. 
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Things like this are a significant reason that traffic fatalities and or injuries (or even just fender benders) are considerably less likely today than they were years ago.
Itâs certainly true that drivers are much more distracted today than they were in years past. I have plenty of anecdotal evidence from 20+ years ago when I started driving of stupid people doing stupid things. Doesnât have a lot to do with âtodayâs publicâ.
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Here are two videos that show some of the high tech improvements in farming that cuts costs, improves yield and helps the environment.
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Backup cameras and blind spot monitors are practically necessary, now that rollover safety requirements have made the pillars so thick you canât see out of the damn car. Iâll also argue that bluetooth is cheap enough to implement that the convenience outweighs the marginal increase in production cost. I hate FM radio.
Frankly, in automotive, a lot of that stuff works out better for the manufacturer under the economies of scale associated with making the feature standard, rather than an option. Every step of the design and manufacturing process adds cost when you have to have additional processes to accommodate 2 options. (1: with, 2: without) Some items are expensive enough that theyâre worth developing those processes. Engine options, transmissions, etc. But with a lot of items, the difference in cost is outweighed by the difference in process development costs, and itâs further slanted by the cost reduction from economies of scale. A bluetooth-equipped radio costs at most a few dollars more per unit than an equivalent non-bluetooth radio in terms of materials cost, but if you develop both, youâve got almost double engineering costs, and if you build both youâll see a significant increase in manufacturing process cost. Given you intend to sell more of the bluetooth models (base models have thinner margins you know) this actually makes the non-bluetooth stereo a more expensive component for you as a manufacturer. So instead of going through the hassle, you just build all of your stereos with bluetooth. At this point, this principle applies for almost anything electronic in a car, excluding GPS antennas and additional speakers and amplifiers.
Itâs also worth mentioning that backup cameras are mandatory in the US starting in MY2018 or 2019.
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Not to mention the use of drones for checking the health of large crops.
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NHTSA document on back up cameras
https://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/esv/esv18/CD/Files/18ESV-000466.pdf
Hey, my make-upâs not going to put itself on, you know (yet).
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Let me dig up some of the discussions on this on some of the farm pages I a m on
Many of the seeders can be set to plant a row at different intervals, depending on the soil fertility
along the row The farmer is there in case of a major problem but they are often on Facebook
and may even be playing an on line game as they plow/plant/harvest