John Deere signs right to repair agreement with US ag lobbyists In what looks like a victory for farmers in the United States, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with equipment vendor John Deere regarding the repairability of its machines. As farming has become more technology-driven, Deere has increasingly injected software into its …
Heads:
This agreement reaffirms the longstanding commitment Deere has made to ensure our customers have the diagnostic tools and information they need
Tails:
It addresses a long-running issue for farmers and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information and resources
The top one reads like marketing BS which translates as "We really, really don't like it but now we're forced because we'll otherwise face legislation we're going to pretend that it's our idea. Which is very much isn't, but it's the lie we'll stick to."
Tye bottom one reads like the actual reality.
This is obviously just an attempt to preempt or avoid the right to repair getting legalized by the force of law. Because if that happens, everything is lost for companies like John Deere. However, until it happens,
1. they can dictate the terms they want and strongarm consumers into accepting their terms,
2. even if they will break their own terms, if will be not breach of (consumer protection) law just breach of contract, which, again, means that consumers will have to sue JD themselves and pay their own lawyers, make it pretty hard to win against JD.
..."John Deere supports a customer's right to safely maintain, diagnose, and repair their own equipment. To facilitate this, Deere provides the tools, parts...
And if you think (something like) $250 is a bit much for a bolt and $1,500 is excessive for a windscreen washer bottle removal tool then you don't deserve to fix it yourself.
It's easy for them to "provide" parts and tools but it's equally easy to make it impossible to economically use them. Not saying they will employ such tactics but I would not be all that surprised if they did.
@jake, cannot upvote you enough. It is why there is a huge market for old ag machinery, because it is repairable almost ad infinitum. You might be able to plant and harvest faster with the bigger, newer machines, but only if no repairs are needed. The new machines stop dead in their tracks until a dealer tech can come out. With an old combine, it may be feasible to temporarily rig a baling wire and chewing gum level fix to get at least that day's work finished. And, a farmer can see when a mechanical system is wearing out, and do some preventative work in the off season.
So this entity -- the American Farm Bureau Federation -- claims to represent the best interests of farmers, but it's an insurance company with lobbyists. I suspect a back-room deal, but have no proof.
(from Google search, no link to the page was given by Google) "The American Farm Bureau Federation, also known as Farm Bureau Insurance and Farm Bureau Inc. but more commonly just the Farm Bureau, is a United States-based insurance company and lobbying group that represents the American agriculture industry."
President: Vincent Duvall ; Founded: March 1920 ; Headquarters: Washington, D.C. ; Founder: John Barron ; Subsidiaries: Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, IDEAg Group, LLC, and American Farm Bureau, Inc.
"Or can I expect that in Australia we also gain that right?"
I hardly think AU (or my country, France) will ever have the balls to do what looks like only Uncle Sam will ever do: punch a major agricultural vendor so hard they'd come up "naturally", "by themselves" with such initiative !
Because this is what happened, as has already been remarked.
Time will tell if they try to lock this up with specific parts requiring specific tools.
Nevertheless, really good news for US farmers. Let's see who else will be inspired :)
i think they will probably do the whole New York-style right-to-repair all over again... as in they will only provide assemblies of parts and not component-level parts for repair.
cue John Deere repair dealer technician, in a booming voice:
your tractor is broken?
you sir are lucky, we can sell you one off-the-shelf assembly of parts especially for that tractor.
yes, you heard that right, one assembly - it just needs the wheels - you just repair the old tractor by transferring the wheels from the old one to the new assembly.
/sarcasm
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
