Senator Calls Out John Deere For Clean Air Act Violations, Blocking Farmer Repairs (substack.com) 20
"The Fight to Repair Newsletter is reporting that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling out agricultural equipment giant John Deere for possible violations of the federal Clean Air Act and a years-long pattern of thwarting owners' ability to repair their farm equipment," writes longtime Slashdot reader chicksdaddy. From the report: Deere "appears to be evading its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act to grant customers the right to repair their own agricultural equipment." That is costing farmers an estimated $4.2 billion annually "causing them to miss key crop windows on which their businesses and livelihoods rely," Warren wrote in a letter (https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/3/24260513/john-deere-right-to-repair-elizabeth-warren-clean-air-act) dated October 2nd. The letter from Warren (PDF), a Senator from Massachusetts and strong repair advocate, is just the latest volley lobbed at Illinois-based Deere, an iconic American brand and the largest supplier of agricultural equipment to farms in the U.S. Deere controls an estimated 53 percent of the U.S. market for large tractors and 60 percent of the U.S. market for farm combines.
In recent weeks, Deere faced criticism, including from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, after laying off close to 2,000 U.S. based employees at facilities in Iowa and Illinois, moving many of those jobs to facilities in Mexico. The company has also been repeatedly called out for complicating repair and service of its farm equipment -- often relying on software locks and digital rights management to force farmers to use Deere dealers and authorized service providers for even the simplest repairs.
In recent weeks, Deere faced criticism, including from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, after laying off close to 2,000 U.S. based employees at facilities in Iowa and Illinois, moving many of those jobs to facilities in Mexico. The company has also been repeatedly called out for complicating repair and service of its farm equipment -- often relying on software locks and digital rights management to force farmers to use Deere dealers and authorized service providers for even the simplest repairs.
Glad I donâ(TM)t work these anymoreâ (Score:2)
Re:Glad I donâ(TM)t work these anymoreâ (Score:1)
fixing the headline (Score:2)
First, it's a blog post
Current headline: Senator Calls Out Deere For Clean Air Act Violations, Blocking Farmer Repairs
Suggested headline: Multi-millionaire 75 Year Old Geriatric Democrat Senator Seeks to Virtue Signal to Sway Midwest Voters to Vote Democrat
The political play, find an issue with strong opinions amongst a group of people, unlikely to lose you voters in other groups, and then amplify said feeling,
Re: (Score:1)
Current headline: Senator Calls Out Deere For Clean Air Act Violations, Blocking Farmer Repairs
Suggested headline: Multi-millionaire 75 Year Old Geriatric Democrat Senator Seeks to Virtue Signal to Sway Midwest Voters to Vote Democrat
The political play, find an issue with strong opinions amongst a group of people, unlikely to lose you voters in other groups, and then amplify said feeling,
I am not a Democrat. This is a party that fought a war to preserve slavery, birthed the KKK, supported eugenics, continu
Very simple solution (Score:2)
The fix to this problem is easy. Pass legislation that, after a 2 calendar day grace period, imposes nonwaivable liquidated damages of $10,000 per day on a vehicle or machinery manufacturer that locks down repairs or restricts repairs to specific networks. States do this to electric power monopolies to force maintenance on infrastructure.
Re: (Score:3)
What's so special about vehicles and machinery? Just do it for anything which is infected with DRM.
I say it's time to send John Deere a 'Dear John. (Score:2)
I say it's time to send John Deere a 'Dear John.
What responsibility ... (Score:2)
Does this extend to other vehicle
Plenty of options to repair Deere equipment (Score:3)
This has become such a ridiculous "cause celebre" for people that have probably never had dirt under their fingernails.
The new tractors have good warranties, and extended warranties are available. Software updates are available for free, ota. Repair resources are available on Deere's website.
Speaking as someone from the midwest: If a farmer has a breakdown...NO, it doesn't shut them down for the season. Neighboring farmers routinely step in to help those in need. And often, neighbors are already banding together to harvest each others fields with multiple machines at once....it's just more efficient.
FFS, read about what is available, before screeching:
https://www.deere.com/en/our-c... [deere.com]
https://www.diesellaptops.com/ [diesellaptops.com]
https://diagsoft-solutions.com... [diagsoft-solutions.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Also your friendly Deere dealership is happy to rent you a machine while they work on yours!
Personally I am sick and tired of emissions problems on these machines. If it's so important, the same laws that mandate my engines have emissions control systems including DPF and DEF should also mandate a *very* long warranty for the emissions-control equipment. If Bosch were forced to honor a 10-year warranty, or better yet lifetime warranty, no farmer would complain too much about DEF. I certainly wouldn't comp
Re: (Score:2)
Are you saying that you were able to successfully diagnose the John Deere dosing pump on your own?! Impossible!...according to RTR advocates.
I sympathize with what you're saying about a cheap sub-part, but long wait time....but that argument could be made with any moderately complex device. Is bosch supposed to supply individual resistors for ECM repairs? On some level, I think it's reasonable that manufacturers only repair things down to a certain "module level".
That being said, I regularly do $80 dolla
Re: (Score:2)
This wasn't a Deere machine. The built-in diagnostics system could show me DEF pressure. Deere can do the same to a large degree. And you can look up the error codes. But usually such problems are also accompanied by derates, which often require a dealer (or a grey-market laptop) to clear.
If Bosch was forced to honor a warranty the dealer would replace the unit for free (no cost part at least). Hopefully this would encourage Bosch and the tractor manufacturer to concentrate on making the dosing module r
Re: (Score:3)
I should say that the biggest right-to-repair issue with Deere isn't that I can't find out what codes mean. It's that replacement electronic parts have to be programmed by the dealer when they are installed with the proper payload and are serial-number locked. Otherwise they won't work. And in order to do that the dealer has to go to the mothership for each and every payload they need to program into the board. And Deere charges the dealership every time. It's the ultimate check-cashing racket that Deere
Plenty of options other than buying Deere... (Score:3)
New Holland, Case, Caterpillar, Claas, Lamborghini, Kinze.
Just because Deere is the biggest, and makes good equipment...doesn't mean anyone is forced to buy their equipment.
If they're so "evil"...stop buying their gear.
Re: (Score:2)
Spoken like someone who plays Farm Simulator and not an actual farmer that has to pick a vendor from the few that have service shops nearby. Deere is so pervasive in the USA that many farmers have no other choice.
Re: (Score:2)
"pervasive"? I think you mean "successful".
Farmers have a choice...but you're now saying their complaint is "convenience".
But hey, if those other manufacturers are so much better for repair by farmers...I guess it's a non issue, since they'll never have to interact with the dealers again after purchase since they can fix things themselves.
Go drive through farm country...there are plenty of farmers using equipment that isn't green.
I Feel Like This Issue is Misunderstood (Score:2)
It's about much more than the Right to Repair. It's 100% about personal property rights.
For most of human history, when you purchased an item, ownership of that item transferred to you. It becomes your personal property. As your personal property, you determined how it was used. Your purchase granted you both control as well as liability for the item. This was considered to be common-sense and uncontroversial.
Relatively recently, Corporate America devised a scheme that would allow them to significantly