Congressional watchdog to study automotive ‘right to repair’ issues

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Governing administration Accountability Business in the coming months will study “proper to restore” issues involving the automobile industry, the congressional watchdog confirmed Wednesday.

In an e-mail to Automotive Information, spokesman Chuck Youthful said the place of work recognized a request final week to study the subject and ideas to get started the energy in about 6 months “when related team total other function and turn into readily available.”

The motion comes after Rep. Jan Schakowsky urged the GAO to study “federal agencies’ attempts to assure consumers’ appropriate to restore” with regard to gentle-responsibility cars and trucks.

The Illinois Democrat asked the GAO to research how federal businesses might stability considerations these kinds of as “addressing cybersecurity challenges that might be connected with greater obtain to automobile info and whether technologies exists to assure both of those facts access and cybersecurity protections,” in accordance to a letter sent June 6 to GAO Comptroller Basic Gene Dodaro.

Schakowsky also pressed the GAO to glimpse into the performance of the automobile industry’s self-regulation and how it has saved tempo with improvements in technology as effectively as the competitiveness of the motor vehicle mend sector in the U.S.

The Property lawmaker also questioned for suggestions to other federal organizations to make sure consumers’ proper to maintenance primarily based on the GAO’s review of the problem.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which signifies most main automakers in the U.S., stated it welcomes the extra review.

“Right now, most publish-warranty function — 70 per cent — is completed by the independent aftermarket,” the alliance stated in a statement. “In actuality, the [Federal Trade Commission] has cited the automotive business as a good instance of the industry doing the job well.”

Schakowsky, in the letter, argues a 2014 memorandum of being familiar with in between automakers and impartial garages and suppliers “predated the use of telematics to wirelessly transmit automobile information to suppliers.”

“The details transmitted to producers contains individuals applied for diagnostic and mend applications — potentially undermining the industry’s self-regulation of ideal to repair via the 2014 memorandum,” she wrote.

In February, U.S. Rep. Bobby Hurry, D-Unwell., launched a bill mandating that automobile proprietors and unbiased repair outlets have the similar entry to restore and servicing applications and facts as automakers and their franchised dealerships.

Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., also have just about every introduced appropriate-to-mend legislation.

Rush’s invoice is equivalent to a controversial ballot evaluate in Massachusetts that was enacted by voters in 2020. The measure expands the existing suitable-to-fix legislation and demands makers of cars marketed in the state to equip automobiles that use telematics units with a standardized, open-accessibility knowledge platform, starting with the 2022 model calendar year. It also presents car or truck proprietors and independent restore stores entry to real-time facts from the telematics, such as crash notifications, remote diagnostics and navigation.

In an ongoing lawful fight with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the alliance has argued that the state’s amended ideal to restore legislation conflicts with a number of federal regulations, poses cybersecurity and automobile safety pitfalls and sets an unattainable timeline for compliance.

U.S. District Choose Douglas Woodlock is predicted to situation a ruling on the case by July 1.