With each passing year, vehicles become less mechanical and more digital. Strip out all the software and modern cars lose their prized connectivity, safety, and fuel economy features.
For this reason, if you polled the average new car buyer, they’d probably be in favor of keeping their digitized equipment on board. However, according to John Deere – one of the largest producers of agricultural equipment – and General Motors, that software in your car isn’t really even yours.
In an issue expanded upon by Wired, John Deere has informed the United States Copyright Office that every piece of software on its tractors is still under the company’s ownership. In other words, everything that makes a modern tractor work isn’t actually owned by the farmers who buy these machines. John Deere’s exact phrasing is that farmers have “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”
Reportedly, other large companies have claimed similar types of continuing ownership related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The act is related to the differences between hardware and software from a legal standpoint. GM is among the brands who have argued that new product software should not be modified.
Wired goes on to point out that if the Copyright Office rules that manufacturers still own the software after its in owner hands, then anyone who adjusts programming – even if it’s on your “smart coffeemaker” or to repair a broken tractor is breaking the law. How? John Deere argues that third parties could steal the software if an owner has access to it for repairs or modifications. Hilariously, John Deere even makes the point that access to this software to lead to illegal music downloads through a tractor’s infotainment system.
GM’s (and other automakers’) specific bone to pick in this case is that consumers could “conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle.” By this token, anyone who has legal access to the software can make modifications to make cars go faster or violate emissions laws. While this is a valid point, it should in no way fall under the jurisdiction of the copyright office. Wired notes that police officers will pull over speeders and the EPA will issue penalties to lawbreakers.
The concept of ownership is a twisted one, and as software powers more of our lives, we may soon find that we “own” very little of what we buy.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.