Should Massachusetts extend its right-to-repair law to connected cars?

This year, campaigners are returning to the ballot box to expand the state law to now include any wireless (or telematic) data.Part of Massachusetts' existing right to repair law requires, from model year 2018 onward, that every vehicle has "a non-proprietary vehicle interface device"—invariably an OBDII port—by which owners and independent garages can access diagnostic information.But the auto industry is going wireless. If passed, it would extend the existing legislation such that it would also cover telematics, which it defines as:any system in a motor vehicle that collects information generated by the operation of the vehicle and transmits such information, in this chapter referred to as “telematics system data,” utilizing wireless communications to a remote receiving point where it is stored.If passed, every OEM's connected car platform would need significant changes due to the requirement to implement a new system for user authentication (or drop any use authentication at all):Notwithstanding anything in the preceding paragraph, motor vehicle owners’ and independent repair facilities’ access to vehicle on-board diagnostic systems shall be standardized and not require any authorization by the manufacturer, directly or indirectly, unless the authorization system for access to vehicle networks and their on-board diagnostic systems is standardized across all makes and models sold in the Commonwealth and is administered by an entity unaffiliated with a manufacturer.The ballot measure also requires that from model year 2022, all vehicles with telematics systems must use standardized, open-access, interoperable telematics systems, which must also be able to send all of their data directly to an end user (as opposed to going from the vehicle to the cloud to the end user).