> True right to repair must put some downward pressure on technological advancement
I don't agree. True right to repair means that there are no intentional barriers to you repairing things. Complexity isn't such a barrier. When new tech requires new skills to repair, it is still possible for people to learn those skills.
Smartphones are a good example of this. There's nothing inherent in a smartphone that prevents home repair -- it just takes a different set of skills to do. What prevents home repair are intentional barriers such as digital signing of components, abusing the DMCA, making custom components unavailable, and so forth.
I'm okay with cryptographic requirements as long as it's a potential vector for an attacker.
What do you think about things like the use of glue? It makes things harder to repair, but certainly not impossible. And a well glued device can feel better in the hand than one that flexes and creaks and is almost certainly easier to manufacture.
I'm more bothered by things like solid state storage being soldered to the motherboard. That's a component that will fail eventually. Usually long before the device isn't useful.
Also, short OS support cycles need to be ended. Any device that connects to anything else should require a ten year security update cycle. If the manufacturer does not or cannot fix the device in that window, retailers should be forced to accept returns for 100% refunds.
> I'm okay with cryptographic requirements as long as it's a potential vector for an attacker.
Yeah, I'm not. I don't for a moment believe that it was implemented to prevent this, considering that it's an attack vector that is incredibly rare. It was implemented to prevent anyone but Apple from repairing things. The cost/benefit ratio of this is extremely unfavorable.
The glue thing is problematic to me, but for environmental reasons rather than reparability reasons. It does make fixing things more of a pain, but it doesn't prevent fixing things.
Solid state storage (as well as other things, such as soldering in batteries and such) being soldered onto the mainboard is similar. It doesn't prevent replacing those components, but it does make it more of a hassle. I think that it would be better to make consumables in a device so that end-users can easily replace them without electronics skills would be ideal, and I do hope the industry finds a way back to when that was standard. But, strictly speaking, that speaks to convenience of maintenance, not the ability to perform maintenance.
In the automotive world it is not that simple. Ford has been building increasingly complex engines to reach design goals related to power output, mpg, and weight. Those have nothing to do with serviceability which has suffered tremendously. The cost to service has gone through the roof. On top of that they require more frequent general servicing or they literally blow up. The net yield is going to be engines failing or vehicles discarded earlier.
The reason they are doing this extreme engineering is to prepare for the hybrid fleet. I don't think it's going to move needle at all for climate change (a lot of the development is gov funded). They are engineering extremely complex gas engines and aluminum bodies to save weight for the batteries. Lots of throw-away stuff is showing up to the party.
No one is going to be hanging out with friends and drinking beers when they try to replace the timing chain on these trucks/cars. The job is ridiculously complex and fraught with pitfalls and gotchas. Dealers and independents are getting software dev hourly rates now.
I don't agree. True right to repair means that there are no intentional barriers to you repairing things. Complexity isn't such a barrier. When new tech requires new skills to repair, it is still possible for people to learn those skills.
Smartphones are a good example of this. There's nothing inherent in a smartphone that prevents home repair -- it just takes a different set of skills to do. What prevents home repair are intentional barriers such as digital signing of components, abusing the DMCA, making custom components unavailable, and so forth.