Listening to this, it is amazing that IKEA is still allowed to operate. A company built on the idea that you are supposed to handle potential harmful tools, assembling furniture that may tumble and crush you.
Opening the hood on an electric vehicle doesn't expose any high voltage components. All of the connections to the traction battery are fully insulated, as are the cables and other components connected to them. They are generally bright orange as well, as a further warning. The only way anyone could be shocked by the 400 volts DC would be to start slicing through cables, unbolting connections and doing all the other things that would result in serious injury or death on an internal combustion engine vehicle as well. All EVs have a traction battery disconnect, which will disconnect it with a single pull of a lever or handle. Typically marked with a warning label which is clearly visible once the hood is open. Not permitted to open the hood is total BS, and is there for the single reason of ensuring the 'owner' takes the vehicle back to the main stealers every time it requires any form of repair or maintenance.
Yes. That argument about safety, I find it very funny. In a way, they are telling you their product is so poorly made it can kill you by opening it up. To the next brand or lobbyist that gives this shit argument, the correct answer is. "Are you telling me your product is dangerous? Then why didn't you make it safe? Is it not the responsibility of the brand to make a safe product?" They will have to say their product is inherently dangerous (and they will never do it), or admit it is not dangerous because they engineered it properly, so all this locking uses out is made with malice.
Yea if these things were that dangerous then driving them would be as well. Anyways lots of armchair electricians out there who haven’t died learning how to do their own electrical stuff from books in their home. And that is seriously dangerous. Maybe home makers need to disallow people from working on their own houses.
As one of our founding fathers said, "Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither." That applies to safety as well, as far as I'm concerned.
I was about to tweet the quote, but when looking up which of the founding fathers said it, I realised it didn’t really work as the link above explains..
At least take a little effort to get the quote right, and give the whole thing. Living in a society inherently involves sacrificing some freedom for the sake of more security. Carrying this too far is where you get into problems.
It's a Ben Franklin quote. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." We tend to use the quote in the wrong context, but I think you even got close to the original context here.
Regarding high voltages in EV's, here's a fun fact. In the 1940's through the early 60's, practically every pharmacy had a tube tester in them (vacuum tubes for radios, TV's, etc). The radios and TV's that these tubes were installed in operated at high voltages internally, 200-300vdc isn't uncommon. Couple that to the fact that the transformerless models that came out in the 50's had no transformer to isolate the internal supply. The line voltage was simply rectified to DC and that was that. These radios didn't gave polarized plugs, so you, the owner, had a 50/50 chance of plugging in the plug 'backwarda', which would make the housing of the radio (at the time, often metal) become high voltage, instead of neutral. Going back to the tube testers in pharmacies, it was expected that you the owner would know how to service it to an extent. To be able to pull a tube out, take it to the pharmacy, test it and buy a replacement if it was bad. That was expected, even of 'simple housewives'. The same radio that was 200vdc+ inside. 70 years later, here we are, going backwards.
And they usually switched the neutral so even if you swap out the cord for a polarized plug you still have potentially live high voltage electronics inside. Most people restoring them also move the switch to the hot/live side just for safety.
I remember going to radio shack with my dad to get tubes for our tv. Sometime around 1980. I actually have a bench mount vacuum tube tester in my garage. Just haven't had any tubes to check.....
To the people about to rage in the comment section, yes, you are actually able to open the hood in spite of that message, and I read that in the video very clearly. It doesn't change the fact that a car manufacturer actually felt comfortable writing a message telling you that you are "not permitted" - not that you are advised not to, but not permitted to open the hood of your own car. When taken into consideration that new EVs don't always make available the parts and tools to repair them, and the shifting landscape away from a repairable world for cars, appliances, medical equipment, it is not a far cry to suggest that the existence of this type of message is an instance of "putting the tip in" before you get the full shaft of a completely unrepairable vehicle. Right to repair, or the loss of it, over the past 30 years has been a death by 100,000 cut situation, and I see the emboldening of manufacturers to the point where they feel confident displaying this message on the vehicle to be a large one of those cuts.
They will control the vehicle, like Apple with their phones, you never own it you just pay for the privilege of using it. Cars with remote kill options for police, just imagine what they can and will do with "your" car.
It's a paesant and overlord model. You are suposed to be a disposable robot that works in order to pay rent and subscriptions to the people that OWN the corporations. For most of human history lords owned everything and paesents owned nothing. They are using usefull idiots and the pretext of safety to achive it.
I have looked through mercedes dealership manuals from 1985 to 2018. It's very interesting to see how things have changed over the years. On the older models there are often instructions included to make your own special tools for a particular job and how to repair parts themselves. There are service limits included and instructions about what is fixable and how it can be done. On the newer models it's basically "if it fails replace the whole assembly".
This just shows the direction the automotive industry is heading in. Another example: this car has also rear-axle-steering, but instead of it just being enabled by default, the owner has to subscribe to the feature for 3 years for roughly 1.2k USD. Imagine paying 100k+ for a car and then having certain *mechanical*(!) features locked behind a subscription paywall. This is just prime evidence of the shift away from product owners, towards service customers.
I'm not going to pay for a dog that I have to feed and maintain if it still has the old owner leashed to it. Why would I do that for a car or anything else?
If you're driving a car, you're already doing something more dangerous than opening the hood. If people think that locking owners from servicing a vehicle is good idea because "they might hurt themselves", then you should also be in favour of banning regular people from driving cars. Obviously something that dangerous should be left to qualified, professional drivers only. The question that should be asked here, is why opening the hood doesn't automatically engage service mode. This is something practically every furnace does as it improves safety for not only normies who pop open the front without knowing what they are doing, but also service personal who might forget to turn it off first. People, qualified or not, make mistakes.
@@TheRealSykx why should a car be so horrifically overengineered that opening the hood could put the car at risk of randomly locking up at high speeds? cars already wont let you turn them off without putting them in park for example, basic safety measures have been in place a long time
no no no don’t give them ideas! i can imagine insurance companies refusing to insure cars that don’t have self driving capabilities, or charging massive premiums for it.
This is a car manufacturers wet dream. They have been trying to do this since the 60's. They always tell you to take it to the dealer which any car guy knows is a waste of money. Dealers' repairs are always at least double for the exact same thing any other mechanic charges and in a different universe when it comes to fixing it yourself. For all those ev proponents, this is why it will not happen.
And the fact that lobbyists were able to get laws in favor of dealerships controlling the industry should've gotten people up in arms over their politicians interests. All these people were only interested in was money and power.
As I recall, Honda tried this shit about twenty-five years ago. The hood was literally bolted to the car and had to be removed to even change the oil. Even Honda owners were super-pissed. That game ended REALLY fast.
Yet in current year when companies pull this kind of BS, there are owners with products of said company who would defend this. Any Suit dumb enough to suggest this nonsense should be bolted to the hood and driven of a cliff.
Another point. Going through a customs border check and you are ordered to pop the hood (to check for contraband). I am fairly certain that they will not accept "the manufacturer said it was illegal under any circumstances to open the hood". One stop trip to car being impounded till they can get to look in there, and that will probably be at your expense.
I think you're right about freedom when we were kids (I was born in the UK in 1965). At the age of about 13 or 14, I had a mains/battery cassette player. On the back was the then-relatively-recent warning of 'no user-serviceable parts inside'. I had had the unit for a while and heavily used it (it was used in the main for loading games into my ZX Spectrum computer). The Play button, a plastic button, broke. The first thing I did (after unplugging it, obviously) was get a screwdriver and unscrew the fixing screws and open it up. Having identified the fault and realising that gluing the two bits of plastic forming the button wouldn't work, I told my mum that I was going to go down town to the electronics repair shop (a ten minute bike ride away, including along a main road) to see if they could help. When I got there, they told me that they could order in the buttons, but only a full set, so I paid a deposit on the full set and picked them up a week later. Then I put the new button in, tested it (on battery) to make sure it worked before putting it back together (after having spent a while looking round the other bits of the machine out of sheer nosiness). A few months later another button failed and I already had the spare to fix it. That player lasted a long while for numerous uses. Trouble is, I think nowadays I think I would have found it harder (1) to unscrew the device without a special tool, (2) find a repairer that could get the parts (3) find a repairer who was prepared to supply parts without insisting they repaired it, which would have effectively made it cheaper to buy a new one. And nowadays, many parents wouldn't have even allowed their child to try.
Same age.. When I was 12-13 my father used to get old tv's from the dump for me to fix.. then he taught me to weld so I could build a trailer for my bike and go get my own.. The tip was just off the A49 the knowledge gained has lasted me a lifetime.
I remember buying an early colour TV from a jumble sale for 50p, getting it home and whipping the back off and trying to fix it. Surprisingly I'm still alive.
@@magnifikus3 True. That's why I don't mind if a company gives warnings or puts scary stickers on top of dangerous components. It's not (necessarily) their fault that the US is so lawsuit happy.
Honestly I agree with boths sides. It should be idiot proof levels of safe and no ICE vehickes aren't. However I'm a professional idiot and also want the choice to disregard warnings. I enjoy the comforts electric vehicles offer. I hope to afford to take one around a race track one day.
@@nes999 The standard internal combustion engine isn't even idiot proof under the hood for a sufficient level of idiocy, but the dangers are well known and today, well labeled. Serious electricity is something that could surprise many in a deadly or destructive manner. Still, big lightning bolt stickers with stick figures of a human getting fried, complete with x'ed out eyes, would seem to suffice to warn most idiots.
"Right to Access" is a necessary cause in the right to repair movement. Mandating that all components be non-destructively accessible, where possible, at minimum. Most people could have anything in their phone and wouldn't know the difference, much less be able to repair it without access. "Right to Records" is another, allowing customers to request any relevant documentation, including wiring schematics, like those you use for repairs. These are fundamental building blocks for right to repair's success. Without law controlling either of them, a manufacturer could subvert r2r after it is made law.
Same. I was raised with the "Streetlight" rule from when I was 6 years old. When the streetlights come on, you start heading home or you call from wherever you are to explain why you'll be late or not coming home (like friends mother inviting you to stay for dinner with them). Parents also increased the allowed unsupervised distance from the home by a block a year until junior high -- which was three miles away. At that point, basically was allowed to go anywhere in town solo. Seems sad more parents don't do this now: it's a fantastic way to both give and test how responsible/reliable your children are before they get to highschool and end up being morons the second they're out of your eyesight because you're a hover parent that has never let them have any freedom so they go insane at every opportunity.
Them: "It's so dangerous to work on an electric car that it should only be done by specific shops that we allow" Me: "Ok, but I can just hire one of the millions of electrical contractors/ or even learn myself, to safely wire my entire house right?" You know CRT tv's and monitors could kill you too but there are numerous repair shops that do it.
my brother is a truck driver, last month he had to change the engine oil(a Mercedes truck), he got an annoying oil warning and the menu got locked, he was not able to check the oil level/color manually(no stick) so the only option was Mercedes service, he paid 5 times the normal payment for similar oil changing service + 2 new filters
You can of course do that if you want, but they'll have to void your warranty. And with good reasons: once you open up the device on your own, then they have no way to know whether any existing issues originated during manufacturing or were caused by you or your contractors.
@@mowgli2071 I didn't say anything to the contrary of what you're saying, so if I'm talking horseshit, then so are you. The point that you missed is that there might be issues they wouldn't be able to identify the exact cause with full certainty if you've already tinkered with it.
@@skaruts "...they have no way to know..." *AS I SAID ONCE ALREADY* , that's horseshit. AND FUCKING AGAIN, if they did QC on their product, THEN THEY DO HAVE A WAY TO KNOW.
It's hysterical that Louis emphasizes again and again, the issue is the phrasing "Not permitted" but critics choose to completely ignore that and argue about something that he isn't even saying.
You're not permitted to open it if you want an valid warranty. Really not seeing the issue here. If anything breaks under there while under warranty they're gonna fix it, if it breaks after warranty you can open it up and fix it. Where's the problem? People just don't like being told what they can and cannot do? Ah now i understand.
@@TheRealSykx that's not how warranties work. The burden of proof is on the manufacturer. Unless they can prove that you broke the product, the warranty is still valid.
100% agreed. Seems to me that EV automakers could design these systems to make them serviceable in a safe way. They could compartmentalize/enclose dangerous parts, make things plug and play, include shut-offs, provide tools and manuals, etc. But it obviously benefits them to create a revenue model that ensures customers keep returning to them for future repairs.
@@jackd.ripper9216 There is a difference between "capitalist pig" and "chroney capitalism aka fascism aka communism". Planned obsolescence is the way of fascists and communists. Since they make sure that you always need them. The actual capitalist way is a well regulated free market. A market where if someone decided to do this garbage, their brand would be destroyed by every other brand that would be not doing this and undercutting them. That is an actual free capitalist market. What we have today is some neo-fascist style market where governments collaborate with corporations to take away citizens rights both directly and indirectly by funding projects to create cars like these and then back up these companies in court when people eventually sue.
@@Jimster481 Dude i hate to brake it to you. But in USSR if you needed a part for your 1939 year car or motorcycle, you contact any factory and they will make it for you with 0 price tag, you only pay for the metal cube...(even tho no one made those anymore)
He right. My late father, like many of his generation, hadn't the money to hire tradesmen so did most of the jobs around the house himself, and he did alright. Years later I examined his electrical work, I'm an electrician, and remember asking him about it, he said he got a book from the library and followed it. If he did work on his car he did the same thing, if he screwed up it was his misfortune and he had to pay for it, literally. Over time he learned, and from word of mouth, from friends. This is what companies want to prevent. They want to instill a culture of fear, of customers being afraid to even consider attempting to repair their own property, whether they're capable or qualified or not.
"It's a car, you have to worry about safety!" This exactly is why I want to open my hood. To inspect and verify that there are no obvious issues. If I am able to handle it myself, fixed. Or I have to take it to a professional, but I still have to know there is an issue by opening the hood and observing. I would never *cough* want to install an overpowered stereo, train-horn, or hydraulics.. haha.
I e straight up had a full size woodchuck crawl up into my engine bay. Ridiculous to think we shouldn't be able to open the hood to take care of issues.
@@whydoineedmynamehi6772 in south Africa they have public announcement campaigns reminding you to check for penguins in / under your motor before driving away
I think making stuff like crystal radios (discouraged by FM and Digital migration), breaking and putting things back together, and right to repair being frowned upon is a way to reduce us to simple consumers instead of buyers...
I read that a car's lifetime is around 12 years. Which is probably true - for an EV. That's because EV batteries are only good for about 12 - 15 years (they degrade over time, even if they aren't used), and the cost of replacing the battery pack is usually EXTREMELY high. So high that I feel most people will scrap their cars rather than replace that battery pack. On the other hand, ICE cars routinely stay on the road for 20+ years, unless government regulations force them off the road before then. And for quite a lot of them, they'll go those 20+ years without major repairs.
@@rodh1404 GM has gone the right way and made their system based on modules, so they replace the damaged batteries, and not the whole pack. Tesla have modules too, but they change the whole pack only.
@@rodh1404 EV batteries are good for the warranty period, which is typically 8 years across all brands. The batteries degrade significantly at the 8 year point, regardless of mileage... can't cheat physics, lol!
If they're so concerned about safety, just add a switch that detects the hood being opened and automatically switch off any high voltage circuit. There! Solved the safety problem there just fine! If it's unsafe to open the hood, you designed it wrong! (Let's use company's own words against them)
@@clintony3000 liability is the word of the day here. Once EVs are more mainstream this will likely fade. The definition of what is reasonable for a person to know and hence liability be avoided changes with the times. EVs probably aren't super profitable yet, they don't need lawsuits hindering them further. It's the companies doing CYA moreso I think than outright banning of repairs. Besides..."unauthorized" repairs are going to happen, there's a huge market for it, they just can't afford to give it their blessing.
I'm an old lady. I change the oil, fuel and air filters, spark plugs, clean the carburetors, replace and plug the tires, and sharpen or replace the blades on my self propelled and riding mowers. I can also make a lamp from scratch and tie a proper UL safety knot on the electrical cord. I learned how to do it all on YOU TUBE tutorials. I'm now learning how to sharpen the teeth on both my chain and pole saws. The full chiseled ones are tough. You go Louis!
By the same logic of safety we should just ban all tools and private manual labor. Saws can cut you, if you are digging a hole you could fall in. If you are mixing cement for your driveway the wheelbarrow could tip over and crush your toes. All danger should be banned.
Next step: Don't go out, stay at home, it's less dangerous, no criminality, if you go out without permission, you might be a criminal, so it's normal that you get taken to jail. Remember, we're all in this together. Stay safe and don't be selfish. 🙏🙏🙏🙏☮☮☮
Didn't they ban All Knives in NZ or somewhere there, recently and briefly? I remember mobs of screaming granmas, after a murder. Anyways, yes, it is now conceivable that eventually Everything can be banned and delegated to Certified Technicians. Nails, electric wire, hammers, god forbid axes, breakable glass.
@@Android-ng1wn Sounds similar to a town near me, that doesn't allow you to buy and install your own furnace! Just nuts. Get a professional, or freeze I guess.
I think they're more concerned with people getting in there and mucking stuff up then wrecking or breaking their new EV and wanting a refund/warranty to cash em out of their screw up. It's the same on ICE vehicles. They put that white paint on components to see if anyone unauthorized has messed with them and then void your warranty if you're caught. I really don't see how this is any different. It seems extreme because it's a hood.. but if it's under warranty why are you getting in there and not taking it to the shop? After warranty is up you can open it.
I was changing the ignition coils on my street parked Golf: people would stop and gaze, one old lady came closer and complimented me for "doing this complicated job myself". It was literally pulling the coils out and shoving in new ones, yet so much out of ordinary, apparently. Oh, by the way, it is mega Illegal, here, to do any work on your car on the street - I absolutely do not care, because it is my car, I know what I am doing and can keep it running for a decade more without asking the gracious overlords for permission or paying a VW dealer hundreds of euros for a 10 minutes job. I am aware that this will be impossible if I get a newer or fancier car.
Right. And you are doing something more environmentally friendly by not tossing the car. Amazing how they say we want to save the earth and then make us buy expensive products that you toss in a year or two because you can’t replace a basic component on it.
@@nowiecoche I've rebuilt motorcycles from the frame up, car engines, boosted performance of engines & suspensions, former owner of an automotive parts reman operation... , I don't think so.
You're also able to open the fuse box in the house. And yes, you can hurt yourself, but that's why fuse boxes all have to include a minimum of safety features such as an FI as well fuse that protects both the user and the electrical lines in your house. This is not about user safety. This is about the manufacturer forcing their customers into the service departments where most of the time you get fleeced. That's been the case for ICE vehicles ever since their invention Apple does the same thing. Designing their products to be non-user-servicable. Selling a scam as a feature I do agree that kids need to experience a certain amount of freedom so they can gain confidence and learn about responsible behavior. My mom was a very loving and caring and independent woman. However, she also sheltered me which really didn't help me later in life. Again, she didn't do this out of spite. She herself was quite an independent woman. My family circumstances in some ways pushed her to shelter me, but as I said before, the consequences of such sheltering can be problematic
At the Ford dealership I worked at, when the Hybrid Escape came out, they sent dealers a bunch of orange cones, and a set of lineman's gloves you were supposed to use when servicing the car. However, there was a simple lever you could push that would disconnect the battery completely, so no "special equipment" required. They at the start didn't want dealers to open the battery pack, but later had a repair process to fix something inside the battery pack. It's not brain surgery.
I read some of that old literature at Ford school a few months ago, I was staring in wide-eyed shock that they were being so excessive about it back then. It's honestly ridiculous considering high-voltage electric vehicles were hardly new technology even back then, the Escape Hybrid just made it more mainstream.
The only thing that makes EV repair """""unsafe""""" is not providing the tools and education to do it in a more safe way. Given that, they're no more dangerous to open or repair than ICEVs.
That is incorrect. they are quite a lot more dangerous. Touch the 2 ends of the battery unprotected and you are most likely dead. Even if the battery is empty. There is nothing comparable in an ICEV. When its cold its cold and then there is basically nothing that could happen. High power batteries are dangerous. Comparable to touching the powerlines on those wooden pillars you americans have everywhere, even tho its DC not AC here. 400V with ample Amperes is no Joke. Remember its the combination of both that kills you and an EV has a lot of both.
Let me put things in perspective: when was the last time you opened up an electrical device to fix it? A monitor, a TV, a UPS, a computer's power source... Would you even know where to start fixing it, let alone how to do it without getting seriously hurt?
"Moving the Overton window from freedom towards risk averting" - spot on observation, very well worded. Freedom is one of the higher values and should be respected as such. Manufacturers' moving towards "few specialist repairers - many ignorant, fearful customers" situation is what's really dangerous: a way towards idiocracy and ownership-less society.
May I remind you, Louis, that this is the car that ships with rear-axle-steering by default, but doesn't steer with the rear-axle unless you pay approx. 1.2k USD / 3 years on a subscription. The automotive industry is really eager to follow the electronics industry. Soon you'll have shit like "pay 200 USD" per year for our premium braking package, allowing you to use 100% of your braking force.
I'm glad my Dad taught me most of what he knew about doing things himself. Basic automobile maintenance, a bit of electrical work (some of which I picked up myself), some mechanical work with power tools, etc. What I picked up myself was electronics repair. 2 months ago I had a majorly shitty day, and while thinking about said shitty day I accidentally left my Samsung tablet out in a downpour. After leaving it in rice for a few days, the screen was very messed up but otherwise the tablet worked fine. Rather than sit and cry about it, I did some looking around and found new screens on ebay. I also watched a taredown of my tablet to look for any booby traps or easily torn ribbon cables. One of my relatives was nice enough to buy a screen for me, and in about 45 minutes I had the new screen in and the tablet was working like new again. Something not shown in the teardown, was the small digitizer board for the s pen. Thankfully I had not thrown the old screen away, and managed to transplant that no problem. Also curse Samsung for using aerospace grade adhesive in all of their stuff, I mean the stuff could seriously hold a rocket together. These things are not taught in schools, and a lot of kids have 2 divorced parents who have enough combined income to pay to fix / buy another item for the kid when they cry enough. I am very thankful to have 2 parents who are happily married, and have a technically inclined mind. I'm 16.
@@johnrodrigues2018 Open air Works best. Though if people insist on using rice they should use instant rice not regular grains of rice. Granted in open air you'd still want to make sure you have dry conditions. I have a little wooden box and I keep packs of desiccant from other stuff for just such an occasion.
About the divorced parents... I do not know that for sure, but as anecdotal evidence, usually those two men are trying to impress the kid and they do whatever they can to "buy love". It is not only about higher combined income, it is also about willingness to spend that money to show who is the better man. I don't think that they even know that they are competing, it is very natural setup for men, especially in front of the kid and the woman they were (are) emotionally attached to.
@@ragnarok7976 just don't put any food. All it does is dirty and gunk up the device. It will not do anything but make things worse and harder to repair. Just turn off the device and let it air dry for 2 days. It's a stupid myth and anyone who thought it worked was cause it was left to dry regardless.
We have shifted from teaching our kids how to fix things to get the check book out and pay someone to do it. I am quite a few years older than you Louis and when I switched careers mid life from a machinist to doing computer server support in large data centers I seen a big difference in the aptitude of the people I was working with in the computer field. Over 80% were amazed that I could work on my car non computer stuff and computer stuff or fix a faucet in the house or do remodeling work. They could not even fathom working on their cars or had the know how to do so. That is because their parents did not show them or did not know how to show them how to do that stuff. I have a friend who would mock me when i was doing my repairs on my car because he would always tell me that time is money and he could pay someone to do the repair while he did other things to continue making money. I looked at it the other way around...money is time and I would save way more than he could make by doing the repairs, plus i knew it was done to my level of expectation. I grew up like you were I could go out an play all day and be home for dinner...my mom had one major rule...tell her where you are going before you walk out the door or don't walk out the door. In that era they taught us how to act responsible and be responsible for our actions...you do not see that today....I will stop here....thx
"That is because their parents" "Parents" ...plural? Are you joking? Kids aren't supposed to have more than one of those! Though, it wasn't the kids who filed for divorce or never married.
@@actually5004 "parents" means mom and dad. "Parent" means either of them. In the comment you're referring to, they're talking about multiple people, therefore multiple moms and dads too.
Trying to find an apprentice that is halfway useful is proving very difficult. Obviously they are their to learn, but we get these kids with bright white pudgy bodies because they have never been outside, and they cannot operate a drill, more complicated tools, fine, but to operate a drill is such a basic skill. I remember the young kids across the road would spend their pocket money to get the punctures on their pushbikes repaired, sure, Dad should of taught them, but then again, mine didn't teach me, I worked it out myself. Nobody does anything when it comes to using their hands anymore, it really is quite sad.
@@Thecrazyman809 McFly! Anyone home? Hellooooo! Re-read it. It's sarcasm about the push for single parent households, in which these things aren't taught.
@@dirtpounder Heh, what a good reference. I'm glad my Dad taught me most of what he knew about doing things himself. Basic automobile maintenance, a bit of electrical work (some of which I picked up myself), some mechanical work with power tools, etc. What I picked up myself was electronics repair. 2 months ago I had a majorly shitty day, and while thinking about said shitty day I accidentally left my Samsung tablet out in a downpour. After leaving it in rice for a few days, the screen was very messed up but otherwise the tablet worked fine. Rather than sit and cry about it, I did some looking around and found new screens on ebay. I also watched a taredown of my tablet to look for any booby traps or easily torn ribbon cables. One of my relatives was nice enough to buy a screen for me, and in about 45 minutes I had the new screen in and the tablet was working like new again. Something not shown in the teardown, was the small digitizer board for the s pen. Thankfully I had not thrown the old screen away, and managed to transplant that no problem. Also curse Samsung for using aerospace grade adhesive in all of their stuff, I mean the stuff could seriously hold a rocket together. These things are not taught in schools, and a lot of kids have 2 divorced parents who have enough combined income to pay to fix / buy another item for the kid when they cry enough. I am very thankful to have 2 parents who are happily married, and have a technically inclined mind. I'm 16.
The erosion of right to repair here is egregious. We seem to own our purchased electronic and mechanical goods less and less as time goes. Keep fighting the good fight, Louis! 👍
@@brandonwombacher2559 ...and eat insets, because that's as natural as drinking breast milk from another species of animal. I hate to call it the Matrix, so I'll just say, "it's all messed up". Unlearn everying you've been indoctrinated into as a child, open your eyes and see what your soul and your proverbial "gut insincts" tell you - follow and trust those first before "thinking".
Forget battery replacements or repairs for a second... What if you just want to wipe the dust & dead insects that inevitably show up in the crevices of every machine ever built? What if you just want to inspect for rust or water damage? Or, most fundamentally... what if you just want to learn about your own product and see how it's put together?
I'm so glad you're talking about this. I've been a mechanic in the past and I saw this coming in the early 00's. Of course NPC's don't care because they can't, won't, and don't learn anything about anything mechanical and assume it's impossible for someone who doesn't do it for a living to do it themselves
This has been a wet dream for automotive manufactures forever. they were planning all sorts of sabotage to fixing your vehicle for the entire time I was a transmission rebuilder. They planned to remove the dipstick from the transmission. Can't fill it for the sake of a seal leak. Only replace the entire transmission. They tried and it failed miserably. People just swapped drivetrains when it broke down. Not everyone lives in the big city on flat roads. Just wait till enough people are stuck in the woods 3000 miles from home with their still under warranty vehicle that is unrepairable.
Be honest, would you want your customers installing their own transmissions if they were guaranteed to make it your problem after a weekend, 3 other idiots, and a case of beer?
Sounds like gm with their non serviceable trans filters or fords ptu lifetime fluid, no drain plug, sandwiched between a hot manifold cat and engine block. Planned obsolescence.
@@DrSpooglemon They always have… just it’s too much of a shock to normies… they want to abolish drivers license’s too. But again… bit of a controversial idea to most
Mercedes Benz required special MB washer fluid on their low end cars a few years ago. If you did not use MB washer fluid the level warning never went out and kept nagging you. They designed a special sensor to only work with their washer fluid.
To think that Mercedes had a reputation for building the toughest cars on the road. They went from Craftsman, Engineers, Artisans to Conmen, Thieves, and Car Salesmen.
I built my first PC in 1997 when I was 10 and my parents not only bought the parts I needed but let me build the PC BY MYSELF with ZERO babying or even watching me to make sure I didn't hurt my self. Basically I took the parts to the upstairs dinning room table where I was left alone and let me have my fun. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but at least the motherboard came with a huge manual explaining how to put everything together. I do agree that only people who know what they are doing should service vehicles and devices but no-one should be locked out of something they bought. It seems that Mercedes has the mindset that the owner does not actually own the car if they are being denied access to certain areas of it. All the company has to do is issue a warning that they could potentially get hurt by doing certain actions. That alone should be enough to absolve that company of liability if the users disregards the warning and gets injured because they didn't know what they were doing. Also what makes independent repair look so bad are the shoddy repair shops that do subpar repairs and/or rip the customer off or damage the device further and not tell the customer and not pay for the damage or make it right. A few years ago someone's iPhone caught on fire during a plane flight due to a shoddy 3rd party repair because a screw that wasn't property installed punctured the battery. We should be progressing toward more sustainable and repairable products not regressing to completely disposable devices that end up a eWaste and destroy the planet. Another issue is that too many people are stupid and get hurt trying to do stuff they don't know how to do and sue the company that made the product that caused the injury because they injured themselves due to stupidity. The fact that a jar of peanut butter has to say WARNING: CONTAINS PEANUTS is a clear indication that people are stupid. The fact of the matter is that companies only do this to increase their profits, plain and simple. If people stopped buying disposable/unrepairable products, companies might be more included to change. It's just like scalpers, they only do it because they profit from it. If people stopped buying from them, they would stop.
At the age of 13 I fixed a spin dryer that my mother was throwing out because the repair man said it was too expensive to fix....the spade connector on the door safety interlock had vibrated loose from it's terminal. A prescient view of a world that has moved from "no user serviceable parts inside" trough "warranty void if opened" to "glued shut for your own safety" . Same old siht, same old lies.
That's why I like Luis, he understands that this excessive obsession with security and safety is not healthy, but these arguments could not work if the population that is defending and obsessed with these things is not obsessed with them, in the end we are guilty of allowing it in the first place, security and safety above the essential cannot be valid arguments.
How are the kids going to learn? I learned auto repair from a friend of my family whose father had been a Maxwell dealer. He was semi-retired at the time and his business was primarily storing antique automobiles. Some were classics from the 1930's and before. Walter worked mostly by himself. Kids would drop by after school and Walter would ask the reliable ones to do errands. One thing lead to another and by the time I "graduated" from the "Phoenix Garage and Storage Academy," I could have gone into business. Went to college instead. Still do most of my own repairs. Do some on electronics too. You are correct about "Right to Repair" and I am very concerned about future generations being discouraged from taking up electronics or automotive as a hobby. Think about people like Edison or Steve Wosniak. Louis, your work on this subject is very important.
One good thing about that problem is that the few people left that do know are going to be that much more valuable. The problem with that of course is now we have to pick up the slack.
Right to repair doesn't bring profit to big companies it makes them loose money and so they actively will discourage this practises this is what people shoud account for and say that's to perfect economical system wthout one flaw, according to some retards
I know from a firefighter that every electric car need an easy accessible disconnect for the battery. Also it's in discussion to have a non electronic safe discharge possibility for the battery. Both are really handy for people who repair/service their own cars.
If they put a simple interlock to the main breaker relay on the hood, opening it would be perfectly safe, and integrating that into defined crash deformation would also enhance the safety aspect. If the system under the hood of secrecy is so dangerous, then potentially getting the vehicle drenched by driving in heavy rain and flowing gutters would create an even more dangerous situation for passengers or driver touching high potential panels or parts of the car when wet... so engineers use extremely good insulation techniques with multiple layers of sealing, locking and protection, nothing is exposed and nothing is high risk without deliberate action. They are riding the safety BS train all the way to the stealership service bay, then onto the customers bank account for a regular high speed drainage operation...
@@brandonwombacher2559 It's worse. The companies want to sell the mechanics the tools they need to fix the cars to horrendous prices. And the force the customer to only go to these mechanics. It's this way for years in the farming industry. You have to buy a CAN bus reader for 15k€ you can get for 20€ but has a different firmware.
I remember back in the late 1990's Cadillac was considering putting Hood Voids on their vehicles(Voiding the factory Warranty if someone other than a Cadillac Tech does). So for me, this is nothing new, but you SHOULD be able to open your own stuff!
Interesting restrictions on HVAC equipment. My household furnace came with exception documentation, flow charts, schematics, troubleshooting guides. I can access most every component easily including the dangerous gas lines and high voltage electric lines. However, to buy an OEM component from a reputable dealer requires certification. So a simple pressure sensor, worth about $5 will cost me a service call $180 and a component markup to $80. Also, the reason for this component failure was a factory quality issue (switch points are not properly plated causing high impedance with use), so I'm expected to pay $260 for a part that should be covered by the manufacturer in the first place.
Everything dealing with any refrigerants is very heavily regulated at least here in EU. You are not allowed to modify anything in those by law without a proper certification. However, the certification is not manufacturer awarded but result of field specific education.
@@MikkoRantalainen The thing is this isn't for only the refrigerants, it also covers any part of the system, including heating and electrical. A lot of hvac systems in the US have the A/C as an add-on unit, not built in anyway, so you can check the heat without ever touching A/C. I fixed a Lennox heater only, the fricking thing was a pain to get parts for because everything is locked behind a certificate wall. At least I had the parts, so I could buy the parts using the manufacturer numbers, which isn't the same as the company selling the full assembly.
I wonder how would people consider being banned from opening their home circuit breaker if their fuse blows up. Will they wait a week in dark for electrician to come and flip the switch or will they actually open the box and flip the switch.
Wait until construction companies start building homes with robots and then stop giving homeowners the drawings and blueprints of electric/plumbing lines because the homeowners aren’t experts and can harm themselves. If you need any repairs or remodelling just call them instead!
lol people have literally been stranded for days because they were out of wifi range and their tesla needed an update. never underestimate what a libtard will do!
They started this years ago when they got rid of dip sticks. Having proper lubrication is the most important part of engines/transmissions, yet manufacturers made it next to impossible or labor intensive to check the levels and quality of the life blood of your vehicle.
They got rid of dip sticks??? Why? That is _essential_ for older cars, you need to know you don't have an oil leak! Or if you have to add oil if you do.
@@blastortoise some cars still have the tube, but not the stick. You'd have to go buy one from dealer or make a 4ft long metal stick, but how would you know what the appropriate level is? Some cars have sensors built in to let you check electronically and we all know how reliable computers are. Also most require you have a $1000+ computer to access that data. Finally, on cars that don't give you either option, you have to go underneath, remove some covers, remove a random bolt and stick your finger in a hole or count how many drips come out assuming the car is level. So yeah, we can still check our own oil. But what used to take my grandmother 30sec to do herself would now take a qualified mechanic 30 minutes or more.
@@briannem.6787 I have a 97, and while the engine still has a dispstick, even in that era Ford elected to remove the dispstick for the transmission, declaring it "lubricated for life". Pro tip, it definitely isn't unless the life of the vehicle ends with the warranty.
I absolutely love your rants, not because they are fun to watch, because they are, but because people are so afraid of letting of steam on topics like this. Also I think it's a good way to wake people up because when they get a bit worked up because of your rant, they too wake up and do something about it, at least hopefully.
"high voltage, risk of death" warning seems more appropriate. I do think high voltage may be more dangerous than an ice engine. A normal reasonable person can learn to disconnect/deenergize the system pretty easily though. Mercedes should make this procedure readily available and any necessary tools available also. Large industrial high voltage motors are disconnected with a circuit breaker and verified with a multimeter. It's not too difficult to learn but shouldn't be taken lightly.
@@laszu7137 that low a voltage is really quite deadly. It takes less than 100mA to kill a person. That’s a tenth of an Ampere. And to drive said current you really don’t need a whole lot of voltage. Wet skin is quite conducive.
@@laszu7137 In comparison to high voltage power lines maybe. 30V AC or 50V DC is enough to get through the skin barrier, that is high enough voltage to be dangerous.
@@Daschickenify There is literally a definition of what is considered low and what high voltage and it is written in standards like ANSI C84.1-1989, IEE 141-1993 or IEC (60038) standards. For DC by IEC by definition HIGH voltage is defined as: "High voltage is classified as having the potential to cause injury or harm." and it is considered to be more than 1500V DC and for AC it is considered to be more than 1000V. And 120-1500V DC and 50-1000V AC it is considered low voltage. Voltages below 50VAC and 120V DC are considered as extra-low voltage and classified as a very low risk.
Along these lines Louis, I think the biggest culture shock I had while living in Mexico, was all the unsafe things they had there. No crosswalks to speak of, one single traffic light, holes or branches, or trees across the sidewalk, medicines you don't need a prescription for, and jars that don't need special pushing down and then twist kind of thing that we have here. You had to be aware of the very sidewalk at all times. In the US we expect to be protected no matter how stupid we are. One of the most egregious things was this guy who used his cell phone on Mt. Hood in the summer because a summer storm had come in and he wasn't prepared. This wasn't the first time he had done this, and in fact the rescuers noticed he was climbing the mountain with flip flops on his feet.
@@Jenny-tm3cm What people? The rich are the only ones who can afford to. I never know a single person who sued other then through car accidents through insurance or possible malpractice operations in the medical field. Shouldn't we all know someone who sues all the time if its so common?
I see you missed the part about rear wheel steering being a subscription service as well. According to AMS Peport, everyone gets 4.5 degrees of steering angle, but if you want full 10 degree steering, you need to pay 489€ annually or 1,169€ every 3 years.
Gearhead here. I agree with you Louis, though as someone that has a healthy respect for high voltage electricity, I should caution people that the HV Batteries on Hybrid and Electric cars operate in the 300V to 500V range. That, with the amperages the batteries have is more than enough to stop your heart, so you need to be careful with them. A few tips for those that want to work on them: 1. If you need to do any electrical work on those cars, disconnect the battery. There's usually a disconnect somewhere on or near the battery that you can pull. 2. If you need to do any work on the battery itself, and have to remove it from the car, be mindful that it's heavy. They can weigh in at half a ton or more, so prepare accordingly. 3. Buy the service manual for your car (or use a service like AllData) to get exact instructions for you car's make and model. You'll need wiring diagrams if you're doing any electrical work on your car. Wiring things wrong could cause parts to not work in the best case, or start a fire in the worst case. 4. High voltage cables in cars are colored orange for easy identification. 5. Final tip: know how to electrically insulate yourself when necessary. If you don't know how, then learn to do it properly.
The fact we have warnings on children's scooters that say "WARNING: THIS PRODUCT MOVES WHEN USED" tell me all I need to know about how stupid companies think we are. Until you've got enough money to hire a lawyer of course...
2020 and 2021 taught these corporations that people will trade freedom for the illusion of safety. Saying that it is for safety reasons removes scrutiny from the decision.
Even if you don't understand how an EV or an ICE works, opening up the hood from time to time and just looking for irregularities with your eyes can save you a lot of money and time. I myself have an ICE car, and I open up the hood occasionally. There were occasions when I saw something irregular there and drove to the repair shop in the next few days. This saved me time and money, because I prevented something big issue to happen. Many times there are precursors for the bigger issues, and some of these can be heard (like tire or suspension issues) but some of these can be easily seen under the hood (like leakages for example). So yes, I'm definitely the person who wants to open up the hood from time to time even if I'm not a mechanic at all.
I legit just designed one in my head while reading your comment. It is that simple of a device. Although it might cause more problems then necessary. Might just be easier and cheaper to just let people be responsible for their own safety...
@@dogwalker666 well, you can, by touching the positive terminal and then finding a good ground. However , this usually takes a fair amount of intent to do... Unless you have a 2002 Buick regal and aren't paying attention while disconnecting the positive terminal, then your socket wrench might be long enough to find the engine, which makes an excellent ground...
I feel ICE should have a kill switch to prevent you from opening the hood if it's running. I cant tell you how many times i thought I was going to get mamed trying to open the hood of the random company vehicle I had for the shift. When its dark and the engine is running stuff can happen. Some of the odd cabovers can put you werid places.
When I was young (yeah that was a long time ago) I watched my friend's grandfather rebuild the engine to his Ford pickup on a kitchen table. I had another friend who owned 4 Opel GTs; 1 to drive and 3 "parts cars" because he did all the repairs himself. There were also appliance repair shops all over which fixed TVs, stereos, fans, vacuum cleans, etc instead of just throwing them out. A few months ago when my Cuisinart toaster over stopped working I called customer service to ask about replacement parts and I was told there aren't any. If it's no longer under warranty they expect you to throw it out and buy a new one. And just about every stove made today with a circuit board controller? After about 5 years you can't get them anymore so you need a new stove. My mom's gas stove with no electronic parts is 70 years old and she has no plans on replacing it because it works fine. Now get off my lawn!!!
"If it's no longer under warranty they expect you to throw it out and buy a new one": I'd just flat out tell them that I'd be happy to buy a DIFFERENT BRAND in that case. :)
If they have to seal your hood to prevent you from getting in from a safety perspective, it is because they have failed to make the vehicle reasonably safe internally, in the first place. The Engineering design is incomplete and they should return to design phase to rectify the shortcomings.
I just took my car to the dealer they told me I had to pay 1500 plus tax to replace the struts. I bought them online OEM for 350.00 did it myself in 1.5 hours watching a video online. I will never buy a car that I can not fix myself or at least have the option. same with my mac pro, apple told me they would fix the screen for 1,000 or more but recommended I just buy a new mac. watched Louis Rossmann video and fixed my computer just by opening, pulling battery ribbon off and reinstalling it. fixed it without further issues. Thank you Louis for fighting the right to repair battle.
If they're using the safety argument, well then why do we ALLOW them to make and sell us such DANGEROUS vehicles?? By their own definition these vehicles could KILL us!!!! ...at any moment....
As a former car mechanic (even worked for Mercedes, coincidentally) and still prideful do-it-yourself handyman, I always hated customers coming in to have the tiniest shit fixed like replacing a headlight bulb or a fuse. It occurred to me that two things were happening simultaneously: people were slowly losing interest in and understanding of technology ("I don't care how my car works, I just drive it.") and at the same time they were becoming scared of potentially breaking something and/or voiding their warranty. Nowadays I drive trucks for a living. And it anything breaks underway (which happens rather frequently because modern trucks are brittle pieces of shit), I have two options. Wait potentially *hours* for a service vehicle to arrive and fix my problem, or fix it by myself in 20 minutes and be on my merry way again. And you bet your ass I value my time over not getting dirty hands.
as a HD "semi" truck mechanic 20 years ago when I started most owner operators carried spares to do there own repairs NOW most of them do NOT even know what an alternator is
I had a car where you had to remove the battery and remove part of the fender to change a lightbulb. Absolute pain in the ass. I paid someone else to do it. But even the people I paid to do it hated doing it.
Of course manufacturers themselves made what should be simple processes untenable for the average person. Back in the day, you'd pop the hood, unplug the bulb, turn a clip 90°, and the bulb would come out. Equally simple to put the new bulb in. Now to do the same, you'd have to take half the body work trim on the front off under the hood, try not to break or lose the pop-clips if you can help it (or have spares of the correct size), pull off some shroud or other, then pull another set of retaining clips for the headlight lens assembly, half drop that out without scratching up the body work, then unplug the bulb, then remove the whole assembly to get at the actual light bulb. Then do all that in reverse while not trying to break anything or mess up the part that keeps the headlight in proper alignment which is tricky given the bulk and weight of the assembly. Even better yet, try that where you don't have a garage and its freezing outside in winter and can't feel your own fingers. So what should be a simple stupid job under 5 minutes you could do yourself becomes a half hour or more ordeal with a lot more to go wrong that's not exactly easy and costs a few shop hour$$$ to get done. Such things are blatantly anti-consumer and designed for people to have to bring them to the shop.
When doing my workplace safety course, the biggest thing we covered is how stupid people are, and the importance on proper engineering of safety systems. Actions like this only makes this more dangerous, because no matter how many warnings you place, someone will always hurt themselves. Instead you need to engineer safety into a device so you can safely opened the hood. If anything this is a backwards step for safety.
I was born in '80. Used to go outside on my own all the time. Parents are suffocating kids with overprotectiveness. I blame the schools and their "No violence" policies where they punish the victim along side the attacker for making people think they need authority figures to fight their battles for them.
I think one of the problems is that people either don't know how or more importantly how difficult it actually is to fix certain things. In cars for example, some things that sound difficult to change like an alternator isn't difficult at all and literally only needs 2-3 bolts taken off and just some basic knowledge and doing it yourself will save u some good money.
@@satsumagt5284 ok fair enough some cars are a pain for different things. I can recall my 04 v6 mustang's spark plugs being stupidly difficult to change because they made 2 passenger side plugs blocked by alot of the piping for the radiator and other stuff. That being said generally I've found it pretty easy to get too in most cars I've seen.
You are spot on here, Louis! I have a friend who owns a Tesla. Something broke and he had to drive two hours to get it fixed and book the appointment several weeks in advance. Also, when I was a kid in the seventies we walked to and from elementary school alone. From age five to age ten. Plus played outside constantly with no adult supervision. Car!!!
Louis is very much correct on ALL levels. For many years (28+) I personally repaired TV's and many things alike with the availability of "FULL" highly detailed schematic diagrams showing every last individual component with "COMPLETE" component part number listings. These were known as "SERVICE MANUALS". The vast majority of TV's on the market today have what they call service manuals with believe it or not, flow charts. These ridiculous flow charts guide the service personnel to check numerous points (voltages etc.). If this point measures this voltage and that point measures that voltage, then replace this particular "entire PCB". Meanwhile in reality something perhaps as small as a $0.04 transistor or even a $0.003 capacitor may actually be the faulty component. But of course if they provided the "FULL" service information that does guide the educated folk to the negligible component that is actually at fault, the manufacturer couldn't then supply a complete PCB that perhaps cost them $5 (in mass production) and charge $200-$800 for it. Yes, it did cost the company quite a substantial investment to design and manufacture the PCB in the first place, but hey, the end user has already paid for the product, so is it REALLY essential they set themselves up to make further extreme profits by unnecessarily selling entire PCB's? NO! An electric vehicle really is no different. They just want to ensure they can continue to further line their wallets into the future from a product they have already made money from. Ultimately there is absolutely nothing stopping a manufacturer from designing something electrically dangerous in a way that disconnects any lethal potential from an exposed area when accessed by service personnel. Bottom line is that manufacturers don't want you to access your purchased items because quite bluntly that may void them from making further profits from the customer. Security and safety is a complete bullshit excuse.
I love being able to take apart my car, but the massive shift toward "No no, only the dealer should do this" has made me completely averse to looking into anything not nearly as old as I am.
Your dad was entirely correct. In the 60’s I was a kid in a suburb close to DC and on Saturday mornings after breakfast and Saturday morning cartoons we were chased outside and told to not come back till dinner. And if we hurt ourselves or got into trouble then we would get a beating for being stupid. We would literally pedal our Sears bikes about 10 miles out and back.
Its BS like this which is why I am so determined to keep my old trucks running one way or another, going so far as to equipping my own shop space with tools and equipment along with educating myself on how to repair them.
It's amazing how much older equipment is available for cheap now that cars are further transitioning away from serviceability. I recently had some valve issues in one of my vehicles, and acquired a whole valve/seat grinding and finishing setup for less than what the machine shop quoted me to do the work.
@@LN997-i8x very cool it's also a load of fun to take stuff apart, fix it, put it back together, and it works( the first time lol)...just always be sure when you pull a head you check everything for flatness.
Im a car mechanic in germany, we do need a further education because of the high voltage system (mostly safety messures). A independent car safety check institution like TüV or DEKRA will provide you with a course and your employer probably pay vor it. With that permission you can offically repair every high voltage system relatet to cars forever. By the way my teachers always told me to not touch any other voltage than low voltage unless you are properly instructed. People do die because of lack of knowledge.
I seem to recall that Rolls Royce or some such had a locked hood. Owners were not allowed to work on it. There was some court case and they had to remove the locks. That was very long ago (50+ years)
In my experience as a technician every single other person I know whom also has become a professional working on cars or pretty much anything else started out as a kid tinkering with stuff. That curiosity and learning curve has to start somewhere. On a side tangent defect that virtually all new cars come with a touch screen interface and do not come from the factory with onboard diagnostic abilities along with the ability to put the various components of the car into service mode from that screen is asinine. The only reason that they don't do that is corporate greed!
or... maybe they just don't want to spend time and resources developing a user friendly interface that people who have no idea about the inner workings of that car could understand and program all of that shit into the Media Nav of the car? Also, the computer inside the Touch screen console is usually very limited in terms of storage space and processing power. Cluttering it with useless things (for most people, there are very few people that would want diagnostic features in their car, let's be honest now) would only make it less responsive, harder to navigate, more expensive to manufacture and harder to bug test and update. Remember those Over The Air updates most cars get nowadays? Why would they make a 200mb download a 500mb download only to include features most people don't even want or need? You have to understand that the Media system of a car runs a very limited proprietary operating system, it's not really a full fledged normal PC, this keeps the costs low. Could they put an actual 2000$ PC in there? Yes. Would you like to pay 1900$ more for your car because of that? Probably not...
"You will own nothing and you will be happy". It's part of it. Part of not being able to repair your own car or access your own treadmill that you paid for. It's a move from owning to subscription-based and service-based everything. It's atrocious.
so, let me get this straight... to "protect" the customer, they made it impossible for anyone but the dealer to turn off the high voltage lines?? that is their idea of keeping people SAFE??? you dont have to be working on a high voltage connection for a high voltage connection to kill you, or a giant lithium ion either, so if something goes horribly wrong, you cant stop it. even if they somehow made it so you couldnt service it, thats one thing, but making it so that you literally cant sever a dangerously powerful electrical connection in the event of a malfunction is just the stupidest thing ive ever heard, someones going to die and its going to be their fault
The act of disconnecting high voltage lines carries the highest risk of potential failure and/or death from a high voltage system. Arcing kills the untrained. If engine oil were a deadly neurotoxin it still wouldn't be as unpredictably dangerous.
@@actually5004 right, which is another good reason they shouldnt be restricting the service mode that automatically powers down the high voltage lines, as stated, there is that computer controlled disconnect that can be engaged, most likely from inside the cabin either with a scan tool or with the in dash readout, but customers are locked out of it, so the one good safe way to kill the high voltage, is being restricted... endangering people by refusing to let them turn off the high voltage is not a very good way to keep them from working on the car themselves, theyre using threat of death as a deterrent
How is not including an easily accessible HV disconnect even legal. I thought those were required to be accessible for emergency workers, in the case of destructive passenger extraction in the event of an accident (eg. jaws of life)? A person performing repair or an emergency worker should both have every right to be able to find and access such a feature, so they can safely do what they need to do with an EV.
@@richfiles that's the part I find the most disgusting besides the not permitted The prius battery shut of thing is in the back under the trunk cover not the most easily accessible thing in the world but its there if you need it (the 12v battery is also around here so maybe not the worst placement unless you got tailgated )
@@meki___6881 , Toyota has said they placed it there as in all of their crash testing the lower trunk area was always accessible. They didn't want there to be a likelihood that a normal accident could make safety features more difficult to access.
I don't usually comment on videos, but I feel I must on this one... Looking back I am happy as hell that I was allowed to play outside unattended with my friends and given the latitude to figure things out on my own. It is something that shaped me to be independent and self-reliant. I absolutely let my son do the same which I feel will give him an advantage in life. Helicopter, or worse snowplow parents, are handicapping their children!! Love you Louis, keep making great videos, and I will keep watching them!!
Granted, when the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius came out, I was a volunteer firefighter and we had to go through special training on where not to a hybrid car. Turns out these high voltage wires were in the same place on both cars because of regulations. But yeah, you can freely buy the cells to rebuild a Prius battery yourself. Number 2, in the automotive field we often joke about the Subaru "ring of fire". When you do an oil change you have to thread your arm through the 2 catalytic converters; which are generally extremely hot when doing an oil change.
The car manufacturers need to start including pacifiers that deploy in case of emergency when the car breaks...... just so the user has something to comfort them, while they wait for the company to save them.
Might as well, the alternative seems to be watching them die because people just don't realize how dangerous standing around in the freeway after an accident is.
Well said. I thought of the movie The Adjustment Bureau when you said security safety just like they did in the movie when they were about to capture and retain someone. I know enough basics to repair many of my own electronics when it comes to larger solder points or mechanics. When I get new tech after the short 30 warranty I like to open them up to see how they work but if I don't know what I am doing I just don't try to fix it myself. I turn to online videos for help.
You gave me a new insight into wanting an electric car now. I was blind until I watched this and thought no one could really fix a used Tesla, saw Riches channel then saw yours, Awesome information! Thankyou
"Most owners do not self-service." First off, as of right now, maybe. Secondly, how would they know that? I assume the same applies here with not owning your telemetry data either?
they know VIN of the cars they manifacture and almost all repair shops (independent or not) have access to vehicle history database. So if a VIN is still registered to be on the streets but hasn´t had any service for a long time it was probably selfserviced. All other services by shops are put into the database... at least here in europe...
Ive always self serviced, learned it all from My dad who's an electrician and technician. When i was a teenager helping him change a battery, the wrench slipped out of my hand and made contact between the two terminals of the battery. It would have exploded had he not smacked it off in time. The wrench itself had melted where it made contact with the other terminal.
alos, waht does self service mean? If someone changes their summer tires to winter tires, does that count as self-service? Or do you need to do even more?
I may not self service some of my work on my car but I do a lot of my own work. Oil changes exhaust spark plugs, wires, fuel Injectors just because I went into a shop to have 1 part put in because it was a pain in the ass doesn't mean I don't self service my car
I mean atleast when you pay those stupid prices, you generally dont open it either, you give it to a mechanics friend that knows more. Because those parts costs more than a normal persons whole car does.
Few months ago I cracked the oil pan on my internal combustion vehicle. The mechanic wanted around $250 to fix it so I did it myself with my friend for around $60. Sure I could have died, the car could have fallen on me because we don't have the expensive equipment to lift it up properly but a plane could have also crashed in my back yard. Yet it didn't. Also how are you gonna sell or buy a car if you can't open the hood? How will you be able to make a decision to spend thousands of dollars on a car if you can't see the state of the most important and most expensive part of the vehicle? Or are they gonna disallow us from selling cars next? Well that's probably the direction the future is headed....
My vehicle has batteries with several thousand amps and liquid with the highest BTU value of any common fuel. I have an old diesel truck with an engine that was designed in the late 1930's. I haven't killed myself despite some REALLY bone-headed mistakes. I'm guessing engineers of the "olden" days were just plain better at designing fault tolerance and fail-safes. It's stunning that modern engineers are essentially admitting their incompetence.
Hmm. I don't know, when it comes to computer parts you can assemble yourself, they are pretty durable nowadays. Motherboards, graphics cards, CPUs- you can do some big, boneheaded mistakes and it'll be fine.
@@Olivia-W A couple of bad old examples: AT power supplies where you could get the connectors around the wrong way (i.e. put the grounding wires on the outside). 486 and older cpus that could be mounted rotated as the pin pattern allowed it, the direction triangle was still on the sockets/cpu package substrate, but could easily be ignored.
@@ic_trab Ooh, I dismantled two such old clunkers recently. Modern PC parts are much more idiot proof. You have to be really trying to kill them or plug stuff in the wrong way.
If you want to live your life worrying about "safety and security", Australia has some nice rooms for you, the only dopes to buy such a vehicle will be those that show up at met galas wearing "tax the rich" dresses
You are absolutely spot on! The way they have done this is absolutely an anti-right-to-repair move. I really hope other manufacturers don't follow suit (looking at you Tesla) similar to what happened with non-removable batteries and headphone jacks in laptops and phones (looking at you Samsung and Google). Even that litany of warnings seems to designed to frighten people, "programming" them to be wary of self service. Now, of course in an EV there really isn't that much stuff that *needs* to be in the hood that requires service. So when I originally heard about the EQS hood, combined with the the neat little slide-out they have outside for the windshield washer fluid, I thought that they had actually made the hood a structural part of the body... as in physically not openable. That would have been an interesting choice because that might have given the engineers some additional options for enhanced crash protection... Basically don't put anything in the hood that even *needs* to be serviced frequently and package your crumple zones for maximum safety and minimum weight., with the only way to access those parts being from below. That's a situation where I might've been willing to consider the pros and cons, weighing safety against repairability.
thank you for saying the truth to the people and trying to tell people that they will be fooled. Unfortunately, there is not much people like you and even fewer people that actually cares whatever they and other people will be fooled or not. People complains that the companies are unfair to their customer, but supports it by them self.
My grandfather died when his rv slipped off of a jack stand and the brake rotor crushed his pelvis and pinned him under it. The hydraulic ram on the transmission jack failed on my brother-in-law and it snapped his arm in half. It's a risk that we take, and as auto makers move to a model of charging consumers $20,000 for a damaged $5 part, it is a risk that will and should be taken more often.
Ferrari is basically the same way and has been for a long time! You have to have special tools only certified Ferrari mechanics have. Heck, even oil changes are a nightmare. “Non-customer serviceable”
Interesting note: Chrisfix, a young car enthusiast/mechanic opened a prius and replaced its battery unit, while Scotty Kilmer, a mechanic supposedly in the industry forever, says not to. Opposite to typical, where the young guy is more risk averse and the older one more focused on repairability.
Listening to this, it is amazing that IKEA is still allowed to operate. A company built on the idea that you are supposed to handle potential harmful tools, assembling furniture that may tumble and crush you.
They have to assemble it for you in store, only Ikea Certified Furniture specialist. You are not allowed to assemble your own furniture.
@@franciscojacobo2341 no?
@@owenoreilly_20 it was sarcasm about the future.
IKEA is such utter garbage that they would need a disclaimer such as that just to be protected from themselves.
😁
Right to repair is simply a consequence of REAL ownership.
Not an extension, it's a fundamental part of ownership
@@joshm264 💯
@@joshm264 I meant extension as a logical conclusion, so I changed phrasing to consequence. You're right.
Have you guys missed the "You'll own nothing, and be happy" World Economic Forum slogan? It's all going according to plan
@@joshm264 actually, you'll own nothing and be happy.
Opening the hood on an electric vehicle doesn't expose any high voltage components. All of the connections to the traction battery are fully insulated, as are the cables and other components connected to them. They are generally bright orange as well, as a further warning.
The only way anyone could be shocked by the 400 volts DC would be to start slicing through cables, unbolting connections and doing all the other things that would result in serious injury or death on an internal combustion engine vehicle as well.
All EVs have a traction battery disconnect, which will disconnect it with a single pull of a lever or handle. Typically marked with a warning label which is clearly visible once the hood is open.
Not permitted to open the hood is total BS, and is there for the single reason of ensuring the 'owner' takes the vehicle back to the main stealers every time it requires any form of repair or maintenance.
Yes. That argument about safety, I find it very funny. In a way, they are telling you their product is so poorly made it can kill you by opening it up.
To the next brand or lobbyist that gives this shit argument, the correct answer is. "Are you telling me your product is dangerous? Then why didn't you make it safe? Is it not the responsibility of the brand to make a safe product?" They will have to say their product is inherently dangerous (and they will never do it), or admit it is not dangerous because they engineered it properly, so all this locking uses out is made with malice.
Yea if these things were that dangerous then driving them would be as well. Anyways lots of armchair electricians out there who haven’t died learning how to do their own electrical stuff from books in their home. And that is seriously dangerous. Maybe home makers need to disallow people from working on their own houses.
@@asificam1 if you can get an arc from touching something, then driving it isn’t safe. That’s it.
Exactly.
I am sure people will need "Special tools" for opening hood
As one of our founding fathers said,
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither."
That applies to safety as well, as far as I'm concerned.
I was about to tweet the quote, but when looking up which of the founding fathers said it, I realised it didn’t really work as the link above explains..
At least take a little effort to get the quote right, and give the whole thing. Living in a society inherently involves sacrificing some freedom for the sake of more security. Carrying this too far is where you get into problems.
It's a Ben Franklin quote. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." We tend to use the quote in the wrong context, but I think you even got close to the original context here.
I feel like this one gets used often enough but not in the right situations, but this is a perfect application of that warning.
@@ronaldgarrison8478 Who gives a shit if he cites the entire quote? We still get the idea.
Regarding high voltages in EV's, here's a fun fact.
In the 1940's through the early 60's, practically every pharmacy had a tube tester in them (vacuum tubes for radios, TV's, etc). The radios and TV's that these tubes were installed in operated at high voltages internally, 200-300vdc isn't uncommon. Couple that to the fact that the transformerless models that came out in the 50's had no transformer to isolate the internal supply. The line voltage was simply rectified to DC and that was that. These radios didn't gave polarized plugs, so you, the owner, had a 50/50 chance of plugging in the plug 'backwarda', which would make the housing of the radio (at the time, often metal) become high voltage, instead of neutral.
Going back to the tube testers in pharmacies, it was expected that you the owner would know how to service it to an extent. To be able to pull a tube out, take it to the pharmacy, test it and buy a replacement if it was bad. That was expected, even of 'simple housewives'. The same radio that was 200vdc+ inside.
70 years later, here we are, going backwards.
And they usually switched the neutral so even if you swap out the cord for a polarized plug you still have potentially live high voltage electronics inside. Most people restoring them also move the switch to the hot/live side just for safety.
@@rasungod0 yup, absolutely correct!
There was a department store near me that still had a tube tester in the 80's.
That _is_ a fun fact. No advancement in manned space exploration, loss of passenger supersonic flight...
I remember going to radio shack with my dad to get tubes for our tv. Sometime around 1980. I actually have a bench mount vacuum tube tester in my garage. Just haven't had any tubes to check.....
Not providing the right tools and access and information sounds way more dangerous than letting people try and figure stuff out the hard way
Exactly
All available for purchase on the MB website and in thousands of dealership parts departments worldwide.
@@radman999 including diagnostic software and specialized tools? Just curious because I have my doubts.
Thats because it is.
@@radman999 even for an EQS?
To the people about to rage in the comment section, yes, you are actually able to open the hood in spite of that message, and I read that in the video very clearly. It doesn't change the fact that a car manufacturer actually felt comfortable writing a message telling you that you are "not permitted" - not that you are advised not to, but not permitted to open the hood of your own car.
When taken into consideration that new EVs don't always make available the parts and tools to repair them, and the shifting landscape away from a repairable world for cars, appliances, medical equipment, it is not a far cry to suggest that the existence of this type of message is an instance of "putting the tip in" before you get the full shaft of a completely unrepairable vehicle. Right to repair, or the loss of it, over the past 30 years has been a death by 100,000 cut situation, and I see the emboldening of manufacturers to the point where they feel confident displaying this message on the vehicle to be a large one of those cuts.
They will control the vehicle, like Apple with their phones, you never own it you just pay for the privilege of using it. Cars with remote kill options for police, just imagine what they can and will do with "your" car.
This is why i wont buy EVs unless i know how to change the stuff in it. Stuff like kill switchs and privacy stuff.
Protect themselves from liability?
It's a paesant and overlord model. You are suposed to be a disposable robot that works in order to pay rent and subscriptions to the people that OWN the corporations.
For most of human history lords owned everything and paesents owned nothing.
They are using usefull idiots and the pretext of safety to achive it.
Its called learning how your property works and for some reason they don't want you to know
I have looked through mercedes dealership manuals from 1985 to 2018. It's very interesting to see how things have changed over the years. On the older models there are often instructions included to make your own special tools for a particular job and how to repair parts themselves. There are service limits included and instructions about what is fixable and how it can be done. On the newer models it's basically "if it fails replace the whole assembly".
"access by the customer"
They were the customer when they went into the store and purchased the vehicle.
They are now the OWNER.
Bingo.
This just shows the direction the automotive industry is heading in.
Another example: this car has also rear-axle-steering, but instead of it just being enabled by default, the owner has to subscribe to the feature for 3 years for roughly 1.2k USD. Imagine paying 100k+ for a car and then having certain *mechanical*(!) features locked behind a subscription paywall. This is just prime evidence of the shift away from product owners, towards service customers.
Well you have to rent the steering....
@@basmca1 If you don't pay the subscription, only one wheel turns. Don't worry! You have a 2 year free trial!
I'm not going to pay for a dog that I have to feed and maintain if it still has the old owner leashed to it. Why would I do that for a car or anything else?
If you're driving a car, you're already doing something more dangerous than opening the hood. If people think that locking owners from servicing a vehicle is good idea because "they might hurt themselves", then you should also be in favour of banning regular people from driving cars. Obviously something that dangerous should be left to qualified, professional drivers only.
The question that should be asked here, is why opening the hood doesn't automatically engage service mode. This is something practically every furnace does as it improves safety for not only normies who pop open the front without knowing what they are doing, but also service personal who might forget to turn it off first. People, qualified or not, make mistakes.
Yeah but car's ain't furnaces. If your furnace service mode malfunctions you're not gonna lock up the wheels while going down the high way are ya?
@@TheRealSykx why should a car be so horrifically overengineered that opening the hood could put the car at risk of randomly locking up at high speeds?
cars already wont let you turn them off without putting them in park for example, basic safety measures have been in place a long time
no no no don’t give them ideas! i can imagine insurance companies refusing to insure cars that don’t have self driving capabilities, or charging massive premiums for it.
@@skeletor7928 yeah, that would make no sense! Only 94% of car accident are human error!
Please don't give them ideas
This is a car manufacturers wet dream. They have been trying to do this since the 60's. They always tell you to take it to the dealer which any car guy knows is a waste of money. Dealers' repairs are always at least double for the exact same thing any other mechanic charges and in a different universe when it comes to fixing it yourself. For all those ev proponents, this is why it will not happen.
And the fact that lobbyists were able to get laws in favor of dealerships controlling the industry should've gotten people up in arms over their politicians interests. All these people were only interested in was money and power.
thing is, those prices will not stay at 4-5 times the normal repair price but will gradually also go up
As I recall, Honda tried this shit about twenty-five years ago. The hood was literally bolted to the car and had to be removed to even change the oil. Even Honda owners were super-pissed. That game ended REALLY fast.
@@nferraro222 Replacing hinges and latches with bolts is one thing. Writing out that the owner IS NOT PERMITTED is way worse.
Yet in current year when companies pull this kind of BS, there are owners with products of said company who would defend this. Any Suit dumb enough to suggest this nonsense should be bolted to the hood and driven of a cliff.
Another point. Going through a customs border check and you are ordered to pop the hood (to check for contraband). I am fairly certain that they will not accept "the manufacturer said it was illegal under any circumstances to open the hood". One stop trip to car being impounded till they can get to look in there, and that will probably be at your expense.
bill/sue the car company then.
I think you're right about freedom when we were kids (I was born in the UK in 1965). At the age of about 13 or 14, I had a mains/battery cassette player. On the back was the then-relatively-recent warning of 'no user-serviceable parts inside'. I had had the unit for a while and heavily used it (it was used in the main for loading games into my ZX Spectrum computer). The Play button, a plastic button, broke. The first thing I did (after unplugging it, obviously) was get a screwdriver and unscrew the fixing screws and open it up. Having identified the fault and realising that gluing the two bits of plastic forming the button wouldn't work, I told my mum that I was going to go down town to the electronics repair shop (a ten minute bike ride away, including along a main road) to see if they could help. When I got there, they told me that they could order in the buttons, but only a full set, so I paid a deposit on the full set and picked them up a week later. Then I put the new button in, tested it (on battery) to make sure it worked before putting it back together (after having spent a while looking round the other bits of the machine out of sheer nosiness). A few months later another button failed and I already had the spare to fix it. That player lasted a long while for numerous uses. Trouble is, I think nowadays I think I would have found it harder (1) to unscrew the device without a special tool, (2) find a repairer that could get the parts (3) find a repairer who was prepared to supply parts without insisting they repaired it, which would have effectively made it cheaper to buy a new one. And nowadays, many parents wouldn't have even allowed their child to try.
Same age.. When I was 12-13 my father used to get old tv's from the dump for me to fix.. then he taught me to weld so I could build a trailer for my bike and go get my own.. The tip was just off the A49
the knowledge gained has lasted me a lifetime.
Gladly I was born in 2000 and they allow me to remove trim pieces and etcetera from their cars as I wish
I remember buying an early colour TV from a jumble sale for 50p, getting it home and whipping the back off and trying to fix it. Surprisingly I'm still alive.
@@therealchayd Are you sure? ;)
Spot on. Thanks for sharing.
There's a big difference between pulling a valve and saying "you might *die* if you open it" and saying you're not allowed to point blank.
pretty sure that has alot todo with the north american culture of getting rich of law suits ;)
@@magnifikus3 True. That's why I don't mind if a company gives warnings or puts scary stickers on top of dangerous components. It's not (necessarily) their fault that the US is so lawsuit happy.
Honestly I agree with boths sides. It should be idiot proof levels of safe and no ICE vehickes aren't. However I'm a professional idiot and also want the choice to disregard warnings. I enjoy the comforts electric vehicles offer. I hope to afford to take one around a race track one day.
@@nes999 The standard internal combustion engine isn't even idiot proof under the hood for a sufficient level of idiocy, but the dangers are well known and today, well labeled. Serious electricity is something that could surprise many in a deadly or destructive manner. Still, big lightning bolt stickers with stick figures of a human getting fried, complete with x'ed out eyes, would seem to suffice to warn most idiots.
@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 MOST. :D.
"Right to Access" is a necessary cause in the right to repair movement. Mandating that all components be non-destructively accessible, where possible, at minimum.
Most people could have anything in their phone and wouldn't know the difference, much less be able to repair it without access.
"Right to Records" is another, allowing customers to request any relevant documentation, including wiring schematics, like those you use for repairs.
These are fundamental building blocks for right to repair's success. Without law controlling either of them, a manufacturer could subvert r2r after it is made law.
See, that's how shitty our system is we have to be so specific.
Right to Repair encapsulates those philosophies as well.
Same. I was raised with the "Streetlight" rule from when I was 6 years old.
When the streetlights come on, you start heading home or you call from wherever you are to explain why you'll be late or not coming home (like friends mother inviting you to stay for dinner with them).
Parents also increased the allowed unsupervised distance from the home by a block a year until junior high -- which was three miles away. At that point, basically was allowed to go anywhere in town solo.
Seems sad more parents don't do this now: it's a fantastic way to both give and test how responsible/reliable your children are before they get to highschool and end up being morons the second they're out of your eyesight because you're a hover parent that has never let them have any freedom so they go insane at every opportunity.
Them: "It's so dangerous to work on an electric car that it should only be done by specific shops that we allow"
Me: "Ok, but I can just hire one of the millions of electrical contractors/ or even learn myself, to safely wire my entire house right?"
You know CRT tv's and monitors could kill you too but there are numerous repair shops that do it.
my brother is a truck driver, last month he had to change the engine oil(a Mercedes truck), he got an annoying oil warning and the menu got locked, he was not able to check the oil level/color manually(no stick) so the only option was Mercedes service, he paid 5 times the normal payment for similar oil changing service + 2 new filters
You can of course do that if you want, but they'll have to void your warranty. And with good reasons: once you open up the device on your own, then they have no way to know whether any existing issues originated during manufacturing or were caused by you or your contractors.
@@skaruts that's horseshit as well.
If they QC inspected their product then they'll know whether or not you modified it.
@@mowgli2071 I didn't say anything to the contrary of what you're saying, so if I'm talking horseshit, then so are you.
The point that you missed is that there might be issues they wouldn't be able to identify the exact cause with full certainty if you've already tinkered with it.
@@skaruts "...they have no way to know..."
*AS I SAID ONCE ALREADY* , that's horseshit.
AND FUCKING AGAIN, if they did QC on their product, THEN THEY DO HAVE A WAY TO KNOW.
It's hysterical that Louis emphasizes again and again, the issue is the phrasing "Not permitted" but critics choose to completely ignore that and argue about something that he isn't even saying.
You're not permitted to open it if you want an valid warranty. Really not seeing the issue here. If anything breaks under there while under warranty they're gonna fix it, if it breaks after warranty you can open it up and fix it. Where's the problem? People just don't like being told what they can and cannot do? Ah now i understand.
@@TheRealSykx that's not how warranties work.
The burden of proof is on the manufacturer. Unless they can prove that you broke the product, the warranty is still valid.
@@hueanao sure.. this is to dissuade people that don't know that and are likely dumb enough to break something
@@TheRealSykx Well the way they are "dissuading people" is by misrepresenting how their warranty works. Is that not scummy?
@@Astrothunder_ nah that's typical ;)
100% agreed. Seems to me that EV automakers could design these systems to make them serviceable in a safe way. They could compartmentalize/enclose dangerous parts, make things plug and play, include shut-offs, provide tools and manuals, etc. But it obviously benefits them to create a revenue model that ensures customers keep returning to them for future repairs.
@@jackd.ripper9216 There is a difference between "capitalist pig" and "chroney capitalism aka fascism aka communism". Planned obsolescence is the way of fascists and communists. Since they make sure that you always need them. The actual capitalist way is a well regulated free market. A market where if someone decided to do this garbage, their brand would be destroyed by every other brand that would be not doing this and undercutting them. That is an actual free capitalist market. What we have today is some neo-fascist style market where governments collaborate with corporations to take away citizens rights both directly and indirectly by funding projects to create cars like these and then back up these companies in court when people eventually sue.
@@Jimster481 ah yes so for example Facebook have baisicky monopolu that was winned on free market so it's communism
@@Jimster481 also how brand is gone survive if they make thing that will last lifetime
They won't do it, because cars are already sold at a loss, and the companies charge exorbitant servicing fees to make up the difference.
@@Jimster481 Dude i hate to brake it to you. But in USSR if you needed a part for your 1939 year car or motorcycle, you contact any factory and they will make it for you with 0 price tag, you only pay for the metal cube...(even tho no one made those anymore)
He right. My late father, like many of his generation, hadn't the money to hire tradesmen so did most of the jobs around the house himself, and he did alright. Years later I examined his electrical work, I'm an electrician, and remember asking him about it, he said he got a book from the library and followed it. If he did work on his car he did the same thing, if he screwed up it was his misfortune and he had to pay for it, literally. Over time he learned, and from word of mouth, from friends. This is what companies want to prevent. They want to instill a culture of fear, of customers being afraid to even consider attempting to repair their own property, whether they're capable or qualified or not.
"It's a car, you have to worry about safety!" This exactly is why I want to open my hood. To inspect and verify that there are no obvious issues. If I am able to handle it myself, fixed. Or I have to take it to a professional, but I still have to know there is an issue by opening the hood and observing. I would never *cough* want to install an overpowered stereo, train-horn, or hydraulics.. haha.
I e straight up had a full size woodchuck crawl up into my engine bay. Ridiculous to think we shouldn't be able to open the hood to take care of issues.
@@whydoineedmynamehi6772 in south Africa they have public announcement campaigns reminding you to check for penguins in / under your motor before driving away
I think making stuff like crystal radios (discouraged by FM and Digital migration), breaking and putting things back together, and right to repair being frowned upon is a way to reduce us to simple consumers instead of buyers...
no way would I ever want to install an awooga horn, that's just ridiculous, probably.
@@BeetleBuns I would also never do that. Which model number and website sold that? Asking for a friend. Lol!
"The electric motor and battery pack are lifetime units"
Right, Mercedes... except lifetime = your warranty period.
Which is ~8 years.
I read that a car's lifetime is around 12 years. Which is probably true - for an EV. That's because EV batteries are only good for about 12 - 15 years (they degrade over time, even if they aren't used), and the cost of replacing the battery pack is usually EXTREMELY high. So high that I feel most people will scrap their cars rather than replace that battery pack.
On the other hand, ICE cars routinely stay on the road for 20+ years, unless government regulations force them off the road before then. And for quite a lot of them, they'll go those 20+ years without major repairs.
@@rodh1404 12 years from now the batteries could be much cheaper. In the direction we are going they WON'T be, but they could be.
@@rodh1404 GM has gone the right way and made their system based on modules, so they replace the damaged batteries, and not the whole pack. Tesla have modules too, but they change the whole pack only.
@@rodh1404 EV batteries are good for the warranty period, which is typically 8 years across all brands. The batteries degrade significantly at the 8 year point, regardless of mileage... can't cheat physics, lol!
If they're so concerned about safety, just add a switch that detects the hood being opened and automatically switch off any high voltage circuit.
There! Solved the safety problem there just fine!
If it's unsafe to open the hood, you designed it wrong! (Let's use company's own words against them)
There isn't any exposed wires under there.
Amen brother. :) That is the obvious solution, but sadly greedy corporations want to make money. The 2020s is a messed up decade.
And now they're liable if/when that interlock fails at some point and someone kills themself thinking they're working on a dead circuit.
@@clintony3000 liability is the word of the day here. Once EVs are more mainstream this will likely fade.
The definition of what is reasonable for a person to know and hence liability be avoided changes with the times.
EVs probably aren't super profitable yet, they don't need lawsuits hindering them further. It's the companies doing CYA moreso I think than outright banning of repairs. Besides..."unauthorized" repairs are going to happen, there's a huge market for it, they just can't afford to give it their blessing.
Your solution is missing the point. They don’t want you to open the hood!
I'm an old lady. I change the oil, fuel and air filters, spark plugs, clean the carburetors, replace and plug the tires, and sharpen or replace the blades on my self propelled and riding mowers. I can also make a lamp from scratch and tie a proper UL safety knot on the electrical cord. I learned how to do it all on YOU TUBE tutorials. I'm now learning how to sharpen the teeth on both my chain and pole saws. The full chiseled ones are tough. You go Louis!
By the same logic of safety we should just ban all tools and private manual labor. Saws can cut you, if you are digging a hole you could fall in. If you are mixing cement for your driveway the wheelbarrow could tip over and crush your toes. All danger should be banned.
Next step: Don't go out, stay at home, it's less dangerous, no criminality, if you go out without permission, you might be a criminal, so it's normal that you get taken to jail. Remember, we're all in this together. Stay safe and don't be selfish. 🙏🙏🙏🙏☮☮☮
yep, we should all lie down and never move again, but not in the sun, that would be too dangerous. 🤣🤣
Didn't they ban All Knives in NZ or somewhere there, recently and briefly? I remember mobs of screaming granmas, after a murder. Anyways, yes, it is now conceivable that eventually Everything can be banned and delegated to Certified Technicians. Nails, electric wire, hammers, god forbid axes, breakable glass.
@@Android-ng1wn
Sounds similar to a town near me, that doesn't allow you to buy and install your own furnace! Just nuts. Get a professional, or freeze I guess.
I think they're more concerned with people getting in there and mucking stuff up then wrecking or breaking their new EV and wanting a refund/warranty to cash em out of their screw up. It's the same on ICE vehicles. They put that white paint on components to see if anyone unauthorized has messed with them and then void your warranty if you're caught. I really don't see how this is any different. It seems extreme because it's a hood.. but if it's under warranty why are you getting in there and not taking it to the shop? After warranty is up you can open it.
I was changing the ignition coils on my street parked Golf: people would stop and gaze, one old lady came closer and complimented me for "doing this complicated job myself". It was literally pulling the coils out and shoving in new ones, yet so much out of ordinary, apparently. Oh, by the way, it is mega Illegal, here, to do any work on your car on the street - I absolutely do not care, because it is my car, I know what I am doing and can keep it running for a decade more without asking the gracious overlords for permission or paying a VW dealer hundreds of euros for a 10 minutes job. I am aware that this will be impossible if I get a newer or fancier car.
Right. And you are doing something more environmentally friendly by not tossing the car. Amazing how they say we want to save the earth and then make us buy expensive products that you toss in a year or two because you can’t replace a basic component on it.
GASP! You removed an OEM engine part and put a new one back in? Without being VW OEM Certified 2022? GASP!
@@ronlanter6906 Yo imagine putting some cheap aftermarket ignition coil in your Golf and it runs like shit.
@@nowiecoche it's a golf, it runs like shit anyway.
@@nowiecoche I've rebuilt motorcycles from the frame up, car engines, boosted performance of engines & suspensions, former owner of an automotive parts reman operation... , I don't think so.
Remember, It's ALWAYS about "Safety", "Security", and the "CHILDREN" when they want to limit your rights.
Or protecting Grandma
@@interestingengineering291 PRotecting grandma is the new tyranny.
@J de Leon or gun control.
You forgot TERRORISM.
👼
You're also able to open the fuse box in the house. And yes, you can hurt yourself, but that's why fuse boxes all have to include a minimum of safety features such as an FI as well fuse that protects both the user and the electrical lines in your house.
This is not about user safety. This is about the manufacturer forcing their customers into the service departments where most of the time you get fleeced. That's been the case for ICE vehicles ever since their invention
Apple does the same thing. Designing their products to be non-user-servicable. Selling a scam as a feature
I do agree that kids need to experience a certain amount of freedom so they can gain confidence and learn about responsible behavior. My mom was a very loving and caring and independent woman. However, she also sheltered me which really didn't help me later in life. Again, she didn't do this out of spite. She herself was quite an independent woman. My family circumstances in some ways pushed her to shelter me, but as I said before, the consequences of such sheltering can be problematic
"Those that give up serviceability for progress deserve neither" - Benjamin Franklin (probably)
Underrated commenet
At the Ford dealership I worked at, when the Hybrid Escape came out, they sent dealers a bunch of orange cones, and a set of lineman's gloves you were supposed to use when servicing the car. However, there was a simple lever you could push that would disconnect the battery completely, so no "special equipment" required. They at the start didn't want dealers to open the battery pack, but later had a repair process to fix something inside the battery pack. It's not brain surgery.
I read some of that old literature at Ford school a few months ago, I was staring in wide-eyed shock that they were being so excessive about it back then. It's honestly ridiculous considering high-voltage electric vehicles were hardly new technology even back then, the Escape Hybrid just made it more mainstream.
The only thing that makes EV repair """""unsafe""""" is not providing the tools and education to do it in a more safe way. Given that, they're no more dangerous to open or repair than ICEVs.
Yes they are
Touch the wrong thing and you're dead. Oh and you can't tell what will kill you because electricity is invisible
That is incorrect. they are quite a lot more dangerous. Touch the 2 ends of the battery unprotected and you are most likely dead. Even if the battery is empty.
There is nothing comparable in an ICEV. When its cold its cold and then there is basically nothing that could happen.
High power batteries are dangerous. Comparable to touching the powerlines on those wooden pillars you americans have everywhere, even tho its DC not AC here. 400V with ample Amperes is no Joke. Remember its the combination of both that kills you and an EV has a lot of both.
@@abdallababikir4473 you can feel high voltage in the air if you pay attention
Let me put things in perspective: when was the last time you opened up an electrical device to fix it? A monitor, a TV, a UPS, a computer's power source...
Would you even know where to start fixing it, let alone how to do it without getting seriously hurt?
"Moving the Overton window from freedom towards risk averting" - spot on observation, very well worded. Freedom is one of the higher values and should be respected as such.
Manufacturers' moving towards "few specialist repairers - many ignorant, fearful customers" situation is what's really dangerous: a way towards idiocracy and ownership-less society.
May I remind you, Louis, that this is the car that ships with rear-axle-steering by default, but doesn't steer with the rear-axle unless you pay approx. 1.2k USD / 3 years on a subscription.
The automotive industry is really eager to follow the electronics industry. Soon you'll have shit like "pay 200 USD" per year for our premium braking package, allowing you to use 100% of your braking force.
Sounds like Tesla.
@Jo Ol toyota was charging subscription for remote start..
@Jo Ol It breaks my heart but yes many are that stupid. They won't care as long as its new and prestigious they will want it.
Jesus christ
@Jo Ol tesla fanboy do it every day every car is capable of shelf driving but it a 10 000$ option to unlock a software in the ecu
I'm glad my Dad taught me most of what he knew about doing things himself. Basic automobile maintenance, a bit of electrical work (some of which I picked up myself), some mechanical work with power tools, etc.
What I picked up myself was electronics repair. 2 months ago I had a majorly shitty day, and while thinking about said shitty day I accidentally left my Samsung tablet out in a downpour. After leaving it in rice for a few days, the screen was very messed up but otherwise the tablet worked fine.
Rather than sit and cry about it, I did some looking around and found new screens on ebay. I also watched a taredown of my tablet to look for any booby traps or easily torn ribbon cables. One of my relatives was nice enough to buy a screen for me, and in about 45 minutes I had the new screen in and the tablet was working like new again. Something not shown in the teardown, was the small digitizer board for the s pen. Thankfully I had not thrown the old screen away, and managed to transplant that no problem.
Also curse Samsung for using aerospace grade adhesive in all of their stuff, I mean the stuff could seriously hold a rocket together.
These things are not taught in schools, and a lot of kids have 2 divorced parents who have enough combined income to pay to fix / buy another item for the kid when they cry enough. I am very thankful to have 2 parents who are happily married, and have a technically inclined mind. I'm 16.
Please don't put rice in your electronics , you're just dirtying the device. It's not going to suck the water out. Nice job on fixing your device 😊
@@johnrodrigues2018 Open air Works best. Though if people insist on using rice they should use instant rice not regular grains of rice. Granted in open air you'd still want to make sure you have dry conditions. I have a little wooden box and I keep packs of desiccant from other stuff for just such an occasion.
About the divorced parents... I do not know that for sure, but as anecdotal evidence, usually those two men are trying to impress the kid and they do whatever they can to "buy love". It is not only about higher combined income, it is also about willingness to spend that money to show who is the better man. I don't think that they even know that they are competing, it is very natural setup for men, especially in front of the kid and the woman they were (are) emotionally attached to.
@@ragnarok7976 just don't put any food. All it does is dirty and gunk up the device. It will not do anything but make things worse and harder to repair. Just turn off the device and let it air dry for 2 days. It's a stupid myth and anyone who thought it worked was cause it was left to dry regardless.
Silica packs
We have shifted from teaching our kids how to fix things to get the check book out and pay someone to do it. I am quite a few years older than you Louis and when I switched careers mid life from a machinist to doing computer server support in large data centers I seen a big difference in the aptitude of the people I was working with in the computer field. Over 80% were amazed that I could work on my car non computer stuff and computer stuff or fix a faucet in the house or do remodeling work. They could not even fathom working on their cars or had the know how to do so. That is because their parents did not show them or did not know how to show them how to do that stuff. I have a friend who would mock me when i was doing my repairs on my car because he would always tell me that time is money and he could pay someone to do the repair while he did other things to continue making money. I looked at it the other way around...money is time and I would save way more than he could make by doing the repairs, plus i knew it was done to my level of expectation.
I grew up like you were I could go out an play all day and be home for dinner...my mom had one major rule...tell her where you are going before you walk out the door or don't walk out the door. In that era they taught us how to act responsible and be responsible for our actions...you do not see that today....I will stop here....thx
"That is because their parents"
"Parents" ...plural?
Are you joking? Kids aren't supposed to have more than one of those!
Though, it wasn't the kids who filed for divorce or never married.
@@actually5004 "parents" means mom and dad. "Parent" means either of them. In the comment you're referring to, they're talking about multiple people, therefore multiple moms and dads too.
Trying to find an apprentice that is halfway useful is proving very difficult. Obviously they are their to learn, but we get these kids with bright white pudgy bodies because they have never been outside, and they cannot operate a drill, more complicated tools, fine, but to operate a drill is such a basic skill. I remember the young kids across the road would spend their pocket money to get the punctures on their pushbikes repaired, sure, Dad should of taught them, but then again, mine didn't teach me, I worked it out myself. Nobody does anything when it comes to using their hands anymore, it really is quite sad.
@@Thecrazyman809 McFly! Anyone home? Hellooooo!
Re-read it. It's sarcasm about the push for single parent households, in which these things aren't taught.
@@dirtpounder Heh, what a good reference.
I'm glad my Dad taught me most of what he knew about doing things himself. Basic automobile maintenance, a bit of electrical work (some of which I picked up myself), some mechanical work with power tools, etc.
What I picked up myself was electronics repair. 2 months ago I had a majorly shitty day, and while thinking about said shitty day I accidentally left my Samsung tablet out in a downpour. After leaving it in rice for a few days, the screen was very messed up but otherwise the tablet worked fine.
Rather than sit and cry about it, I did some looking around and found new screens on ebay. I also watched a taredown of my tablet to look for any booby traps or easily torn ribbon cables. One of my relatives was nice enough to buy a screen for me, and in about 45 minutes I had the new screen in and the tablet was working like new again. Something not shown in the teardown, was the small digitizer board for the s pen. Thankfully I had not thrown the old screen away, and managed to transplant that no problem.
Also curse Samsung for using aerospace grade adhesive in all of their stuff, I mean the stuff could seriously hold a rocket together.
These things are not taught in schools, and a lot of kids have 2 divorced parents who have enough combined income to pay to fix / buy another item for the kid when they cry enough. I am very thankful to have 2 parents who are happily married, and have a technically inclined mind. I'm 16.
The erosion of right to repair here is egregious. We seem to own our purchased electronic and mechanical goods less and less as time goes.
Keep fighting the good fight, Louis! 👍
You Will Own Nothing And Be Happy
@@brandonwombacher2559 ...and eat insets, because that's as natural as drinking breast milk from another species of animal.
I hate to call it the Matrix, so I'll just say, "it's all messed up". Unlearn everying you've been indoctrinated into as a child, open your eyes and see what your soul and your proverbial "gut insincts" tell you - follow and trust those first before "thinking".
@@brandonwombacher2559 *refuses to be happy*
Forget battery replacements or repairs for a second... What if you just want to wipe the dust & dead insects that inevitably show up in the crevices of every machine ever built? What if you just want to inspect for rust or water damage? Or, most fundamentally... what if you just want to learn about your own product and see how it's put together?
That's something that's been bugging me about new electronics. The dust gets in there and just stays there forever. :(
Rodents living under the hood: Thank you so much Mercedes!
Or if a cat crawls up in there...
"Your own product"
See there's the problem, it's not yours, no matter how much you paid for it.
@@frankxu2321 they spent years of research to make the wire insulation taste really good to mice too
I'm so glad you're talking about this. I've been a mechanic in the past and I saw this coming in the early 00's. Of course NPC's don't care because they can't, won't, and don't learn anything about anything mechanical and assume it's impossible for someone who doesn't do it for a living to do it themselves
This has been a wet dream for automotive manufactures forever. they were planning all sorts of sabotage to fixing your vehicle for the entire time I was a transmission rebuilder. They planned to remove the dipstick from the transmission. Can't fill it for the sake of a seal leak. Only replace the entire transmission. They tried and it failed miserably. People just swapped drivetrains when it broke down. Not everyone lives in the big city on flat roads. Just wait till enough people are stuck in the woods 3000 miles from home with their still under warranty vehicle that is unrepairable.
Same with lifetime oils in transmissions and differentials. They are lifetime allright... They decide the lifetime for the transmission.
Be honest, would you want your customers installing their own transmissions if they were guaranteed to make it your problem after a weekend, 3 other idiots, and a case of beer?
Sounds like gm with their non serviceable trans filters or fords ptu lifetime fluid, no drain plug, sandwiched between a hot manifold cat and engine block.
Planned obsolescence.
We need a RightToRepair party. Neither left nor right - just focused on our right to own, modify and repair the technology we buy.
Wise words and I'm from the left.
thats cool, too bad for the muricans tho
LIBERTARIAN PARTY
@@ionbusman2086 Soon as they stop bitching about lightbulbs and talking about privatizing roads I might start to take them more seriously.
@@DrSpooglemon They always have… just it’s too much of a shock to normies… they want to abolish drivers license’s too. But again… bit of a controversial idea to most
Mercedes Benz required special MB washer fluid on their low end cars a few years ago. If you did not use MB washer fluid the level warning never went out and kept nagging you. They designed a special sensor to only work with their washer fluid.
To think that Mercedes had a reputation for building the toughest cars on the road. They went from Craftsman, Engineers, Artisans to Conmen, Thieves, and Car Salesmen.
I built my first PC in 1997 when I was 10 and my parents not only bought the parts I needed but let me build the PC BY MYSELF with ZERO babying or even watching me to make sure I didn't hurt my self. Basically I took the parts to the upstairs dinning room table where I was left alone and let me have my fun. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but at least the motherboard came with a huge manual explaining how to put everything together.
I do agree that only people who know what they are doing should service vehicles and devices but no-one should be locked out of something they bought. It seems that Mercedes has the mindset that the owner does not actually own the car if they are being denied access to certain areas of it. All the company has to do is issue a warning that they could potentially get hurt by doing certain actions. That alone should be enough to absolve that company of liability if the users disregards the warning and gets injured because they didn't know what they were doing.
Also what makes independent repair look so bad are the shoddy repair shops that do subpar repairs and/or rip the customer off or damage the device further and not tell the customer and not pay for the damage or make it right. A few years ago someone's iPhone caught on fire during a plane flight due to a shoddy 3rd party repair because a screw that wasn't property installed punctured the battery.
We should be progressing toward more sustainable and repairable products not regressing to completely disposable devices that end up a eWaste and destroy the planet.
Another issue is that too many people are stupid and get hurt trying to do stuff they don't know how to do and sue the company that made the product that caused the injury because they injured themselves due to stupidity. The fact that a jar of peanut butter has to say WARNING: CONTAINS PEANUTS is a clear indication that people are stupid.
The fact of the matter is that companies only do this to increase their profits, plain and simple. If people stopped buying disposable/unrepairable products, companies might be more included to change. It's just like scalpers, they only do it because they profit from it. If people stopped buying from them, they would stop.
At the age of 13 I fixed a spin dryer that my mother was throwing out because the repair man said it was too expensive to fix....the spade connector on the door safety interlock had vibrated loose from it's terminal. A prescient view of a world that has moved from "no user serviceable parts inside" trough "warranty void if opened" to "glued shut for your own safety" . Same old siht, same old lies.
"... that people are stupid" (or lawyers are smart)
Wow, you just said everything perfectly. 👌👍
That's why I like Luis, he understands that this excessive obsession with security and safety is not healthy, but these arguments could not work if the population that is defending and obsessed with these things is not obsessed with them, in the end we are guilty of allowing it in the first place, security and safety above the essential cannot be valid arguments.
"I don't think I deserve that."
A true man stands up for what is right. You do that. I think you deserve it.
How are the kids going to learn? I learned auto repair from a friend of my family whose father had been a Maxwell dealer. He was semi-retired at the time and his business was primarily storing antique automobiles. Some were classics from the 1930's and before. Walter worked mostly by himself. Kids would drop by after school and Walter would ask the reliable ones to do errands. One thing lead to another and by the time I "graduated" from the "Phoenix Garage and Storage Academy," I could have gone into business. Went to college instead. Still do most of my own repairs. Do some on electronics too. You are correct about "Right to Repair" and I am very concerned about future generations being discouraged from taking up electronics or automotive as a hobby. Think about people like Edison or Steve Wosniak. Louis, your work on this subject is very important.
One good thing about that problem is that the few people left that do know are going to be that much more valuable. The problem with that of course is now we have to pick up the slack.
You can learn from the internet.
UA-cam
Right to repair doesn't bring profit to big companies it makes them loose money and so they actively will discourage this practises this is what people shoud account for and say that's to perfect economical system wthout one flaw, according to some retards
@@gyroninjamodder passive learning and active learning is different. Knowledge and experience is vastly different.
I know from a firefighter that every electric car need an easy accessible disconnect for the battery. Also it's in discussion to have a non electronic safe discharge possibility for the battery.
Both are really handy for people who repair/service their own cars.
If they put a simple interlock to the main breaker relay on the hood, opening it would be perfectly safe, and integrating that into defined crash deformation would also enhance the safety aspect. If the system under the hood of secrecy is so dangerous, then potentially getting the vehicle drenched by driving in heavy rain and flowing gutters would create an even more dangerous situation for passengers or driver touching high potential panels or parts of the car when wet... so engineers use extremely good insulation techniques with multiple layers of sealing, locking and protection, nothing is exposed and nothing is high risk without deliberate action.
They are riding the safety BS train all the way to the stealership service bay, then onto the customers bank account for a regular high speed drainage operation...
Good point. AFAIK it is REQUIRED for every electric vehicle to have this.
And it's not like it doesn't exist, Race cars have Emergency cut off switch for a long time, why not put them on road cars?
They don't want you to fix your own cars, they want you to pay mechanics to fix it.
@@brandonwombacher2559 It's worse. The companies want to sell the mechanics the tools they need to fix the cars to horrendous prices. And the force the customer to only go to these mechanics.
It's this way for years in the farming industry. You have to buy a CAN bus reader for 15k€ you can get for 20€ but has a different firmware.
I remember back in the late 1990's Cadillac was considering putting Hood Voids on their vehicles(Voiding the factory Warranty if someone other than a Cadillac Tech does). So for me, this is nothing new, but you SHOULD be able to open your own stuff!
Interesting restrictions on HVAC equipment. My household furnace came with exception documentation, flow charts, schematics, troubleshooting guides. I can access most every component easily including the dangerous gas lines and high voltage electric lines. However, to buy an OEM component from a reputable dealer requires certification. So a simple pressure sensor, worth about $5 will cost me a service call $180 and a component markup to $80. Also, the reason for this component failure was a factory quality issue (switch points are not properly plated causing high impedance with use), so I'm expected to pay $260 for a part that should be covered by the manufacturer in the first place.
Everything dealing with any refrigerants is very heavily regulated at least here in EU. You are not allowed to modify anything in those by law without a proper certification. However, the certification is not manufacturer awarded but result of field specific education.
@@MikkoRantalainen The thing is this isn't for only the refrigerants, it also covers any part of the system, including heating and electrical. A lot of hvac systems in the US have the A/C as an add-on unit, not built in anyway, so you can check the heat without ever touching A/C. I fixed a Lennox heater only, the fricking thing was a pain to get parts for because everything is locked behind a certificate wall. At least I had the parts, so I could buy the parts using the manufacturer numbers, which isn't the same as the company selling the full assembly.
I wonder how would people consider being banned from opening their home circuit breaker if their fuse blows up. Will they wait a week in dark for electrician to come and flip the switch or will they actually open the box and flip the switch.
don't encourage them
You could get electrocuted if you touch the bus bars behind the switch. Best call the electrician to flip a switch for you! /s
Wait until construction companies start building homes with robots and then stop giving homeowners the drawings and blueprints of electric/plumbing lines because the homeowners aren’t experts and can harm themselves. If you need any repairs or remodelling just call them instead!
That's a really well said point, same logic applies. This crap is just ridiculous
lol people have literally been stranded for days because they were out of wifi range and their tesla needed an update. never underestimate what a libtard will do!
Admire your persistence in defending right to repair, must feel like fighting a tide of lies and ignorance.
Imagine trying to fight the v and the overwhelming tyranny
They started this years ago when they got rid of dip sticks. Having proper lubrication is the most important part of engines/transmissions, yet manufacturers made it next to impossible or labor intensive to check the levels and quality of the life blood of your vehicle.
To be fair on that, what's stopping you from getting something else to do that with?
They got rid of dip sticks???
Why? That is _essential_ for older cars, you need to know you don't have an oil leak! Or if you have to add oil if you do.
@@blastortoise some cars still have the tube, but not the stick. You'd have to go buy one from dealer or make a 4ft long metal stick, but how would you know what the appropriate level is? Some cars have sensors built in to let you check electronically and we all know how reliable computers are. Also most require you have a $1000+ computer to access that data. Finally, on cars that don't give you either option, you have to go underneath, remove some covers, remove a random bolt and stick your finger in a hole or count how many drips come out assuming the car is level. So yeah, we can still check our own oil. But what used to take my grandmother 30sec to do herself would now take a qualified mechanic 30 minutes or more.
they REMOVED the dip stick? I'm glad my car isn't that new...
@@briannem.6787 I have a 97, and while the engine still has a dispstick, even in that era Ford elected to remove the dispstick for the transmission, declaring it "lubricated for life". Pro tip, it definitely isn't unless the life of the vehicle ends with the warranty.
I absolutely love your rants, not because they are fun to watch, because they are, but because people are so afraid of letting of steam on topics like this. Also I think it's a good way to wake people up because when they get a bit worked up because of your rant, they too wake up and do something about it, at least hopefully.
"high voltage, risk of death" warning seems more appropriate. I do think high voltage may be more dangerous than an ice engine. A normal reasonable person can learn to disconnect/deenergize the system pretty easily though. Mercedes should make this procedure readily available and any necessary tools available also. Large industrial high voltage motors are disconnected with a circuit breaker and verified with a multimeter. It's not too difficult to learn but shouldn't be taken lightly.
That is why main circuit breaker is present. And that should be accessible for user. Like stop handle in train.
It''s not even hight voltage. 375 V is, by definition, low.
@@laszu7137 that low a voltage is really quite deadly. It takes less than 100mA to kill a person. That’s a tenth of an Ampere. And to drive said current you really don’t need a whole lot of voltage. Wet skin is quite conducive.
@@laszu7137 In comparison to high voltage power lines maybe. 30V AC or 50V DC is enough to get through the skin barrier, that is high enough voltage to be dangerous.
@@Daschickenify There is literally a definition of what is considered low and what high voltage and it is written in standards like ANSI C84.1-1989, IEE 141-1993 or IEC (60038) standards. For DC by IEC by definition HIGH voltage is defined as: "High voltage is classified as having the potential to cause injury or harm." and it is considered to be more than 1500V DC and for AC it is considered to be more than 1000V. And 120-1500V DC and 50-1000V AC it is considered low voltage.
Voltages below 50VAC and 120V DC are considered as extra-low voltage and classified as a very low risk.
Along these lines Louis, I think the biggest culture shock I had while living in Mexico, was all the unsafe things they had there. No crosswalks to speak of, one single traffic light, holes or branches, or trees across the sidewalk, medicines you don't need a prescription for, and jars that don't need special pushing down and then twist kind of thing that we have here. You had to be aware of the very sidewalk at all times. In the US we expect to be protected no matter how stupid we are. One of the most egregious things was this guy who used his cell phone on Mt. Hood in the summer because a summer storm had come in and he wasn't prepared. This wasn't the first time he had done this, and in fact the rescuers noticed he was climbing the mountain with flip flops on his feet.
Coming from former USSR I also was shocked how pampered average US people are.
People love to sue!
@@Jenny-tm3cm What people? The rich are the only ones who can afford to. I never know a single person who sued other then through car accidents through insurance or possible malpractice operations in the medical field. Shouldn't we all know someone who sues all the time if its so common?
I see you missed the part about rear wheel steering being a subscription service as well. According to AMS Peport, everyone gets 4.5 degrees of steering angle, but if you want full 10 degree steering, you need to pay 489€ annually or 1,169€ every 3 years.
If a car is a subscription, it has to be almost free
You have to pay to use a functionnality onboard your own car ? That's bonkers.
Oh shit that's true! Every car has the hardware for 10° steering, it is a software lock!
My motorcycle comes out the factory with the full quickshifter hardware, but to use it you have to pay for the software unlock 350 euro.
Wtf
Gearhead here.
I agree with you Louis, though as someone that has a healthy respect for high voltage electricity, I should caution people that the HV Batteries on Hybrid and Electric cars operate in the 300V to 500V range. That, with the amperages the batteries have is more than enough to stop your heart, so you need to be careful with them.
A few tips for those that want to work on them:
1. If you need to do any electrical work on those cars, disconnect the battery. There's usually a disconnect somewhere on or near the battery that you can pull.
2. If you need to do any work on the battery itself, and have to remove it from the car, be mindful that it's heavy. They can weigh in at half a ton or more, so prepare accordingly.
3. Buy the service manual for your car (or use a service like AllData) to get exact instructions for you car's make and model. You'll need wiring diagrams if you're doing any electrical work on your car. Wiring things wrong could cause parts to not work in the best case, or start a fire in the worst case.
4. High voltage cables in cars are colored orange for easy identification.
5. Final tip: know how to electrically insulate yourself when necessary. If you don't know how, then learn to do it properly.
This is just making driving a 1993 Toyota for the next 50 years look more and more tempting.
The fact we have warnings on children's scooters that say "WARNING: THIS PRODUCT MOVES WHEN USED" tell me all I need to know about how stupid companies think we are. Until you've got enough money to hire a lawyer of course...
Tbf it can be a delicate balance between malicious companies and drop kick stupid customers.
Companies don't think you're stupid, but they know some people are assholes that will try to sue them for anything. It's a fault of your legal system.
because of lawyers is WHY we have this BS
@@KetzerkaterContent There were always people who would sue for everything. Most of them are employed by these companies to do just that...
Only cause you can and will sue for everything in USA.
2020 and 2021 taught these corporations that people will trade freedom for the illusion of safety. Saying that it is for safety reasons removes scrutiny from the decision.
Even if you don't understand how an EV or an ICE works, opening up the hood from time to time and just looking for irregularities with your eyes can save you a lot of money and time. I myself have an ICE car, and I open up the hood occasionally. There were occasions when I saw something irregular there and drove to the repair shop in the next few days. This saved me time and money, because I prevented something big issue to happen. Many times there are precursors for the bigger issues, and some of these can be heard (like tire or suspension issues) but some of these can be easily seen under the hood (like leakages for example). So yes, I'm definitely the person who wants to open up the hood from time to time even if I'm not a mechanic at all.
An interlock between the battery disconnect switch and the hood would be a reasonable measure to protect against arch flash and electrocution.
I legit just designed one in my head while reading your comment. It is that simple of a device. Although it might cause more problems then necessary. Might just be easier and cheaper to just let people be responsible for their own safety...
Yes. There are a hundred ways to solve this issue. The thing is... They are lying, so you pay for their service.
You can't be Electrocuted by a DC battery. Without touching both terminals.
@@dogwalker666 well, you can, by touching the positive terminal and then finding a good ground. However , this usually takes a fair amount of intent to do... Unless you have a 2002 Buick regal and aren't paying attention while disconnecting the positive terminal, then your socket wrench might be long enough to find the engine, which makes an excellent ground...
I feel ICE should have a kill switch to prevent you from opening the hood if it's running.
I cant tell you how many times i thought I was going to get mamed trying to open the hood of the random company vehicle I had for the shift. When its dark and the engine is running stuff can happen. Some of the odd cabovers can put you werid places.
When I was young (yeah that was a long time ago) I watched my friend's grandfather rebuild the engine to his Ford pickup on a kitchen table. I had another friend who owned 4 Opel GTs; 1 to drive and 3 "parts cars" because he did all the repairs himself. There were also appliance repair shops all over which fixed TVs, stereos, fans, vacuum cleans, etc instead of just throwing them out. A few months ago when my Cuisinart toaster over stopped working I called customer service to ask about replacement parts and I was told there aren't any. If it's no longer under warranty they expect you to throw it out and buy a new one. And just about every stove made today with a circuit board controller? After about 5 years you can't get them anymore so you need a new stove. My mom's gas stove with no electronic parts is 70 years old and she has no plans on replacing it because it works fine.
Now get off my lawn!!!
"If it's no longer under warranty they expect you to throw it out and buy a new one":
I'd just flat out tell them that I'd be happy to buy a DIFFERENT BRAND in that case. :)
You would think with the current emphasis on preventing old appliances filling up landfills this would be a priority.
If they have to seal your hood to prevent you from getting in from a safety perspective, it is because they have failed to make the vehicle reasonably safe internally, in the first place. The Engineering design is incomplete and they should return to design phase to rectify the shortcomings.
I just took my car to the dealer they told me I had to pay 1500 plus tax to replace the struts. I bought them online OEM for 350.00 did it myself in 1.5 hours watching a video online. I will never buy a car that I can not fix myself or at least have the option.
same with my mac pro, apple told me they would fix the screen for 1,000 or more but recommended I just buy a new mac. watched Louis Rossmann video and fixed my computer just by opening, pulling battery ribbon off and reinstalling it. fixed it without further issues.
Thank you Louis for fighting the right to repair battle.
If they're using the safety argument, well then why do we ALLOW them to make and sell us such DANGEROUS vehicles?? By their own definition these vehicles could KILL us!!!! ...at any moment....
LOL Yes, I think the same as you!
As a former car mechanic (even worked for Mercedes, coincidentally) and still prideful do-it-yourself handyman, I always hated customers coming in to have the tiniest shit fixed like replacing a headlight bulb or a fuse.
It occurred to me that two things were happening simultaneously: people were slowly losing interest in and understanding of technology ("I don't care how my car works, I just drive it.") and at the same time they were becoming scared of potentially breaking something and/or voiding their warranty.
Nowadays I drive trucks for a living. And it anything breaks underway (which happens rather frequently because modern trucks are brittle pieces of shit), I have two options. Wait potentially *hours* for a service vehicle to arrive and fix my problem, or fix it by myself in 20 minutes and be on my merry way again. And you bet your ass I value my time over not getting dirty hands.
as a HD "semi" truck mechanic 20 years ago when I started most owner operators carried spares to do there own repairs NOW most of them do NOT even know what an alternator is
I had a car where you had to remove the battery and remove part of the fender to change a lightbulb. Absolute pain in the ass. I paid someone else to do it. But even the people I paid to do it hated doing it.
Of course manufacturers themselves made what should be simple processes untenable for the average person. Back in the day, you'd pop the hood, unplug the bulb, turn a clip 90°, and the bulb would come out. Equally simple to put the new bulb in. Now to do the same, you'd have to take half the body work trim on the front off under the hood, try not to break or lose the pop-clips if you can help it (or have spares of the correct size), pull off some shroud or other, then pull another set of retaining clips for the headlight lens assembly, half drop that out without scratching up the body work, then unplug the bulb, then remove the whole assembly to get at the actual light bulb. Then do all that in reverse while not trying to break anything or mess up the part that keeps the headlight in proper alignment which is tricky given the bulk and weight of the assembly. Even better yet, try that where you don't have a garage and its freezing outside in winter and can't feel your own fingers.
So what should be a simple stupid job under 5 minutes you could do yourself becomes a half hour or more ordeal with a lot more to go wrong that's not exactly easy and costs a few shop hour$$$ to get done. Such things are blatantly anti-consumer and designed for people to have to bring them to the shop.
When doing my workplace safety course, the biggest thing we covered is how stupid people are, and the importance on proper engineering of safety systems. Actions like this only makes this more dangerous, because no matter how many warnings you place, someone will always hurt themselves. Instead you need to engineer safety into a device so you can safely opened the hood. If anything this is a backwards step for safety.
I was born in '80. Used to go outside on my own all the time. Parents are suffocating kids with overprotectiveness. I blame the schools and their "No violence" policies where they punish the victim along side the attacker for making people think they need authority figures to fight their battles for them.
I think one of the problems is that people either don't know how or more importantly how difficult it actually is to fix certain things.
In cars for example, some things that sound difficult to change like an alternator isn't difficult at all and literally only needs 2-3 bolts taken off and just some basic knowledge and doing it yourself will save u some good money.
Try changing the alternator in a M139 Quattroporte then, whole wiper assembly must come off, also intake manifold
@@satsumagt5284 ok fair enough some cars are a pain for different things.
I can recall my 04 v6 mustang's spark plugs being stupidly difficult to change because they made 2 passenger side plugs blocked by alot of the piping for the radiator and other stuff.
That being said generally I've found it pretty easy to get too in most cars I've seen.
@@brianlempa The car in my profile picture is a Datsun 100A. It’s literally three bolts to replace the alternator though, nothing blocking it
@@satsumagt5284 exactly you see the point I was trying to make, also nice car.
@@brianlempa it’s from a game haha, My Summer Car
You are spot on here, Louis! I have a friend who owns a Tesla. Something broke and he had to drive two hours to get it fixed and book the appointment several weeks in advance. Also, when I was a kid in the seventies we walked to and from elementary school alone. From age five to age ten. Plus played outside constantly with no adult supervision. Car!!!
Louis is very much correct on ALL levels. For many years (28+) I personally repaired TV's and many things alike with the availability of "FULL" highly detailed schematic diagrams showing every last individual component with "COMPLETE" component part number listings. These were known as "SERVICE MANUALS". The vast majority of TV's on the market today have what they call service manuals with believe it or not, flow charts. These ridiculous flow charts guide the service personnel to check numerous points (voltages etc.). If this point measures this voltage and that point measures that voltage, then replace this particular "entire PCB". Meanwhile in reality something perhaps as small as a $0.04 transistor or even a $0.003 capacitor may actually be the faulty component. But of course if they provided the "FULL" service information that does guide the educated folk to the negligible component that is actually at fault, the manufacturer couldn't then supply a complete PCB that perhaps cost them $5 (in mass production) and charge $200-$800 for it. Yes, it did cost the company quite a substantial investment to design and manufacture the PCB in the first place, but hey, the end user has already paid for the product, so is it REALLY essential they set themselves up to make further extreme profits by unnecessarily selling entire PCB's? NO! An electric vehicle really is no different. They just want to ensure they can continue to further line their wallets into the future from a product they have already made money from. Ultimately there is absolutely nothing stopping a manufacturer from designing something electrically dangerous in a way that disconnects any lethal potential from an exposed area when accessed by service personnel. Bottom line is that manufacturers don't want you to access your purchased items because quite bluntly that may void them from making further profits from the customer. Security and safety is a complete bullshit excuse.
I love being able to take apart my car, but the massive shift toward "No no, only the dealer should do this" has made me completely averse to looking into anything not nearly as old as I am.
All done to extract more out of your wallet after purchase
Your dad was entirely correct. In the 60’s I was a kid in a suburb close to DC and on Saturday mornings after breakfast and Saturday morning cartoons we were chased outside and told to not come back till dinner. And if we hurt ourselves or got into trouble then we would get a beating for being stupid. We would literally pedal our Sears bikes about 10 miles out and back.
Its BS like this which is why I am so determined to keep my old trucks running one way or another, going so far as to equipping my own shop space with tools and equipment along with educating myself on how to repair them.
Good job. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
To this day I regret trading in my old 77 Chevy Caprice, especially now that I know how restrictive AND invasive new cars are becoming.
It's amazing how much older equipment is available for cheap now that cars are further transitioning away from serviceability. I recently had some valve issues in one of my vehicles, and acquired a whole valve/seat grinding and finishing setup for less than what the machine shop quoted me to do the work.
@@LN997-i8x very cool it's also a load of fun to take stuff apart, fix it, put it back together, and it works( the first time lol)...just always be sure when you pull a head you check everything for flatness.
So far ive spent $6000 keeping my $300 car running and if anyone tries to lock my hood it will cost THEIR life
Im a car mechanic in germany, we do need a further education because of the high voltage system (mostly safety messures). A independent car safety check institution like TüV or DEKRA will provide you with a course and your employer probably pay vor it. With that permission you can offically repair every high voltage system relatet to cars forever. By the way my teachers always told me to not touch any other voltage than low voltage unless you are properly instructed. People do die because of lack of knowledge.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~Benjamin Franklin
As a teenager I repaired TV sets. Those old designs used high voltages up 25 kV. I knew how to handle that and never got hurt.
I seem to recall that Rolls Royce or some such had a locked hood. Owners were not allowed to work on it. There was some court case and they had to remove the locks. That was very long ago (50+ years)
Alfa romero did it with the 4c very recently, not very cash money.
In my experience as a technician every single other person I know whom also has become a professional working on cars or pretty much anything else started out as a kid tinkering with stuff. That curiosity and learning curve has to start somewhere. On a side tangent defect that virtually all new cars come with a touch screen interface and do not come from the factory with onboard diagnostic abilities along with the ability to put the various components of the car into service mode from that screen is asinine. The only reason that they don't do that is corporate greed!
or... maybe they just don't want to spend time and resources developing a user friendly interface that people who have no idea about the inner workings of that car could understand and program all of that shit into the Media Nav of the car? Also, the computer inside the Touch screen console is usually very limited in terms of storage space and processing power. Cluttering it with useless things (for most people, there are very few people that would want diagnostic features in their car, let's be honest now) would only make it less responsive, harder to navigate, more expensive to manufacture and harder to bug test and update. Remember those Over The Air updates most cars get nowadays? Why would they make a 200mb download a 500mb download only to include features most people don't even want or need? You have to understand that the Media system of a car runs a very limited proprietary operating system, it's not really a full fledged normal PC, this keeps the costs low. Could they put an actual 2000$ PC in there? Yes. Would you like to pay 1900$ more for your car because of that? Probably not...
"You will own nothing and you will be happy". It's part of it. Part of not being able to repair your own car or access your own treadmill that you paid for. It's a move from owning to subscription-based and service-based everything. It's atrocious.
Everyone needs to stand together and fight it or it will come faster than anyone thinks.
@@Jimster481 it's already here... look at video games
Bingo.
Filters need to be replaced especially if you live on a dirt road.
so, let me get this straight... to "protect" the customer, they made it impossible for anyone but the dealer to turn off the high voltage lines?? that is their idea of keeping people SAFE??? you dont have to be working on a high voltage connection for a high voltage connection to kill you, or a giant lithium ion either, so if something goes horribly wrong, you cant stop it. even if they somehow made it so you couldnt service it, thats one thing, but making it so that you literally cant sever a dangerously powerful electrical connection in the event of a malfunction is just the stupidest thing ive ever heard, someones going to die and its going to be their fault
The act of disconnecting high voltage lines carries the highest risk of potential failure and/or death from a high voltage system.
Arcing kills the untrained.
If engine oil were a deadly neurotoxin it still wouldn't be as unpredictably dangerous.
@@actually5004 right, which is another good reason they shouldnt be restricting the service mode that automatically powers down the high voltage lines, as stated, there is that computer controlled disconnect that can be engaged, most likely from inside the cabin either with a scan tool or with the in dash readout, but customers are locked out of it, so the one good safe way to kill the high voltage, is being restricted... endangering people by refusing to let them turn off the high voltage is not a very good way to keep them from working on the car themselves, theyre using threat of death as a deterrent
How is not including an easily accessible HV disconnect even legal. I thought those were required to be accessible for emergency workers, in the case of destructive passenger extraction in the event of an accident (eg. jaws of life)? A person performing repair or an emergency worker should both have every right to be able to find and access such a feature, so they can safely do what they need to do with an EV.
@@richfiles that's the part I find the most disgusting besides the not permitted
The prius battery shut of thing is in the back under the trunk cover not the most easily accessible thing in the world but its there if you need it
(the 12v battery is also around here so maybe not the worst placement unless you got tailgated )
@@meki___6881 , Toyota has said they placed it there as in all of their crash testing the lower trunk area was always accessible. They didn't want there to be a likelihood that a normal accident could make safety features more difficult to access.
I don't usually comment on videos, but I feel I must on this one... Looking back I am happy as hell that I was allowed to play outside unattended with my friends and given the latitude to figure things out on my own. It is something that shaped me to be independent and self-reliant. I absolutely let my son do the same which I feel will give him an advantage in life. Helicopter, or worse snowplow parents, are handicapping their children!! Love you Louis, keep making great videos, and I will keep watching them!!
Granted, when the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius came out, I was a volunteer firefighter and we had to go through special training on where not to a hybrid car. Turns out these high voltage wires were in the same place on both cars because of regulations. But yeah, you can freely buy the cells to rebuild a Prius battery yourself.
Number 2, in the automotive field we often joke about the Subaru "ring of fire". When you do an oil change you have to thread your arm through the 2 catalytic converters; which are generally extremely hot when doing an oil change.
The car manufacturers need to start including pacifiers that deploy in case of emergency when the car breaks...... just so the user has something to comfort them, while they wait for the company to save them.
And a recording reading them a children's story where no one ever dies.
Might as well, the alternative seems to be watching them die because people just don't realize how dangerous standing around in the freeway after an accident is.
Well said. I thought of the movie The Adjustment Bureau when you said security safety just like they did in the movie when they were about to capture and retain someone. I know enough basics to repair many of my own electronics when it comes to larger solder points or mechanics. When I get new tech after the short 30 warranty I like to open them up to see how they work but if I don't know what I am doing I just don't try to fix it myself. I turn to online videos for help.
You gave me a new insight into wanting an electric car now. I was blind until I watched this and thought no one could really fix a used Tesla, saw Riches channel then saw yours, Awesome information! Thankyou
"Most owners do not self-service." First off, as of right now, maybe. Secondly, how would they know that? I assume the same applies here with not owning your telemetry data either?
they know VIN of the cars they manifacture and almost all repair shops (independent or not) have access to vehicle history database. So if a VIN is still registered to be on the streets but hasn´t had any service for a long time it was probably selfserviced. All other services by shops are put into the database...
at least here in europe...
Ive always self serviced, learned it all from My dad who's an electrician and technician. When i was a teenager helping him change a battery, the wrench slipped out of my hand and made contact between the two terminals of the battery. It would have exploded had he not smacked it off in time. The wrench itself had melted where it made contact with the other terminal.
Everytime I self-service I mess something else up. I agree that most owners do not self service.
alos, waht does self service mean? If someone changes their summer tires to winter tires, does that count as self-service? Or do you need to do even more?
I may not self service some of my work on my car but I do a lot of my own work. Oil changes exhaust spark plugs, wires, fuel Injectors just because I went into a shop to have 1 part put in because it was a pain in the ass doesn't mean I don't self service my car
Security and safety is what politicians say, too. And they really do beat it over our heads.
McLaren, Bugatti, and Ferrari also have some similar policies. It’s wild to pay that much for something to not be able to fix it.
I mean atleast when you pay those stupid prices, you generally dont open it either, you give it to a mechanics friend that knows more. Because those parts costs more than a normal persons whole car does.
@@DontUseHack Good POINT
Few months ago I cracked the oil pan on my internal combustion vehicle. The mechanic wanted around $250 to fix it so I did it myself with my friend for around $60. Sure I could have died, the car could have fallen on me because we don't have the expensive equipment to lift it up properly but a plane could have also crashed in my back yard. Yet it didn't.
Also how are you gonna sell or buy a car if you can't open the hood? How will you be able to make a decision to spend thousands of dollars on a car if you can't see the state of the most important and most expensive part of the vehicle? Or are they gonna disallow us from selling cars next? Well that's probably the direction the future is headed....
My vehicle has batteries with several thousand amps and liquid with the highest BTU value of any common fuel. I have an old diesel truck with an engine that was designed in the late 1930's. I haven't killed myself despite some REALLY bone-headed mistakes. I'm guessing engineers of the "olden" days were just plain better at designing fault tolerance and fail-safes. It's stunning that modern engineers are essentially admitting their incompetence.
Hmm. I don't know, when it comes to computer parts you can assemble yourself, they are pretty durable nowadays. Motherboards, graphics cards, CPUs- you can do some big, boneheaded mistakes and it'll be fine.
The people who killed themselves would not be posting here.
@@Olivia-W A couple of bad old examples: AT power supplies where you could get the connectors around the wrong way (i.e. put the grounding wires on the outside). 486 and older cpus that could be mounted rotated as the pin pattern allowed it, the direction triangle was still on the sockets/cpu package substrate, but could easily be ignored.
@@ic_trab Ooh, I dismantled two such old clunkers recently.
Modern PC parts are much more idiot proof. You have to be really trying to kill them or plug stuff in the wrong way.
If you want to live your life worrying about "safety and security", Australia has some nice rooms for you, the only dopes to buy such a vehicle will be those that show up at met galas wearing "tax the rich" dresses
At first i thought you mean literally dresses with "Tax The Rich" written on them, and i was confused why you were calling those people dopes :)
@@Atropos148 yes literally.. rich people like to wear them to $5000 a pop galas.
You are absolutely spot on! The way they have done this is absolutely an anti-right-to-repair move. I really hope other manufacturers don't follow suit (looking at you Tesla) similar to what happened with non-removable batteries and headphone jacks in laptops and phones (looking at you Samsung and Google). Even that litany of warnings seems to designed to frighten people, "programming" them to be wary of self service.
Now, of course in an EV there really isn't that much stuff that *needs* to be in the hood that requires service. So when I originally heard about the EQS hood, combined with the the neat little slide-out they have outside for the windshield washer fluid, I thought that they had actually made the hood a structural part of the body... as in physically not openable. That would have been an interesting choice because that might have given the engineers some additional options for enhanced crash protection... Basically don't put anything in the hood that even *needs* to be serviced frequently and package your crumple zones for maximum safety and minimum weight., with the only way to access those parts being from below. That's a situation where I might've been willing to consider the pros and cons, weighing safety against repairability.
Porsche BOXTER has NO "top side" engine access and it is done from below the car
@@jasonriddell thats a design issue. no body says you cant jack it up and work on it.
This needs government involvement.
This, along with need to repair, AND not allowing you to replace batteries in ALL DEVICES.
Not only Google and Samsung, but APPLE, as well. You failed to mention Apple!
sadly Tesla has been leading the way on this thus far.
thank you for saying the truth to the people and trying to tell people that they will be fooled. Unfortunately, there is not much people like you and even fewer people that actually cares whatever they and other people will be fooled or not. People complains that the companies are unfair to their customer, but supports it by them self.
My grandfather died when his rv slipped off of a jack stand and the brake rotor crushed his pelvis and pinned him under it. The hydraulic ram on the transmission jack failed on my brother-in-law and it snapped his arm in half. It's a risk that we take, and as auto makers move to a model of charging consumers $20,000 for a damaged $5 part, it is a risk that will and should be taken more often.
Ferrari is basically the same way and has been for a long time! You have to have special tools only certified Ferrari mechanics have. Heck, even oil changes are a nightmare. “Non-customer serviceable”
You deserve it if you drive one.
Well they're right, if you've got one you can spend money on their bullshit mechanics.
On a side note. The new editing style you went with for your videos is amazing.
Interesting note: Chrisfix, a young car enthusiast/mechanic opened a prius and replaced its battery unit, while Scotty Kilmer, a mechanic supposedly in the industry forever, says not to. Opposite to typical, where the young guy is more risk averse and the older one more focused on repairability.
Ooh very interesting