On Tuesday, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new automotive right-to-repair ballot initiative forcing car manufacturers to provide independent mechanics and technicians with the same diagnostics they give to authorized repair shops. The landslide vote comes months after the Biden Administration backpedaled on a short-lived effort to stonewall a similar law from taking effect in Massachusetts. Now, the road appears well paved for Maine to pass the baton on to other states considering their own right to repair bills.
The right-to-repair issue was presented to Maine voters as question 4 of a ballot initiative. When voters went to the poll on Tuesdays they were asked whether or not they wanted manufacturers to “standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical data to owners.” A staggering 84% answered “yes” according to a New York Times tracker.
The ballot initiative emerged from a grassroots petition organized by a collection of independent auto repair shop owners. That petition reportedly received more than 70,000 signatures before eventually being sent to Maine’s Secretary of State. As part of the initiative, manufacturers will be required to hand over software, tools, parts, and miscellaneous components to the independent repair shops that previously might have been siloed out. Independent shops believe this open standard is critical for their businesses, particularly as more parts of cars are controlled by software and as carmakers attempt to wall off external access.
“By voting yes on Question 4, Mainers have now joined Massachusetts in a growing national movement to update automotive Right to Repair laws for the modern age of connected cars,” Maine Automotive Right to Repair Committee Director Tommy Hickey said in a statement sent to NBC News Center Maine. Hickey was a leading voice pushing for the ballot initiative. “Automakers are trying to monopolize the market on car and truck repairs but their customers, the voters, are acting overwhelmingly to put the brakes on them.”
Industry groups representing car manufacturers, meanwhile, were predictably less thrilled.
“The Question 4 results are disappointing but hardly surprising,” Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO and president John Bozzella said in an interview with The Portland Press Herald. Opponents of automotive right to repair, both in Maine and across the country, have argued opening their system up could lead some repair technicians to disable certain safety or anti-theft features that could harm consumers. Anti-right-to-repair figures in other industries like consumer electronics and agriculture have made similarly dubious safety arguments in their efforts to snub out the movement.
Right to Repair Movement Slams on the Gas
Maine’s vote comes just a few months after the Biden administration backed down from its attempt to pour water on a similar Massachusetts right-to-repair law passed back in 2020. Despite making public statements supporting the right to repair, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) baffled many when one of its lawyers wrote to car manufacturers urging them not to comply with the law, which the agency warned could make cars more vulnerable to hackers. The NHTSA quickly reversed course, however, and sent a follow-up letter to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell assuring her the federal government “strongly supports the right to repair.”
Right to repair, both in the automotive industry and beyond, is having its moment. Aside from Massachusetts and Maine, at least 20 other states are pursuing some form of legislation that would make diagnostic data available to independent mechanics and technicians. On the consumer tech side of things, California recently passed a nation-leading bill that would force manufacturers of everything from laptops to dishwashers to provide repair resources for devices up to seven years after they are sold. Even industry heavyweights formally opposed to the right-to-repair movement like Apple are beginning to change their tune. In that case, one of right-to-repair’s most iconic villains recently made a 180 turn and announced it would support a comprehensive federal right-to-repair law.