I’m still somewhat confused about where the issues around this falls and how most, if not all manufactures today, aren’t doing exactly the same thing as John Deere. The major difference I can see between John Deere and the automotive industry, is that most (if not all) auto manufactures sell diagnostic tools. They aren’t cheap and you may be paying a subscription to even use them, so in terms of DIY is it even worth it?
This 2015 Wired article talks about a scenario of the editor trying to fix a friends tractor. I’m not sure what a canbus reader and alligator clips were going to do to help him fix a broken sensor. It is likely there for a reason or multiple reasons and without knowing exactly what all disabling it might do, bypassing it seems rather foolish. Given the context of the story I’m not sure why the farmer didn’t have an extra on hand. That article makes the case for why the emissions argument isn’t complete BS. If you had the option to just disable a pressure sensor, why not the DEF injector, O2 sensor, or any engine related sensor that wasn’t working correctly - but not directly needed to run the machine?
I can’t reprogram my car, my washing machine, my air conditioner, or basically anything I didn’t load the software on myself. I have a 6 year old phone that’s becoming obsolete, not because of the hardware, but because there is no OEM support for newer versions of Android.
