Bluetooth To The Rescue! NHTSA Does About Face On Massachusetts Telematics Access Law
A letter from NHTSA to Massachusetts' Attorney General walks back opposition to the state's expanded vehicle right to repair law. Repair advocates worry that NHTSA's compromise is a bad deal.
A letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to Massachusetts’ Attorney General walks back a June warning to automakers not to comply with the state’s expanded vehicle right to repair law by providing owners and independent garages with access to vehicle telematic data needed for repairs.
The letter, dated August 22, was signed by Kerry Kolodziej, an Assistant Chief Counsel for Litigation and Enforcement at NHTSA - the same attorney who authored the June 13th letter to the lead counsel at 22 major U.S. automakers that argued that the Massachusetts law poses a safety risk and therefore violates the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, (Safety Act), 49 C.F.R. Chapter 301.
That followed Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s decision, in March, to begin enforcing the 2020 expansion of the state’s automotive right to repair law, as a case challenging the legality of the law, Alliance for Automotive Innovation vs. Campbell, remained in limbo in the courtroom of Federal Judge Douglas Woodlock.
Kolodziej’s latest missive, addressed to Massachusetts’ Assistant Attorney General Erik Haskell, takes a different tone: declaring NHTSA firmly supportive of vehicle owners’ right to repair their cars. NHTSA, Kolodziej argues, has reached agreement with the Massachusetts Attorney General that the telematics access law can be implemented “promoting consumers’ ability to choose independent or do-it-yourself repairs—without compromising safety.”
What changed? Well, apparently Bluetooth - a quarter century old, short-range wireless protocol. Kolodiej said that she was writing to Haskell “to confirm our mutual understanding of that path forward” for near-term implementation of the Massachusetts Data Access Law. That apparently rests on automakers giving local repair shops access to vehicle telematics via Bluetooth connections - or some similar short range protocol - thereby satisfying the law’s requirement of access to wireless telematics, while eliminating what NHTSA considers the risk of large scale and remote attacks on vehicles.
“In NHTSA’s view, a solution like this one, if implemented with appropriate care, would significantly reduce the cybersecurity risks—and therefore the safety risks—associated with remote access…Such a short-range wireless compliance approach, implemented appropriately, therefore would not be preempted,” Kolodiej wrote.
But will it?
