'Worst of CES' Awards Announced by Right-to-Repair/Privacy Advocates (theregister.com) 66
The Register reports on a unique response to CES:
Six right-to-repair advocates assembled on Friday morning to present Repair.org's second annual Worst in Show Awards, a selection of the "the least private, least secure, least repairable, and least sustainable gadgets at CES."
In a presentation streamed on YouTube, author and activist Cory Doctorow presided over the condemnation session. He said that he has been attending the Consumer Electronics Show for decades and vendors will gladly enumerate the supposed benefits of their products. "But what none of those people will ever do is tell you how it will fail," said Doctorow. "And that's kind of our job here today, to talk about the hidden or maybe not so hidden and completely foreseeable failure modes of these gadgets."
Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, gave the new Mercedes EQS EV the award for the worst product in terms of repairability. Showing a slide of the warning screen the car presents to its driver, he said, "You cannot open the hood of the car. It is locked, warning of accident, warning of injury if you open the hood. Mercedes' perspective is, 'Hey, this is an electric car. There's nothing the owner needs to do under the hood of this car."
Wiens said this is not the first time Mercedes has gone down this road, noting that a few years ago the company removed the dipstick from its C-class vehicles, arguing that only an authorized technician should change the oil.
"So this is everything that is wrong with the future," he said.
Some other higlights (via the Register)... Nathan Proctor, national campaign director for public interest non-profit USPIRG, gave the "worst in class for the environment" award to Samsung's new NFT Aggregation Platform, which he described as "a way to buy, sell and display your NFT artwork from your huge ginormous OLED Samsung TV."
Proctor added "If you don't know what an NFT is, I am honestly jealous of your life," calling it "sort of like a Beanie Baby craze for crypto tech bros — if Beanie Babies required massive continual energy consumption on a warming planet to remain corporeal."
And the Community Choice poll for Worst in Show went to John Deere — presumably for fighting right-to-repair laws in every single state legislature — while the tractor companywas also recognized by Paul Roberts, founder of securerepairs.org, for its industry-lagging bad outreach to the security community.
In a presentation streamed on YouTube, author and activist Cory Doctorow presided over the condemnation session. He said that he has been attending the Consumer Electronics Show for decades and vendors will gladly enumerate the supposed benefits of their products. "But what none of those people will ever do is tell you how it will fail," said Doctorow. "And that's kind of our job here today, to talk about the hidden or maybe not so hidden and completely foreseeable failure modes of these gadgets."
Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, gave the new Mercedes EQS EV the award for the worst product in terms of repairability. Showing a slide of the warning screen the car presents to its driver, he said, "You cannot open the hood of the car. It is locked, warning of accident, warning of injury if you open the hood. Mercedes' perspective is, 'Hey, this is an electric car. There's nothing the owner needs to do under the hood of this car."
Wiens said this is not the first time Mercedes has gone down this road, noting that a few years ago the company removed the dipstick from its C-class vehicles, arguing that only an authorized technician should change the oil.
"So this is everything that is wrong with the future," he said.
Some other higlights (via the Register)... Nathan Proctor, national campaign director for public interest non-profit USPIRG, gave the "worst in class for the environment" award to Samsung's new NFT Aggregation Platform, which he described as "a way to buy, sell and display your NFT artwork from your huge ginormous OLED Samsung TV."
Proctor added "If you don't know what an NFT is, I am honestly jealous of your life," calling it "sort of like a Beanie Baby craze for crypto tech bros — if Beanie Babies required massive continual energy consumption on a warming planet to remain corporeal."
And the Community Choice poll for Worst in Show went to John Deere — presumably for fighting right-to-repair laws in every single state legislature — while the tractor companywas also recognized by Paul Roberts, founder of securerepairs.org, for its industry-lagging bad outreach to the security community.
Video ironically hosted on Youtube (Score:2)
a sister company of one of the worst polluters on Earth not engaged in Bitcoin mining.
Worst in show indeed.
Re:Video ironically hosted on Youtube (Score:4, Funny)
I stopped reading here:
They're the ones that get high smelling their own farts in their Nissan Leaves
Firstly, the "Leaf" in Nissan LEAF is a backcronmy. It stands for "Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable Family car". Therefore the plural is regular.
Secondly, "Leaf" is a proper noun. As explained in this this helpful article [washingtonpost.com]:
"Your conundrum about the pluralization of the Maple Leafs may be less interesting than you were hoping for," Chambers wrote. "It follows the simple rule that nouns used as proper nouns take regular (productive) plurals even if their common noun counterparts have irregular plurals."
Additionally, while it is accepted in modern English, the use of the relative pronoun "that" to refer to a person is really grating. The proper pronoun is "who".
Therefore, your sentence should read: "They're the ones who get high smelling their own farts in their Nissan Leafs".
Understandably, your poor command of the English grammar invalidates your entire troll post. Quite a sad performance.
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Which company, Google? Also, do you have an article about it? Google may be carbon heavy but I'm unaware of any bitcoin mining activities.
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Quite a lot of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining occurs on cloud servers with cracked accounts. It's a frequent burden for all the cloud providers.
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In this regard, that doesn't make Google a perpetrator but rather it's makes them a victim.
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That is a somewhat distinct question. Since it's Google and AWS and Azure resources being used for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it's their pollution generating and energy wasting systems being used, which was the original point. Whether these cloud companies encourage bitcoin, to profit off of its use via cracked user accounts and collect the money, would determine if they're deliberately profiting from the criminal business. If they're actually losing money because they don't bill their customers fo
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I just reread the original post and it reads, "one of the worst polluters on Earth not engaged in Bitcoin mining" which actually makes a lot more sense. The Bitcoin nonsense is irrelevant here really.
Re:Video ironically hosted on Youtube (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting claim, so I looked into it. Google claims to have reach net zero emissions in 2007, aiming for zero carbon (i.e. 100% powered by renewable energy) by 2030. Of course that is a bit misleading, it's only the energy consumption of the datacentres and not stuff like the manufacturing of servers or the employees driving to work to keep them running.
However, that particular claim about YouTube seems to be based on a particular bit of research.
https://www.wired.co.uk/articl... [wired.co.uk]
According to that, to calculate the true emissions of YouTube the researchers estimated the emissions of all the ISPs and end users as well. That's an interesting number, but doesn't seem entirely fair to YouTube. YouTube does what it can to reduce bandwidth as much as possible (for its own benefit), but can't control what ISPs and end users do.
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It may not seem entirely fair to YouTube. But it is like blaming gas companies for the CO2 emissions of the cars that burn the gas. They know it's going to happen, they know what effect it will have, and they know that if they don't sell their product it won't happen.
There is a lot in the world that one becomes responsible for, yet has imperfect (or no) control over.
Part of the unfairness in this case is, YouTube shutting down to "stop the additional emissions" would cause even more emissions, as competi
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This last bit isn't true
they know that if they don't sell their product it won't happen
People aren't going to stop buying gas just because some company decides to stop selling it. The price might go up a bit if there is less competition, but it's also likely that a combination of less competition and higher price will cause the remaining companies to increase production.
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Alas, the truth is that both are true.
The company that sells gas won't be the one responsible for the CO2 emissions, because they didn't sell the gas. Net emissions don't go down, because the consumer goes elsewhere, to someone who will sell.
The same point I made regarding YouTube, in point of fact.
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Also their paper makes some cache hit rate assumptions that are critical for the magnitude of their estimate.
As their actual paper says they are proposing a methodology and a model, not suggesting an actual answer for YouTube.
But of course the press has a hard time with nuance when they can put "$TECH_CO Bad" in the headline.
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Interesting claim, so I looked into it. Google claims to have reach net zero emissions in 2007
Sorry, typo, it was meant to say "net zero corporate tax". Please update your records.
Dipsticks are on their way out (Score:3)
The good news is that they're being replaced not only with insistence that you should go to the dealer, but also level sensors. So in most cases you can still check your oil easily enough. Even in our '06 Sprinter I can do it from the dash. It does have an oil dipstick, but no transmission dipstick — but there is one, you just have to buy it separately and then figure out how to store it. I keep ours in vinyl tubing...
Re:Dipsticks are on their way out (Score:5, Informative)
And if the sensor fails? It's part of a bad trend of replacing devices so simple they can't fail with more expensive systems that fail easily. The sensors are useful but should augment the dipstick, not replace it.
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should augment the dipstick
This is where I realized everyone was talking about a dipstick, not a dipshit.
Shame on me.
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I agree, but if the sensor fails in theory it will set a code so at least you know it needs replacement.
The Audi A8 I had for a while had no transmission dipstick nor level sensor, and they claimed it had lifetime transmission fluid. They replaced a lot of transmissions under warranty, and a lot more were replaced after...
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Now if the cars would actually display the codes without jumping through hoops and if the manufacturers would disclose the meanings of all of the codes, that might actually be useful.
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I think that stuff should be mandatory but in most cases you can get scanners that will get you the data for under a couple hundred dollars standalone, or under a hundred dollars bluetooth/app. You shouldn't have to pay anything beyond a generic interface cable, but it's not usually a show-stopper if you want to be the one who does the maintenance.
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There are such workarounds, often involving the scanner manufacturers reverse engineering the codes or having to fork over crazy fees for what should be in the owner's manual. The existence of a workaround that the manufacturer fights tooth and nail is not an acceptable 'out' for the manufacturer's bad behavior.
The shame of it is that the infotainment system is already connected to the CAN bus and has more than enough CPU to display the codes and their meanings to you.
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Just about every vehicle I work on has a reverse engineered scanner to go with it lately. Even my F150 has a hacked cable (just a switch mod, and I bought it pre-modded for what I'd have probably paid to buy the switch anyway) and special software ("forscan"... yeah), the Audi had a special cable and special software, I've got a standalone scanner with a sprinter module for the van. And the bus has a J1708/J1587 interface and I got a scangauge D for that. A simple ELM can't even pull codes from all the modu
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It is mandatory, which is why you can get those scanners. And they cost more like $20.
There are unfortunately still manufacturer-specific codes beyond the legislated set that the Internet has to figure out though.
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That said, I've had 3 more BMWs since then, all without dipsticks, and
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Also the lifetime engine coolant seems to no longer be a thing.
"Lifetime" fluids are for the lifetime of the warranty, not the car.
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> if the sensor fails in theory it will set a code
You know the joke, about the difference between theory and practice? That in theory there is no difference?
The problem here is that a sensor can fail in two ways: false positive and false negative. For instance, I had a gas tank sensor fail. Because I am writing this, you can intuit which way it failed...
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Yeah but in automotive it is standard to cross check sensors, and also track deltas. It's mandatory for any sensors relevant to emissions so they're used to doing it. It is natural for oil levels to fluctuate during operation, so if they don't then you know something is amiss.
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The reason they use sensors for some of these things is safety laws. For example tyre pressure sensors are mandatory on new vehicles, because even though you are supposed to check your tyre pressures and your lights before every journey, nobody does. Driving with too low tyre pressure is no only dangerous, it increases emissions from the car.
I don't know if the oil is included in this. I'm not an expert on Mercedes combustion engines, could low oil increase emissions? Diesel cars need to have sensors to mon
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As I said, it's fine for the sensors to augment the old way. My car has tire pressure sensors as well. They don't prevent me from using Ye Olde tire gauge.
There are also sensors for the oil but I have a dipstick. The sensors can't tell me if the oil smells of fuel, looks burned, or shows sign of moisture, the dipstick can.
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Low oil does increase emissions. Including emissions of whatever the engine is made of.
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High oil will cause emissions. Low oil causes engine failure.
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And if the sensor fails? It's part of a bad trend of replacing devices so simple they can't fail with more expensive systems that fail easily. The sensors are useful but should augment the dipstick, not replace it.
If you were running an oil refinery I'd completely agree with you. If on the other hand you are driving a car when the sensors fails you do the same thing you do when the dipstick shows the oil is empty: take it for a service. Or if you're a special kind of monster you pour more oil into the engine which is burning it / leaking it.
I my next-door neighbours father suffered a huge accident one day resulting in the amputation of high right arm, and losing most of his left hand with just a palm remaining. Why i
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And what tells you the sensor has failed? One way would be if the dipstick says it's low and the sensor says it's fine OH WAIT! Or the converse, the sensor says it's low and the dipstick says it's fine (there's a trend here).
Where is the sensor that tells you the oil smells like fuel (rings wearing) or looks a bit milky (head gasket going).
The sensors cost a hell of a lot more than the dipstick. More of the price of your car went to the CEO's winter yacht fund than went for the dipstick.
The oil in my car ha
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And what tells you the sensor has failed? One way would be if the dipstick says it's low and the sensor says it's fine OH WAIT!
Sensor diagnostics (such as the one which triggered on my car after not driving it for 9 months at the start of COVID which flashed up the words "oil sensor fault") when I started the car. But it did start working again the next time I started the car.
Mind you you can also tell your sensor is faulty if it tells you the oil level is fine and low oil level alarm comes up. Oh wait... You do realise you have 2 independent oil level sensors right, a continuous one and a point sensor?
Where is the sensor that tells you the oil smells like fuel (rings wearing) or looks a bit milky (head gasket going).
I pay that "sensor" $60 to te
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It's called not being totally crap at shadetree auto maintenance. It's all part of not being rendered helpless when things malfunction.
Even in your scenario, don't you think it would be nice to be able to see if you had enough oil in the engine when that sensor fail code comes up? At least so you know if you should drive it to the mechanic or call a tow truck? (or even, god forbid, top the oil up as needed and then drive it to the mechanic). Perhaps you have important things to do that week and it would be
Re: Dipsticks are on their way out (Score:2)
A sensor is better than a dipstick in at least one way.
A dipstick won't warn you your oil is low while you're driving.
When your engine loses enough oil that the oil pressure warning light turns on, the damage to the engine is already occuring.
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That's why I suggested a sensor could AUGMENT the dipstick.
Mercedes Oil Change (Score:5, Interesting)
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Not being allowed to open the bonnet (er... hood in American) seems to be a bigger deal. Even on an EV there are things you need to get at in there.
- 12V battery
- Headlights
- Windscreen washer fluid
Maybe they made them accessible some other way. Or maybe you aren't allowed to mess with those things anymore. Mercedes use matrix headlights that need to be calibrated, so you can't just replace the bulb yourself. In fact I don't think they even use a bulb, it's some kind of ultra high power LED or laser now.
Cur
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There is only one car where that is not recommended and it's the new electric Mercedes and for good reason. The bus voltage is 800 volts dc. That is extremely dangerous.
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- Headlights
You have missed a step in the evolution of car design and manufacturing. In many new cars (of the more fancy sort) the headlights are LEDs and are sealed into a plastic block that is part of the front end of the car. They are never supposed to burn out, but require a very expensive new body panel to be installed if that is necessary.
Re: Mercedes Oil Change (Score:1)
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Mercedes did not remove the dipstick for the engine.
What is not there is the dipstick for the tranny fluid - which you will not find on most cars anyway.
The tranny fluid replacement in autobox is a specialised job, requiring the -internal- gearbox filter replaced, a flush and bleed procedure , it is not simply topped up, nor is the dipstick min/max. The level is also temperature dependent. If you underfill or overfill the tranny fluid in an auto tranny you WILL cause damage... the tranny fluid also flows i
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Mercedes did not remove the dipstick for the engine.
I was wondering if they did on newer models than my 2018. BMW has for a while stopped using them.
What is not there is the dipstick for the tranny fluid - which you will not find on most cars anyway. The tranny fluid replacement in autobox is a specialised job, requiring the -internal- gearbox filter replaced, a flush and bleed procedure , it is not simply topped up, nor is the dipstick min/max. The level is also temperature dependent. If you underfill or overfill the tranny fluid in an auto tranny you WILL cause damage... the tranny fluid also flows in the torque convertor between the gearbox + engine.
Yea, you have to over fill an let it run out of the fill plug while at the right temperature. They have a little standpipe that sets the right level.
I'm not defending this approach of 'keep the owner out'.. it really sucks, and also hurts independent repair shops badly too. Things need to be repairable- period. And car manufacturers have a lot to answer for, especially in the difficulty level for some repairs due to the design. Eg. to fix most of the engine problems in a range rover, requires the entire car body to be unbolted and lifted off the chassis. To do a timing chain on a lot of vehicles is an engine-out job. And don't get be started on some ford models where the timing belt COVER keeps the crankshaft drive sprocket in position (read no keyway in the shaft), so removing / touching the cover knocks your timing out, destroying engine when you start the car.
Anyway, wanted to correct the wrong info in the link, but the principle of the story is sound and I could not agree more with it.
Same here. I'm resigned to only doing brake jobs and very minor repairs on a new car.
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The tranny fluid replacement in autobox is a specialised job, requiring the -internal- gearbox filter replaced, a flush and bleed procedure , it is not simply topped up, nor is the dipstick min/max
Oh please. If a person can't take out the 10-14 bolts from around the pan, dump the fluid, and stupidly easily replace the filter, then dump fluid down the dipstick tube they are also probably not going to bother checking the fluid ever anyways.
It's also not that hard to check in most cases, as there are two level ranges marked on the dipstick, one for cold and one for hot after you've been driving for a while. A couple of Dodge / Chrysler transmissions have you do it "backwards" though, those are a damn pa
Top up and fluid visual inspection are useful (Score:2)
As a mechanic since the 1970s I greatly prefer to SEE the transmission fluid to check for contamination.
The cost to retain the dipstick is a trifle as is designing the dipstick tube to be fluid suction friendly.
Modern German autos are so anti-mechanic that they go low at auto auctions because dealers know any problems will be painful to fix. The glory days when German engineers produced elegantly simple machined died with those engineers. (BMW airhead motorcycles, the early VW four cylinders whose engine bl
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In the case where I were leasing a vehicle and turning it in every three years for a new one, this is where a lot of European car makes shine. After 160k km, the issues are someone else's problem, while I enjoy all the complex bells and whistles that at least work well at the start.
Purchasing... different story. If I wanted something that I can keep for an indefinite amount of time (mainly because I don't like permanently allocating a part of my income for vehicle payments), I'll be looking at something s
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Mercedes still has dipsticks. In fact the recommended way of changing oil is vacuuming it through the dipstick tube. All the dealers use this method.
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Mercedes still has dipsticks. In fact the recommended way of changing oil is vacuuming it through the dipstick tube. All the dealers use this method.
Mine does but I was not sure about newer models. I find it easier to use the drain plug but may try an electric vacuum pump instead of my manual one.
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Engine oil dipstick maybe, but a friend's 2007 ML350 had no way to check transmission fluid, nor a place to add some. I'm pretty sure there were some sensors, so the computer would let you know you needed transmission service. But that's just the point- something as simple as checking and adding transmission fluid requires a very expensive trip to the dealer?
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Almost all cars these days have no way to check the transmission fluid. In fact, check your manual for the maintenance schedule and changing the transm
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I've seen people change the oil by using an oil evac pump. No need to pop the cork underneath... just slide a tube down the dipstick port so it lands well in the crankcase, start vacuuming until there isn't anything left in the pan, add oil... done. Of course, there is always replacing the drain plug with a Fumoto plug to make subsequent changes easier, especially if a crush washer replacement isn't available.
It's Ironic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: It's Ironic (Score:3)
Depends what product. A vinyl turntable from the 70s, no problem. A computer? Not sure you'll find it very useful tbh. As for 70s vehicles, avoid like the plague if you need a daily driver because they spent half their life being fixed even when new, never mind 50 years later.
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Re: It's Ironic (Score:2)
Agree about the extra crap in modern cars. Sweet spots was the 00s. Reliable engine management systems, abs and traction control but none of the teenage playstation shit in place of proper cabin controls.
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Generally, I don't see how appliances from the 50s to 70s are better, there may be exceptions but it is not the rule. You can get appliances today that are well built and repairable, for a price. But unlike the old stuff, it follows modern safety standards, for example, many old appliances have a metal casing, no grounding and aging wires. There may be a lot of other improvements.
It may be worth it if you compare cheap consumer-grade appliances to high quality appliances of the past. You can find really goo
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Since you are talking about coffee machines, I have a Rancilio Silvia espresso machine. And it is, I think, a good way to illustrate my point.
Despite being really simple, it is a modern machine, in the sense that it is still being produced and is regularly updated. They are all built like tanks, easy to repair and modify, with parts being available, and it has improved over the years, so unless you get a good price for it, there is no reason to prefer the older versions.
Among the improvements:
- Replaceable,
It's not all bad (Score:3)
Just look at how easy it is to replace the headlight on your Porsche [9cache.com].
How does this make me feel? (Score:2)
Subscription model vs Tangible Product model (Score:2)
This is what happens when the subscription business model runs head first into the tangible product business model. You see, a company that builds a finished product that the customer owns outright cannot compete (on paper) with a company whose customers have to pay continually to use the product. The former has to find a way to get people to buy a new product whereas the latter doesn't. That is until the customer realizes that they are leaking money constantly and their subscription fees surpass their i
My main complaint (Score:2)