SecuRepairs Celebrates Huge Win for Right To Repair in Massachusetts

SecuRepairs congratulates voters in Massachusetts on Tuesday for overwhelming approving Question 1, a ballot measure that makes wireless vehicle maintenance and repair data available to car owners and independent repair professionals.

With 86% of towns reporting, YES captured 75% of the vote – an overwhelming victory in a campaign that saw tens of millions of dollars spent by both proponents and backers of the measure.

A “W” for Right to Repair

SecuRepairs was a strong supporter of Question 1 and celebrates its passage.

“The passage of ballot Question 1 in Massachusetts is a huge win for consumers and advocates of a right to repair,” said Paul Roberts, the founder of SecuRepairs. “As they did eight years ago, voters in the Bay State went with facts over industry FUD – fear uncertainty and doubt. They roundly rejected automakers’ scaremongering over invented cybersecurity and privacy risks and delivered a huge win to both vehicle owners and independent repair shops. SecuRepairs is gratified that our warnings about the No on 1 campaign’s scare tactics registered with voters.”

The beneficiaries of Question 1’s passage are vehicle owners, who will continue to enjoy the same access to the critical repair and maintenance data as automotive dealers use repair and service their own vehicles. Small businesses across the Bay State will also benefit: competing on an even playing field with dealerships and their authorized repair providers and providing vital competition for aftermarket service and repair.

While Massachusetts legislators may choose to refine the language of the ballot measure in the New Year, SecuRepairs urges them to acknowledge the overwhelming voter support of Question 1 as written and to refrain from tinkering with the ballot measure’s language in ways that vitiate the ballot measure or hamper its practical implementation by automakers and vehicle owners.

More than cars at stake

But, as we’ve noted: Question 1 is about much more than auto repair. We hope to carry the momentum from Question 1 into the larger battle for a digital right to repair that protects not just cars, but smart phones, laptops, smart home appliances and array of other Internet connected, software driven stuff.

In the months ahead, SecuRepairs and our partners in the right to repair community will be lobbying legislators in Massachusetts and elsewhere to enact comprehensive digital right to repair legislation. Once again, we will face off against large and deep pocketed industries and lobbyists who will use dire warnings of cybersecurity and privacy risks to hobble pro-consumer, pro-environment and pro-market right to repair laws. We urge them to keep the enthusiastic support Massachusetts voters showed Question 1 in mind. The right to repair is an idea whose time as come. We look forward to working with lawmakers in dozens of states in 2021 to make that idea a reality!

Paul F. Roberts

Paul Roberts,
Founder, SecuRepairs
@securepairs

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