Imagine for a moment that your car has a broken headlight or issues with the door lock. With the right spare parts and a little time, you could make those repairs yourself… but now continue this exercise and picture a situation where you cannot get any part because the manufacturer controls its distribution and installation. That is what happens today with Tesla cars, and those enthusiasts determined to repair or recover these vehicles find themselves trapped in a kind of cold war with Elon Musk and his people. Rich from the channel Rich Rebuilds is one of those enthusiasts.
Trade secrets, copyright, copyright. Expressions that, in the right measure, are very useful for encouraging innovation and development, but are currently being manipulated in such a way that they represent a constant legal threat to any creator or enthusiast operating on a small scale. A couple of months ago we talked about the true magic of Disney, which is responsible for altering the deadlines set by US copyright laws and thus preventing its characters from falling into the public domain. However, there is something much worse simmering. It is a strategy that seeks to criminalize repair processes, and that has led to incredible extremes such as farmers hacking their own tractors because the manufacturer refuses to provide support. Who shows up in the middle of all this madness? None other than Tesla.
Meet the ‘Frankenstein Doctor’ of Tesla Cars
Rich Benoit is the face and mind behind the YouTube channel called Rich Rebuilds, which rose to fame for a very particular action: Rich has dedicated a significant part of his time and money to rescuing and repairing Tesla cars damaged in circumstances such as crashes and floods. A very noble practice… that Tesla doesn’t like one bit. The company’s stance on diagnosis, repair, reconstruction and replacement is inflexible: Only they can do it. This means that Tesla does not offer parts (whether new or reconditioned), nor diagnostic software, nor special tools, nor anything of the sort. The only source of parts for Rich and his colleagues is other semi-destroyed Tesla cars that end up gutted in their garages.
Rich is a true Frankenstein doctor of Tesla cars, and beyond his run-ins with the company, he has also been forced to face other challenges, among which insurance, technical inspections, local permits, and the damned bureaucracy that sucks the life out of everything it touches stand out. To this we must add certain naturally risky actions such as handling batteries (there is a lot of lithium in the average Tesla, and it demands respect), but the underlying problem doesn’t change. Today, Tesla is the ‘Apple of electric cars’. Even simple things like headlights and lug nut protectors are out of reach for mechanics like Rich, and existing laws don’t help much either. Massachusetts has an act that enables the ‘right to repair’, and indicates that individuals should have access to the same tools as dealerships… but Tesla doesn’t work with dealerships, therefore, it escapes the effects of the law. Personally, I just hope there are more mad geniuses like Rich, and that companies understand that planned obsolescence is not an option.
