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John Deere fails to uphold right to repair agreement

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Back in 2018, John Deere struck a voluntary agreement in which it would provide manuals, training, and diagnostic software for tractors available to purchase by January 1, 2021. The company does not appear to have done so, or to have plans to do so in the near future[1][2].

The agreement was made between the Equipment Dealers Association (EDA) and John Deere, with already controversy about the concessions that were made at that time by the EDA. The California Farm Bureau reached an agreement with the EDA to enshrine the concessions the Equipment Dealers Association made in the agreement[3].

Those concessions are listed by the EDA in "Proposed Amendments to Right to Repair/Fair Repair Legislation"[4]. "If anything, it is more restrictive, because it enshrines what the Farm Bureau of California now believes farmers are not supposed to do with their tractors, which includes modifying the embedded software"[5].

If manufacturers such as John Deere provided farmers with access to software keys, farmers would be able to break free from reliance on the dealer and perform critical repairs themselves[6]. Industry groups, however, claim that doing so would also allow farmers to bypass emissions and safety controls[6].

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