Comments by "deezel_fairy" (@deezelfairy) on "John Deere has 9 lawsuits against them: farmers see blood in the water" video.

  1. I'm a forklift mechanic so in the same world of heavy equipment with proprietary software and Deere's whole 'not wanting customers to modify software for safety' is total garbage. I'm a dealer tech, and I have yet to find a single piece of manufactures software that can be hacked or altered (on a coding level) by myself - I can only operate within the bounds of what the software allows me to do! Yes there are plenty of parameters I can change - things like max speed, acceleration rates, maximum electric motor currents, lift/lower speeds ect, but I can't just set those values to anything I want, there are upper and lower limits that are hard coded into the software. Dealer software allows me to do several things. 1) Adjusted parameters between pre determined limits to suit the customers application. 2) View live sensor and operational data for fault diagnosis. 3) Calibrate replacement analog sensors. 4) Operate machine functions from the laptop/software rather than having to use the actual controls in the cab - again for diagnostic tests. 5) Initial machine set up if a new major vehicle control module has fitted - these are things such as telling the new computer what specific model forklift it is, what specific type of engine it has fitted, what system voltage the machine is and telling it the other endless list of factory fitted options that machine has or hasn't got. That's pretty much about it... Deere like to make it sound like farmers can 'hack' their tractors to produce 300 more hp, travel down the road at 90mph and disable every safety feature on the machine - it's just isn't possible. The coding isn't there!
    1