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[Motherboard] Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware

10K views 110 replies 73 participants last post by  lombardsoup 
#1 ·
Quote:
To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.
Source.

TaaS - Tractor as a Service, the next great idea. Said no farmer ever.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software."
Hey, buy this exorbitantly expensive piece of machinery from me, here's the warranty, but if it breaks and you lose your crops as result of it breaking, I'm not responsible. Thanks for your cash, take care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PurdueBoy View Post

I could easily see automotive manufacturers going down this route, though they'd likely have to collude to make sure they all do it at the same time.
This already happening. Some manufacturers have even started switching up their oil change openings so that you can't just drain it below and pour new oil through the top, you have to pump it in through the bottom. Just so that you don't change your oil outside of a certified shop.
 
#8 ·
Just goes to show you that proprietary is bad in any industry. Free the firmware will be a new rallying cry.
 
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#9 ·
Legitimate reasons for the advancement of equipment technology i can stand behind. but design innovation for the sole purpose of bringing repair/maintenance profits into the hands of the manufacturers is just plain wrong.

But i do believe more clarity is needed in order to distinguish the difference here, as well as some of the examples given.
 
#10 ·
Honestly this doesn't make sense, most if not all problems with a tractor would be mechanical.

"When crunch time comes and we break down, chances are we don't have time to wait for a dealership employee to show up and fix it," Danny Kluthe, a hog farmer in Nebraska, told his state legislature earlier this month. "Most all the new equipment [requires] a download [to fix]."

Why would these things be having so many software problems unless it is intentional?

Edit: Never mind, the issue is that the parts have to be "authorized" by the software. Kind of like you can't swap out some disk drives in video game consoles without the keys matching between the board and drive. "Farmers" should just stop buying newer John Deere equipment and hold onto older models (like most do), until these issues are fixed.
 
#12 ·
Are they actually the leader in tractors? Seems like a big opportunity for some other brands to suck up a lot of their market share by selling "open source" tractors.

DRM on vehicles, so bad
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#13 ·
Time to write John Deere a Dear John?

Having worked on a farm this wouldn't fly, especially during harvest.

Things break on a farm, they get fixed either with baler twine (farmer's duct tape) or welded back together. The repairs may not be pretty, they may not be perfect, but they work (mostly). There is generally no time to get a low loader in, load up the equipment, drive it to a (usually very busy) repair shop, get it repaired, and drive it back.

Having said that, if John Deere really step up their service and have people who can get out to farms within an hour or two to perform the repairs literally in the field, then it might be acceptable.

One example of how this can work: we had a diesel service from Shell. They missed a delivery during harvest (paperwork screw-up) and we ran short of fuel. Shell dispatched a tanker within the hour, and whilst we were waiting told us to drive the combine to the nearest gas station (5 minutes away), and fill it up there and they'd pay for it. ÂŁ1,000 of diesel later...
 
#14 ·
I'm all for this. No company should have direct control of what you purchased - especially when their EULA directly conflicts with your ability to use the tool in the way it was originally designed to be used. I flipped my lid when my dealership wanted to charge me 110 dollars for a firmware update on my Dodge truck's Radio/touchscreen head unit. I told them they were out of their minds if they think I'm going to pay for a software update, and they said that Chrysler charged them to get the update to distribute, and they set the prices, not the dealership themselves. I went online and found the firmware and updated the head unit myself.

I didn't hack anything, but the same principle applied. I had a compatibility issue with my bluetooth and it would not connect to my phone, this update addressed that issue, and once I applied it myself, my bluetooth worked again. Right to Repair, all the way!

The biggest key to here is the same thing that everyone worries about when/if Steam isn't around anymore. What happens to the keys? Steam already said they would remove encryption for everyone, if Steam were to ever go under - but all we have is their word, at this point. Same thing can be applied to this scenario. What if in 10 years, John Deere decides to stop servicing these machines, then what are farmers suppose to do with a 5 ton paper weight?
 
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#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by lynxxyarly View Post

I'm all for this. No company should have direct control of what you purchased - especially when their EULA directly conflicts with your ability to use the tool in the way it was originally designed to be used. I flipped my lid when my dealership wanted to charge me 110 dollars for a firmware update on my Dodge truck's Radio/touchscreen head unit. I told them they were out of their minds if they think I'm going to pay for a software update, and they said that Chrysler charged them to get the update to distribute, and they set the prices, not the dealership themselves. I went online and found the firmware and updated the head unit myself.

I didn't hack anything, but the same principle applied. I had a compatibility issue with my bluetooth and it would not connect to my phone, this update addressed that issue, and once I applied it myself, my bluetooth worked again. Right to Repair, all the way!

The biggest key to here is the same thing that everyone worries about when/if Steam isn't around anymore. What happens to the keys? Steam already said they would remove encryption for everyone, if Steam were to ever go under - but all we have is their word, at this point. Same thing can be applied to this scenario. What if in 10 years, John Deere decides to stop servicing these machines, then what are farmers suppose to do with a 5 ton paper weight?
I noticed that also ^. If you replace JD with Steam on the last few paragraphs its almost exactly what people have been worrying about as you said
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#17 ·
So then do something about it folks!

https://repair.org/

And it's only going to get worse as software becomes more ingrained with the function of basic mechanical designs.

"You can't replace your brake pads because this car has a sensor that is software controlled to make sure they function, we can't give you access to the diagnostics tools because safety!"
 
#21 ·
Wasn't Ford a part of this push for dealer only repair?
 
#22 ·
I've "updated' the firmware of a handful of John Deere's in the past year. Very easy to do, all you need is a PC and a USB stick. Most farmers I know won't touch John Deere anymore. The company is screwing themselves and will shortly be relegated to solely selling cheap Chinese made tractors at Wal Mart and/or go bankrupt all together.
 
#23 ·
This reminds me of TPMS Sensors being required on vehicles. It makes owning more than one set of wheels prohibitively expensive, preventing most people from having both summer and winter tires. This in turn makes the roads less safe, the whole purpose of requiring the sensors in the first place.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpi2007 View Post

Quote:
To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.
Quote:
A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment … arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.
Quote:
Kenney and Kluthe have been pushing for right-to-repair legislation in Nebraska that would invalidate John Deere's license agreement (seven other states are considering similar bills).
Source.

TaaS - Tractor as a Service, the next great idea. Said no farmer ever.
Former Nebraska farmer here - Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

If Steven Jobs built tractors eh?
 
#26 ·
I don't trust motor vehicles that aren't older than I am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrews2547 View Post

This is the complete opposite of communism...
Seems that 'communism' is some people's metaphor for anything they think is bad.
 
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