[KennyBlanken]

The article implies the control units are coded to the vehicle's VIN at least to some degree and mentions Freightliner asks people to look out for logged errors indicating someone attempted to use a control unit from a different VIN. There's also mention of a separate password function. However, if there's a market for these units, someone's likely developed a tool to "re code" the control units.

But: "Moving toward" to DRM? At least in the passenger car market this started happening a long, long time ago.

ECUs and dashes on most VAG (VW Audi Group) cars are coded to each other and have been for around two decades if not longer, though in a fair number of cases you can re-pair them with a non-VW scantool and don't need the dealer, but it's usually a complex and very specific process.

Volvo Cars started DRM'ing the fuck out of every single component that sits on the vehicle's data bus in the mid-2000's after they got bought up by Ford.

If you replaced any component that had a bus connection - which includes things like headlights - you would have to bring the car to a Volvo dealer, who might or might not humor you if they were not the source of the part and the ones to install it ("gosh, we're just fully booked up, going to be two weeks before we can get to it..." etc) The dealer would connect the car to their terminal, which would in turn request an encrypted firmware image for the component from Volvo servers in Sweden, specific to your car's VIN and that component's serial number. That encrypted image would then be sent back and written to the control module.

When that server gets shut off, hundreds of millions of Volvo cars and parts will rapidly become useless save for their scrap value. This isn't a trivial matter; at least in the US, the average age of vehicles on the road is the oldest it's ever been, and given the country's worsening economic inequality, that trend is likely to continue.

[Gordonjcp]

> ECUs and dashes on most VAG (VW Audi Group) cars are coded to each other and have been for around two decades if not longer

The mid-90s electronics in my Range Rover will cope with swapping dashboards by programming the mileage to be whichever is highest between the BECM and dash. It'll moan about "ODOMETER FAULT" for a bit but eventually it'll just give up telling you and set them to be the same. While it's possible to reprogram them it's extremely nontrivial, and no commercial units exist that can do it - and the poke-and-hope brigade that offer "mileage correction" will almost certainly leave you with more problems than you started with.

The electronics in them are very similar to late-80s BMW E32 7-series with a bizarre mix of Motorola, NEC and Intel parts.

[hattmall]

Shit like that should really be illegal.

[sokoloff]

The average age of vehicles is trending up because cars are more reliable and just last longer. It used to be an event to roll over a 5-digit odometer. Now, 250K miles is just getting broken in.

[Gordonjcp]

One 1998 Range Rover here with 130,000 miles on the clock, the other with 270,000 - and the latter did 100,000 miles in about six or seven years since I got it.

There's a guy on my forum with an ex-police Range Rover the same age as mine that is now considerably north of 400,000 miles.

[sokoloff]

Sure. Those are examples of cars that post-date many of the significant longevity improvements (galvanizing, better primers, electronic fuel injection, ABS) that are helping to drive up the average age. You can think of that 1998 Range Rover as offsetting one 2022 car to result in the average of just over 12 years.

Our 2005 CR-V and 2015 LEAF also offset each other to arrive at the average age.

Longevity improvements introduced 25 years ago pull the average age up far more strongly than improvements introduced only 10 years ago and an improvement introduced just last year has an effect indistinguishable from zero.

[b112]

What? You can repair parts that fail on cars. And I grew up driving 70s, 80s cars , and 100k was completely normal.

[pirate787]

No this is survivor bias, most cars in the 70s and 80s did not make it to 100k.

[b112]

Most rusted, or were discarded. They were forced to die.

There were loads of cars I, and my friends inherited, because the car was "old", a repair was $500, and the car was only worth $1k (this is the 80s, so 80s figures...), and the car had a tiny rust spot or two.

Yet that repair done at home, with a friend, could be done for 50 bucks and parts from a wrecker.

This is not survivor bias, these cars were in great shape, but instead for appearance sake, and "estimated value of the car" sake, people would throw it away.

Fix it vs throw away culture.

[sokoloff]

I think there is likely a more throw it away culture overall now than in the 70s.

Cars started to last significantly longer when body rust-proofing improved (mostly in the 80s for American cars), when electronic fuel injection reduced fuel wash in the engines, and when anti-collision tech reduced the number of write offs of lower value used cars (ABS being perhaps the single biggest one, which prevents a lot of $2000 accidents from taking a $2500 used car off the road).

A carbureted, unprotected mild-steel car built in 1959, 1969, or 1979 was much less likely to be on the road 23 years later than a fuel-injected, galvanized steel 1999 model is to be on the road today.

[throwaway0a5e]

We've mostly negated rust proofing improvements by using road salt that's more effective at getting everywhere and using salt in more places (you'll notice that the white crusted post-snowstorm hellscape was not a thing in the 90s or '00s). OEMs have gotten good at using plastic cosmetic trim to cover the initial rust points (wheel arches, rocker panels, etc, etc,) so that instead of needing attention after 10yr the problem can be ignored until a much later date when the rust finally makes it out from behind that plastic (and your car starts failing safety inspection if you live in an applicable state).

[throwaway0a5e]

Cost of replacing like for like is a huge factor.

[userbinator]

When that server gets shut off

If the vehicles are popular enough, the aftermarket will probably find a way around it, if it hasn't already done so.