[gtirloni]

For the same reason people want to automate their homes, or the industries run with lots of robots, etc: because it increases productivity. The repair shop could be monitoring for usage, for adequate performance of hydraulics, long-term performance statistics, some 3rd-party gets notified to fix it before it's totally unusable, etc.

I have a friend that is a car mechanic. The amount of automation he works with is fascinating.

Sure, lifts and whatnot should be in a separate network, etc, but even banks and federal agencies screw up network security routinely. Expecting top-tier security posture from repair shops is unrealistic. So yes, they will install a security agent on their Windows machines because it looks like a good idea (it really is) without having the faintest clue about all the implications. C'est la vie.

[Arch-TK]

But what are you automating? It's a car lift, you need to be standing next to it to safely operate it. You can't remotely move it, it's too dangerous. Most of the things which can go wrong with a car lift require a physical inspection and for things like hydraulic pressure you can just put a dial indicator which can be inspected by the user. Heck, you can even put electronic safety interlocks without needing an internet connection.

There are lots of difficult problems when it comes to car repair, but cloud lift monitoring is not something I've ever heard anyone ask for.

The things you're describing are all salesman sales-pitch tactics, they're random shit which sound good if you're trying to sell a product, but they're all stuff nobody actually uses once they have the product.

It's like a six in one shoe horn. It has a screw driver, flash light, ruler, bottle opener, and letter opener. If you're just looking at two numbers and you see regular shoe horn £5, six in one shoe horn £10 then you might blindly think you're getting more for your money. But at the end of the day, I find it highly unlikely you'll ever use it for anything other than to put tight shoes on.

[DougN7]

I imagine something keeps monitors how many times the lift has gone up and down for maintenance reasons. Maybe a nice model monitors fluid pressure in the hydraulics to watch for leaks. Perhaps a model watches strain, or balance, to prevent a catastrophic failure. Maybe those are just sensors but if they can’t report their values they shutdown for safety’s sake. There are all kinds of reasonable scenarios that don’t rely on bad people trying to screw or cheat someone.

[Arch-TK]

None of these features require internet or a windows machine, most of them do not require a computer or even a microcontroller. Strain gauges can be useful for checking for an imbalanced load, but they cannot inspect the metal for you.