View Poll Results: Would you buy a car that can't be tuned?

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Thread: GM owns your cars software, don't fiddle!

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  1. #1
    Lifetime Member GMPX's Avatar
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    Default GM owns your cars software, don't fiddle!

    Please have a read of this link...
    http://www.dieselarmy.com/news/gm-te...-not-touch-it/

    Chad (the author of the article) has pretty much covered every point why this is dumb, of course the big point missed by the suit and tie guys at GM is would you buy a GM car (or any manufacturer for that matter) that makes it a breach of copyright to tune it? Would sure make the local drag strip look funny when 20 Camaro's line up all running the exact same times.
    I 100% agree with their 'software' being protected, if GM's spark controls contain code that is better than any other manufacturer (including aftermarket ECM's) then they have every right to stop that being copied, I'm just not sure how you copyright table values.

    I decided to make this into a poll, pretty sure I know the outcome already.
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  2. #2
    Lifetime Member Mitco39's Avatar
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  3. #3
    Lifetime Member Chevy366's Avatar
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    This is the most insane thing I ever read. I saw it the other day and thought "how stupid", GM just loves to shoot themselves in the foot.

    I call it the "Micro$oft syndrome", it all started when Micro$oft made it a point to address software rights and ownership, not that the concept wasn't around before then, it is just that Micro$oft being such a large and powerful player seemed to etch it into stone for all to follow.

    Ownership is a state of mind it would seem, not a tangible achievement.

    Perhaps EFILive will be forced to write a complete OS that is flashable to the controller and remove GM's OS completely, just a thought.
    2005 1500 HD , Custom OS3 SD tune .
    2006 Trailblazer
    Dinosaurs and Plants gave their lives so that we may drive , long live fossil fuel .

  4. #4
    Lifetime Member GMPX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chevy366 View Post
    Perhaps EFILive will be forced to write a complete OS that is flashable to the controller and remove GM's OS completely, just a thought.
    That is pretty much impossible without knowing the intricacies of the hardware (which of course isn't available) and you probably couldn't legally copy the CAN messages to make it work in a GM car, so if it came to that then we will just not buy GM vehicles any more and all take jobs working in a beach side bar in Sint Maarten.
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  5. #5
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    Yeah, we should all take hotel management courses and go work in the island resorts

  6. #6
    Lifetime Member Chevy366's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GMPX View Post
    That is pretty much impossible without knowing the intricacies of the hardware (which of course isn't available) and you probably couldn't legally copy the CAN messages to make it work in a GM car, so if it came to that then we will just not buy GM vehicles any more and all take jobs working in a beach side bar in Sint Maarten.
    That sucks. Goodbye GM, I certainly won't buy another one.
    Now that beach side bar idea sounds good, pull up a stool, get a pitcher full with mugs and warm up the dart board.

    Or a standalone controller like Fast. We don't need no stinking CAN bus.
    2005 1500 HD , Custom OS3 SD tune .
    2006 Trailblazer
    Dinosaurs and Plants gave their lives so that we may drive , long live fossil fuel .

  7. #7
    Lifetime Member GMPX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chevy366 View Post
    Or a standalone controller like Fast. We don't need no stinking CAN bus.
    Unfortunately if you want every other module in the car to work then you do need the ECM telling them what is going on. Like modern radios in cars, you are stuck with what they offer because the screen used for the radio also has climate control, sat nav etc, pull that out for something else and half the cars functions are gone.
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  8. #8
    Lifetime Member Chevy366's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GMPX View Post
    Unfortunately if you want every other module in the car to work then you do need the ECM telling them what is going on. Like modern radios in cars, you are stuck with what they offer because the screen used for the radio also has climate control, sat nav etc, pull that out for something else and half the cars functions are gone.
    A friend had a piggyback controller on his diesel truck, he just unplugged the the PCM and plugged in the piggyback unit into the PCM, then the piggyback controller took over operations from the PCM. PCM never knew it wasn't controlling the truck, all other functions worked fine.

    They do that a lot with motorcycles too, you unplug the injectors and use a piggyback controller to adjust the pulse width modulation to obtain rich/lean mixture, ECU never knows.
    2005 1500 HD , Custom OS3 SD tune .
    2006 Trailblazer
    Dinosaurs and Plants gave their lives so that we may drive , long live fossil fuel .

  9. #9
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    Lawyers may be able to find ways around it...

    I thought that copyright/patent was "infringed" only if money was being made by doing so (but I know I'm wrong)...

    ( of course, I'm only an engineer and not a lawyer )

  10. #10
    Lifetime Member Tre-Cool's Avatar
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    As much as I knew I shouldn't tinker with my daily driver, I specifically purchased it because I knew efilive/hpt supported the ecu in the Cruze so that if I wanted to tinker I could.

    I lasted about 3 days with it before I pulled the tune out, but I was logging it before hand. haha.

    So in short, would I buy a car that I knew I couldn't tinker with, then no I wont buy from that brand.

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