Tesla is now giving access to service manuals, repair guides, diagnostic tools, and more for free.
The new right-to-repair initiative should help owners who want to tinker with their vehicles themselves.
Last month, we reported that Tesla was fighting a new “Right to Repair” initiative in Massachusetts, claiming it would weaken its cybersecurity.
The initiative, which was on the ballot in November, aimed to improve access to electronic data and diagnostic tools inside vehicles.
Tesla reached out to its customers in Massachusetts and encouraged them to vote against the new initiative.
It has now been adopted and we learn that Tesla is already starting to facilitate access to important information for the right-to-repair.
Tesla hacker “green” found out that Tesla is now giving free access to its service and repair manuals, vehicle diagnostics, and more:
Aside from the diagnostic tools, all this information was already available to everyone, but you had to be willing to pay up to $100 an hour to access the information on service.teslamotors.com.
As shown by “green,” you can now access the information for free if you register through the Chinese version of the website:
Apparently, that’s not a bug, but a feature. It’s unclear why Tesla doesn’t charge you if you go through the Chinese domain, but you do get access to the same information.
If, like me, you previously registered a service account to pay for access to the information, you are going to have to use a different email when registering, but it works.
I followed green’s instruction above and Tesla gave me access for free:
Again, all this information was previously available for those willing to pay, except for the toolbox.
Tesla now gives access to diagnostic tools — something that was part of the new initiative in Massachusetts that Tesla was fighting.
For European cars, you can request remote access to diagnostic and in other regions, you are going to have to plug in a laptop to the diagnostic port.
It’ not something that most Tesla owners are going to use, but it’s going to make many tinkerers happy.
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