Wanna hack your car? Macchina is a plug-and-vroom solution

A new tool for the car enthusiast. Reads and writes via OBD2 port. And it's affordable - $89 via the kickstarter page.

I got a cheap odb2 bluetooth reader off amazon just before truck died. Pretty nifty, I was basically able to watch my sensors in real time as my truck went to shit.

I have one of those, mostly used for turning off the Check Engine light. The read/write version is intriguing, there needs to be good support via user forums and how-to videos etc.

Then there'll be the inevitable car thieves and prankers using it for ill.

Car and motorcycle manufacturers are required by law to make the tools to repair available for anyone to buy. Most make it easy on a dealership but way too expensive for an owner. Like a computer to do all the diagnosis that checks with the manufacturer for updates and is 5k$ plus 750$ a year. Or you can by all the manuals for 1k$ and get updates for 150$ every year. Stuff the dealership is going to want and is ok but way too over board for an owner. This is arguably to help dealerships and to by extension help the brand maintain a dealer network. These are starting to brake down with online sales and no loyalty to dealers. Tessa has the next iteration of dealer model, one or two techs that swap large assemblies of the vehicle and send them to the factory to be diagnosed or refurbishment. Fewer techs that can build everything and way less in the field repair.