Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us.
This week on The Future of Automotive, the growing battle over the ‘Right to Repair’—a movement gaining serious momentum over the past year, and one that could reshape not just agriculture, but the entire automotive industry.
The latest flashpoint comes from an unlikely place: America’s farms.
For years, farmers have been locked in a fight with John Deere over whether they have the right to repair the equipment they own. Last week, that fight reached a major milestone.
John Deere has agreed to a $99 million dollar settlement with farmers and independent repair providers. The company says it’s not admitting any wrongdoing. Still, the payout will go to those who paid authorized dealers for major equipment repairs going back to 2018.
According to court documents, those affected could recover between 26 and 53 percent of what they were overcharged—well above the typical range in cases like this.
But the money is only part of the story.
Under the agreement, John Deere will provide the digital tools needed to diagnose and repair its machinery for the next ten years. That’s significant. Until now, some farmers say they had no choice but to hack into their own equipment just to get it running during critical moments in the growing season.
There had been earlier efforts to address the issue. A 2023 agreement opened limited access to repair tools, but this new settlement goes further—and, importantly, makes those commitments legally binding.
The impact of these restrictions has been far-reaching.
As repair challenges mounted, the value of older, easier-to-fix equipment surged. In some cases, farmers were paying as much as 60 thousand dollars for tractors that were decades old—simply because they could repair them without waiting on a dealer.
The settlement still needs a judge’s approval, but that’s widely expected.
Even so, John Deere’s legal challenges are not over. The company is still facing a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, which accuses it of unfairly restricting the repair market.
And this isn’t just about farming.
Industries across the board are watching closely. From automakers to appliance manufacturers, companies are building increasingly complex, software-driven products—often limiting who can repair them and how.
Massachusetts, for example, has already passed one of the country’s strongest right-to-repair laws, requiring automakers to give vehicle owners and independent shops access to critical data and diagnostic tools. That law, approved by voters and recently upheld in court, is now seen as a potential model nationwide.
At the center of all of this is a fundamental shift.
As vehicles and equipment become more advanced, manufacturers have more opportunities to create what some call ‘walled gardens’—ecosystems where only authorized dealers can perform repairs, sell parts, or access software.
For independent repair shops, that presents a growing challenge. Keeping up with the training, the tools, and the technology required to service modern vehicles is becoming increasingly difficult.
And for automakers and franchise dealerships, there’s a clear incentive: tighter control can mean more recurring revenue—from service, parts, and even software subscriptions.
The question now is whether regulators—and the courts—will allow that model to stand.
Because in a world where everything runs on software, vehicle ownership may not mean what it used to.
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is SelectFi.
SelectFI’s Lender Selector® product is a pre-desking solution that leverages an intuitive process for dealership sales and BDC teams.
With a minor change to your current customer discovery process, you can build deals with better information from our AI, enabling your desking team to improve closing rates, create faster, more accurate first pencils, and achieve greater regulatory compliance.
If you’d like to learn more about SelectFi, you can check them out at www.SelectFi.com
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our new Mobility Fund.
Don’t forget to check out my two books, The Future of Automotive Retail and The Future of Mobility, both available on Amazon.com.
Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
