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Paralyzed Jockey Loses Ability to Walk After Manufacturer Refuses to Fix Battery For His $100,000 Exoskeleton (www.404media.co)

submitted 1 month ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Apologies for posting a pay walled article. Consider subscribing to 404. They’re a journalist-founded org, so you could do worse for supporting quality journalism.

Trained repair professionals at hospitals are regularly unable to fix medical devices because of manufacturer lockout codes or the inability to obtain repair parts. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, broken ventilators sat unrepaired for weeks or months as manufacturers were overwhelmed with repair requests and independent repair professionals were locked out of them. At the time, I reported that independent repair techs had resorted to creating DIY dongles loaded with jailbroken Ukrainian firmware to fix ventilators without manufacturer permission. Medical device manufacturers also threatened iFixit because it posted ventilator repair manuals on its website. I have also written about people with sleep apnea who have hacked their CPAP machines to improve their basic functionality and to repair them.

PS: he got it repaired.

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[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (28 children)

I'd temper that by saying a manufacturer would need to provide a reasonable option. Some things could become dangerous or even deadly if repaired incorrectly. Or it could be dangerous or deadly to even attempt to repair it.

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

It's OK for manufacturers to say using aftermarket parts voids the warranty, it's not OK for them to prevent using them entirely. Likewise if there's a safety concern that should be handled by regulation and things like safety inspections, not by forcing all repairs to go through the manufacturer. If whatever it is is that critical to the safe operation it should be publicly documented so that third parties can manufacture it correctly to the needed tolerances.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

if there's a safety concern that should be handled by regulation

Regulation won't detail what a company does to that level. They might say something like "fasteners shouldn't come loose" but it wouldn't have a torque spec.

If whatever it is is that critical to the safe operation it should be publicly documented so that third parties...

That would run face first into proprietary info and corporate classified info.

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That would run face first into proprietary info and corporate classified info.

Behold all the fucks I do not give. If it's that critical they lose all claim to being proprietary. It's just like patent, there's no such thing as a secret patent, so anything that safety critical doesn't get to stay secret either.

Regulation won't detail what a company does to that level. They might say something like "fasteners shouldn't come loose" but it wouldn't have a torque spec.

It doesn't now but it's utterly trivial to fix that. Just make the regulations say that components must meet the manufacturer specifications and require manufacturers to publish and maintain all the specifications of all safety critical components. If they want to keep it secret then that means it's not safety critical and they're responsible for any accidents resulting from its failure.

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