If manufacturers such as John Deere provided farmers with access to software keys, farmers would be able to break free from reliance on the dealer and perform critical repairs themselves. Industry groups, however, claim that doing so would also allow farmers to bypass emissions and safety controls.
This is not true. There is a clear difference between resetting an error code and ignoring or overriding safety codes. According to agricultural repair experts, overriding emissions or safety controls requires modification tools, not the tools used for diagnosis and repair that Right to Repair legislation provides.
To override these controls, a farmer would have to first erase the operating system present on the machine and then upload new, modified software that either does not have emissions and safety controls or allows a farmer to ignore them. This is an illegal practice separate from the software tools called for by farmers advocating for the Right to Repair.