NHTSA’s Dismissal of Right to Repair Law is Questioned

Two U.S. senators have written to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asking them to reconsider their message to automakers that they should not comply with the Massachusetts Right to Repair law, AOL reports.

Massachusetts Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have called on the NHTSA to step back on its dismissal of the recently passed right-to-repair law. The law would give independent repair shops access to diagnostic data in newer cars, rather than having them sent directly to dealers and manufacturers. 

The law was approved by voters as a ballot initiative in 2020 but has since been challenged by automakers, such as the lawsuit from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation that attempted to block the law. 

The law was put into effect on June 1, 2023, followed by a letter from the NHTSA to several automakers that argued complying with the law would contradict a federal vehicle safety law.

In the Senators’ letter, they write that the NHTSA’s decision “appears to favor Big Auto” and will “undermine the will of Massachusetts voters and the Biden Administration's competition policy.” They also question if members of the NHTSA have recently met with auto industry lobbyists or if they conducted any tests into the law’s effect.