President Donald Trump said on June 4 that executives from Ford and General Motors asked him for legislation that would stop people from repairing their own vehicles, a claim that immediately pulled a long-running right-to-repair fight back into view. He said the discussion came during an Oval Office event that was supposed to focus on upgrades to coal-fired power plants.
Trump said the meeting included leaders from GM and Ford, along with Penske Corporation Chairman Roger Penske. He told the executives he had never heard of such a thing and said he found the whole idea strange.
The specifics of the legislation Trump was talking about were not clear, and the White House and the automakers had not publicly identified any particular proposal. That matters because vehicle owners are already legally allowed to repair their own cars. The argument is over how far that right goes as vehicles become more digital and more dependent on software, sensors and onboard data.
Automakers say access to vehicle-generated data, software systems and diagnostic information can create security and privacy risks. Independent repair shops and consumer groups say broader access is needed to keep repairs possible and to hold down costs for drivers. The fight has been simmering for years across the industry, but Trump’s remarks put it back into the political spotlight with no clear sign of what bill, rule or case he meant.
Trump also said someone had received a seven-year prison sentence for repairing his own vehicle, but he offered no details to back up that claim. Until a specific proposal is named, the dispute remains what it has been for years: a battle over who controls the data inside a car, and how much power owners really have over the vehicles they already bought.
