This will very likely spread to cars as well, this is a major issue since there should be no reason these shouldn't be worked on. A lot of the benefits of EV tech is the extremely simple design but the drawback is the 100-1000s of points of failure each one has that can blow them up if idiots try working on them or quality is low. As more and more brands of questionable quality come up I can imagine a wave of major restrictions put into place making repair very much so a OE only affair.

 

I can definitely see this.

 

NYC has destroyed its surface transportation system over the last 10 years. Vision Zero has made travel by car near impossible, with lane closures everywhere for underutilized transportation modes - the closed off lanes are near empty most of the time. Combine that with unregulated Uber & Lyft replacing the medallion cab system - there are probably 10 cars circling around waiting for every passenger, it's total insanity, but Uber & Lyft are big political donors so they avoid regulation. Then they want to force everyone into the subways - which are dirty and crime ridden. So people push back and these ebikes and scooters are all over now, they obey no traffic laws, they are hitting pedestrians on sidewalks, causing accidents by running lights, etc. The least of their problems is an occasional battery fire, as dangerous as they are.

 

^
Besides the Uber and Lyft disaster - NYC is now littered with motorbikes, dirtbikes, and motorcycles driving around with no insurance and license plates. It has truly evolved into a 3rd world country. I have not seen anything like this in my whole time living in NY.

The Lawlessness has reached epic proportions where stores like Nike are no longer stocking sneakers because the losses are too much. Walgreens has toothpaste locked away!

 

oh no unregulated uber and lyft! Oh the humanity. Like taxis were any better. Taxi medallions were a complete racket

 

Oh yeah, and software based stuff is the worst since nothing works without it and the firmware in the chip is usually "locked" so that's another way for full control.

 

The medallion taxis had their numbers regulated, to roughly match the level of demand. Now, every independent contractor with a black 4 door car is circling Manhattan streets waiting for a pickup request, and the number of cars in the traffic pattern far exceeds the number of users - hence, traffic is at a standstill from circling drivers in empty cars. Makes zero sense. The medallion system had its flaws, the black car services filled a gap for corporate and regular users, and everything was in equilibrium for decades. Now the surface transportation system is nearly unusable for autos, mass transit is a mess, and ebikes/scooters/motorcycles operate with reckless abandon. It's happening in other cities around the world also.