An article discusses whether the right to repair will affect designers.
Electronic Design talked about disposable products and those that can be repaired, the latter being something that was always done before disposable took off and it was suggested that devices andtechnology are not designed for repair especially IoT and things like sensors which are designed to last over 20 years.
The article noted that there are some things designed to be repaired such as cars and others that are impractical like multi layered printed circuit boards and others like toner and ink printed cartridges that try to prevent the use of a third party by using chips that match and support the printer they were made for.
This also applies to firmware updates on devices “routers and smart phones” which are made so that only the vendors can manage them and many companies design systems so that they can’t be repaired or its extremely difficult to do so.
In the US eight states have introduced legislation for the right-to-repair or the Fair Repair Act but some large corporations are opposing the act while others are accommodating it. The decisions are taken at corporate level whether or not to implement a limitation on design and devices.
In conclusion the article state that “These days there are actually more options, at least from a hardware and software perspective” giving partitioned systems as an example which allow for “controlled third party support” although mechanical design is not as simple.
Will designers start designing with repair in mind or will they continue to prevent it?