At which point people are going to notice, and ask why, and when they learn the answer is that the NHTSA is captured by automakers, maybe the NHTSA would like to avoid this hit to their reputation more than the commonwealth of Massachusetts would like to avoid looking like it's standing up to Big Auto.
Massachussetts would be banning the registration of new cars. Manufacturers wouldn't have a choice because they can't comply with the Massachussetts law. Maybe consumers who don't want to register their cars will still buy, I don't know.
It's a high-stakes gamble at pressuring the NHTSA. There are likely better ways to do that than shutting down the state's car business.
You know perfectly well that hardly anybody is going to do that.
> There are likely better ways to do that than shutting down the state's car business.
Like what? You have to do something that gets people to notice enough to put pressure on the captured regulators.
Which is why I said "Massachussetts would be banning the registration of new cars."
> Like what?
In the short term, their AG can sue under the Administrative Procedure Act. SCOTUS is re-working Chevron, and this case might thread the needle.
In the medium term, they could angle for DoT intervention. This would probably require coordination between their Senators and other like-minded states'. In the long term, the Congress must pass legislation that, if not granting a right to repair, at least explicitly enables it.
In summary, someone has to commit to making this one of the half dozen or so things one gets to do in office. I'm unconvinced Massachussetts voters would reward that.
Get the state's Congressional delegation to introduce a law that would explicitly protect state right to repair laws, taking it out of the regulators hands, moving the debate about cybersecurity claims vs right-to-repair to a different and more visible venue.
Obviously, the State gov can't compel that, but if the right-to-repair rule is sufficiently popular with the state electorate, it should be easy to convince the State's representatives in Congress to push on the matter.
Something can be popular (in the sense that a significant majority are in favor) without having enough interest or organization behind it to cause federal representatives to care. Moreover, Massachusetts is about 2% of the federal legislature. Even if their citizens and representatives care about it a lot, they may not have the votes to do anything at the federal level.
Whereas if they refuse to be cowed, it costs the automakers something. Maybe they'd like to be able to sell cars more than they'd like to be able to lock third party mechanics out of them, and stop pressuring federal regulators to keep doing what causes them to be prohibited from it.
I'm not familiar with Massachusetts politics. It's a game of chicken between Boston and the NHTSA (or Congress), not the automakers--they have to comply with the law.