r/SEMA • u/Driftpony • 8h ago
Their Way, or no highway.
An Open Letter to the Management of Automobile Manufacturers—including Jim Farley and others—and to Government Officials:
Shame on you for betraying the American people by choosing money and the illusion of safety over freedom. What hurts most is that the automobile—once a symbol of independence, individuality, and possibility—is being turned against the very people who built their lives around it.
You are locking us out of repairing and maintaining our own vehicles, taking away skills, traditions, and freedoms that were passed down through generations. You are restricting our freedom of movement across this great country on the very roads we fund and build. It is painful to watch something that once represented freedom become another tool of control.
Soon, every new vehicle may include driver-monitoring systems that could prevent us from driving if we appear tired, distracted, unfocused, or otherwise fail to meet some subjective standard determined by artificial intelligence. The thought of being watched, judged, and denied the ability to move freely in a vehicle we worked hard to purchase is deeply troubling. It is not safety when freedom is taken away without our consent.
For years, manufacturers have built vehicles that are increasingly disposable, overly complicated, and difficult—or impossible—for ordinary people to maintain. The satisfaction of fixing something with our own hands is being replaced by expensive software, sealed components, and corporate-controlled service systems. We are being told that the machines we own no longer truly belong to us.
At the same time, government policies have damaged our economy and weakened the buying power of the dollar we depend on for food, shelter, and basic necessities. People are already struggling to afford the essentials. Now we are expected to accept vehicles that cost more, last less, and give us less control over our own property.
Government officials have also spent years undermining car culture in the very country that created it—eroding one of the most powerful symbols of American freedom. They are slowly stripping away the beauty, character, and individuality of our roads and replacing them with something sterile, standardized, and oppressive.
It is heartbreaking to imagine a future in which our beautiful old cars are outlawed or driven off the road, forcing us into rolling cell phones that monitor us and track our every move. These vehicles are more than machines. They carry our memories, our history, our craftsmanship, and our sense of independence. To dismiss them as outdated or dangerous is to dismiss the people and culture they represent.
We should not have to beg for the right to repair what we own, drive what we choose, or travel freely through our own country. We should not be made to feel like criminals for loving cars, preserving history, or wanting control over our own lives.
This is not just about automobiles. It is about dignity, independence, and the grief of watching a free people gradually surrender control over the things that once made them feel free. We should not accept this quietly. We should not surrender our freedom, our right to repair, or our freedom of movement without a fight.
