The Shadetree Cyberpunk

  There once was a time when folks wrenched on their own cars either to get it to do something the factory hadn't intended (now we call this 'hacking') or just to do the work that a shop would normally do, but which they could not afford.  Collectively, these were often referred to as "shadetree mechanics", since they didn't have a nice cool (hah! presumably) shop to work in, but used a tree for shade whilst working.

 This has changed somewhat.  Before you can repair, troubleshoot, hack, or hot-rod a modern vehicle, you must first arrange an audience with, and subsequently establish diplomatic ties with, the vehicle's crown prince computer and all umpteen of his lesser computers.

 In reality, we only need communicate with the seneschal, who speaks the diplomatic language 'OBD-II', specifically the BMW/Mini dialect.  The seneschal then communicates with the other systems over, get this, four different networks gimmeabreak.

 All of this just so I can get all of those computers to tell me what they think is wrong with their house.

 So a new tool is needed for the shop; a software app and an OBVD-to-BT hardware link.  And they might not even be right - Prince ECU listens to each of his advisors and reports to his seneschal what he thinks is going on.  But they could all be seeing 'the elephant' from a different point of view, leading the seneschal to lie, technically, if unintentionally.  And I have to pay to see this play out.  And then backcheck whatever its story is.

 Ya know, I liked wrenching on cars when they had a carburetor and a very simple electromechanical ignition system.  In the 1970s, you checked to see if it had fuel, and if it had spark, and if it had compression.  If you couldn't troubleshoot an engine in an hour, and probably fix it, either you weren't all that good, or it was very badly broken indeed.

 These days, you need the equivalent of an Electrical Engineering degree just to troubleshoot the vehicle, well before you get into turning wrenches.  Fortunately, I have that.  I just resent and complain about using it.  And also about the cost of admission (oh how many scanners have I owned so far??) because I am a broke-ass retiree and I have no disposable income.

I'm telling you, many parts of the future are really cool, while other parts are really stupid.