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| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Legal Structure | Private |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://autel.com/ |
Autel is a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of professional automotive diagnostic tools, equipment, and accessories.[1]
Consumer-impact summary
Autel has removed functions from their tools at the request of car manufacturers.
- Autel removed Ford immobilizer functions at Ford's request.[2]
- Autel did the same for Toyota with the immobilizer "All Keys Lost" functions.
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Autel category.
Ford immobilizer functions removed (25/08/2025)
On August 25, 2025, Autel removed all Autel IM608/IM508/KM100 Ford immobilizer functions at Ford's request.
Dear Valued Autel Distributors/Users,
Thank you for your dedicated sales and support of Autel products. Together, we provide leading solutions essential for today’s shops to provide quality and efficient services to their customers. Because we value this relationship, we wanted to promptly discuss an action we must take with our Key and Immobilizer Programming tool line. Recently, Ford Motor Company notified us that we must remove specific key and immobilizer functions for Ford vehicles from our products, advising us that such functions are not within the scope of our software licensing agreement with them. To ensure we maintain good relations with Ford and access to Ford’s diagnostics data, which is essential to the ability of all our products to diagnose and service Ford vehicles, we are removing the requested Ford key functions from our products as of August 25, 2025. No Ford diagnostics functionality will be removed. Autel IM608/IM508/KM100 Ford immobilizer functions will be removed.
Though we are honoring Ford’s request and removing said software, we respectfully disagree with Ford and believe the Right to Repair Act grants us the right as developers of software for independent automotive repair and service shop, technicians, locksmiths and vehicle security professionals access to and use of this security-related data to develop key and immobilizer programming solutions on our products. The Ford Motor Company is the latest manufacturer in what seems to be an industry trend to deem security-related data and software outside the scope of permissible use in aftermarket products. This is unfortunate as we have acted in good faith to seek an equitable solution that would allow us to continue providing products with the same capabilities to our technicians and locksmith-users that they have relied on for years to carry out their trades and serve their customers. We ask our distributors to collaborate with us in building the necessary support and demand to drive change within our industry. Together, we believe we can begin to bring these features back into the aftermarket. We greatly appreciate your business and patience and apologize for this inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Autel U.S.[2]
Toyota immobilizer "All Keys Lost" functions removed
Dear Valued Partner,
Recently, Toyota Motor North America requested that Autel remove "all keys lost" security capabilities for Toyota vehicle brands from our tools, asserting that such functionality "goes beyond what is permitted in the License Agreement" for the software we purchase.
We believe and have responded that security functions fall under the terms "performing diagnosis, analysis, test, and repair of the Vehicle" in the license and, therefore, should be allowed. We believe we are operating within the confines of the Right to Repair memorandum of understanding, initially signed by automakers and the independent repair industry in 2014, stating that information related to diagnostics, repairs, and services are to be obtainable through secure data release.
We have removed the software functions requested by Toyota from our tools as a gesture of good faith as we continue to negotiate with Toyota to allow our locksmiths and vehicle tech-nicians to continue fully servicing Toyota security systems. We hope this gesture illustrates our desire for both parties to seek a timely and amicable resolution.
Autel is committed to investing in and developing products that are worthy of the technicians who use them. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
Sincerely, Autel North America
References
- ↑ "About Autel North America". Autel. Archived from the original on 2025-12-18. Retrieved 2026-01-22.
Autel is a leading developer, manufacturer, and distributor of professional automotive diagnostic tools, equipment, and accessories.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Autel is going to Remove Ford Immobilizer Functions". 2025-08-06. Archived from the original on 2026-01-21. Retrieved 2026-01-21.