2024.12.5

Removal of Mazda Connected Services integration

Paulus Schoutsen Paulus Schoutsen Comments

On October 11, 2023, we were informed that an open-source contributor received a cease and desist letter from Mazda North American Operations (Mazda) regarding his library to connect with Mazda services. This library was used by the Home Assistant integration Mazda Connected Services, which he also maintained. A DMCA notice was sent to GitHub requesting the removal of all code and forked repositories as well.

The contributor has complied with the cease and desist letter. The library is no longer available, and the Mazda Connected Services integration has been removed from Home Assistant in the 2023.10.2 patch release of Home Assistant released on October 12, 2023.

Home Assistant is disappointed that Mazda has decided to take this position. We’re also sad that Mazda’s first recourse was not to reach out to us and the maintainer but to send a cease and desist letter instead.

We invite Mazda to speak with us about this topic. We would love to have an open and constructive discussion about the potential that a Home Assistant integration has for them and their customers. We genuinely believe there is a common ground between us and Mazda when it comes to enabling the owners of their cars to explore the possibilities of their own data.

After all, other car manufacturers do see this potential. For example, Tesla has recently released official API documentation to support third-party apps. Volkswagen Group’s Audi brand has launched an app store in their cars that features the Home Assistant app. We hope Mazda will see this potential, as well.