I found the answer to my question. What a rabbit hole I've been down! It started when the 2020 Audi began displaying a message "Inspection Due". I looked and saw it was ready for 20,000 mile maintenance. There's a long list of items - thinks like check the brakes, check the cabin air filter, etc, etc:
www.audiusa.com/content/dam/audiusa/Documents/maintenance-schedules/Audi-Maintenance-Schedule-Model-Year-2020.pdfAlmost everything on this list is minor. There's nothing I could not do myself.
Note that one of the tasks is "Service reminder indicator display - Reset display"
I had the oil changed (not by Audi). The shop said they didn't know how to reset the oil or the inspection reminders, but I figured I could do it myself.
I looked around on the internet. I found lots of sites and videos that purported to show how to clear the inspection message, but most of them only showed hot to clear the oil change message, not the inspection message. The oil change message is easy - it's on the display, which shows both the oil and inspection reminders, but only lets you reset the oil light. There was one video by a guy that reset the inspection reminder, but it was on an older Audi.
So I looked at what I needed to reset the message. There are two products specifically designed for the VAG system present in the Audi (and Volkswagen, Lamborgini, Skoda, Seat and Bentley) - VCDS and OBDeleven. VCDS works with a laptop (which I don't have). OBDeleven Pro works with an Android phone and costs less.
So far, so good. I dug around some more. I loaded the OBDeleven program on my phone. Even without their Bluetooth OBDII adapter, you can dig though the software. Strange - there are no Apps for my model year. But earlier years have Apps, and specifically an app for resetting the Inspection Due.
I did see some odd things in a few of the posts that indicated there might be a problem programming newer cars. For instance, you have to have the hood open when you turn on the ignition, or it won't program. I though maybe that was why some people were having problems. But it turns out there's more! After many hours of digging around, I found this bulletin from Audi about software protection called SFD that was implemented in the 2020 model year on the Q3:
www.vag-com-espanol.com/EN_SFD-Manual_for_UMB.pdfSo basically for my model year, you can't change anything without being a dealer and connecting to the mother ship in Germany. That includes turning off the Inspection message.
Well, that sucks. I'm starting to understand the Right to Repair movement that started with John Deere equipment.
There is some hope on the horizon. From OBDeleven's website:
"Official and licensed full-featured software is constantly updated with new features. The programming temporarily is not supported on models that are manufactured from 2020 and have SFD protection. The negotiation regarding the support of these models is in progress."
And from Ross-Tech VCDS:forum from a guy that I think is employed by the company concerning the SFD protection on recent models:
"We are not in a position to make any guarantees of functionality on those cars yet."
Of course, Volkswagen implemented SFD to prevent others from changing values with things like OBDeleven or VCDS, so I'd guess without some laws being put in place, this is unlikely to ever happen.
Looks like I'll be ignoring the message for a while.
