July 7, 2025 - OTA Updates Are a Double-Edged Sword

This is the Telemetry Transportation daily for July 7, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, VP of Market Research for Telemetry.

Ever since Tesla first showed the ability to provide over-the-air software updates beginning with the Model S back in 2012, other automakers having been playing catch-up with varying degrees of success. The whole industry has become enamored with the concept of the software defined vehicle or SDV where software manages all of the functionality provided by the hardware. 

Prior to SDVs and OTA updates, software changes on most vehicles tended to be infrequent because it required a service and connecting a tool to the diagnostic port to update an electronic control unit. This is much more costly to the manufacturer than pushing an OTA update. Now that we are in an era where updates might be deployed every few weeks, there's likely to be a greater chance that problems with the software might be missed in the rush to fix existing functions or add new ones. Numerous automakers have experienced issues with OTA updates in recent years, including Tesla, Rivian and now most recently Volvo. 

A Volvo XC90 owner in California recently had a crash following a software update that introduced an error in the code for the regenerative braking. Using the one-pedal driving mode continuously for more than 90 seconds without touching the brake pedal can lead to a loss of braking which is what happened to this particular driver. 

If automakers are going to pursue SDVs, they need to ensure that they have robust testing and validation protocols implemented that includes full regression testing for at least all safety critical systems. The faster the update frequency, the more important it is to include automated simulation testing of the software and processes need to include a mechanism to prevent shipping the software if anything at all fails. Chinese regulators recently implemented new rules meant to slow down the frequency of OTA updates which won't help marketers hoping to tout new features on customer cars, but maybe it will give engineers some breathing room to make sure bugs don't slip through.  Perhaps regulators in other markets should consider something similar. 

Thanks for listening.