Over-the-air updates: The problem with cars that evolve over time

Over-the-air updates are tweaks and improvements to a car’s software systems that are delivered remotely, often while a car is sitting on the owner’s drive rather than in a workshop. 

The world’s first over-the-air operating system update was launched by Tesla in September 2012, with a small number of Model S owners able to choose when the update was carried out. The changes it made were small: a tweak to make the model’s range calculator more accurate, the option to turn off some new features, such as idle creep (when the car moves when it’s idling and in gear), and a revised feature that turned on the instrument panel and touchscreen when any door was opened (previously this was limited to the driver's door). 

Recent Tesla updates have been more ambitious, and have included features that enable the driver to move the car from outside, Netflix and YouTube streaming, and Tesla’s Full Self Driving advanced driver assistance system. 

However, it wasn’t until 2021 that over-the-air updates became mainstream, when Volkswagen introduced quarterly software updates for its ID range of electric cars. 

At the time, a spokesperson said: “In the future, customers will no longer need to decide on functions for their car when purchasing it – or which configuration will make for a higher resale value – because the hardware will be standardised to a great extent. In the future, additional functions and innovative technology can be added later via software updates.” 

That ambition has already been met, in part, by some car makers. Indeed, 
Volkswagen currently offers owners of certain ID 3 models the option to increase their car’s power for a one-off payment of around £1650 or £16.50 a month. A similar upgrade is available for the Polestar 2, with owners able to pay around £910 for a software upgrade that increases power for both the dual-motor and single-motor models.

Over-the-air updates: benefits 

There are clear benefits to over-the-air updates, as Yousif Al-Ani, principal engineer for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) with Thatcham Research, explains: “In general, it ensures that various systems tend to get better over time. For example, Volkswagen's Travel Assist level 2 autonomous driving system was reasonably good when it first launched in 2019, but over the next two years, a lot of additional functions were added that made it a much better system to use. 

“The system has also been added to a wide range of models, including more affordable ones, so the technology is now better and available to a far greater number of drivers.”  

Another obvious benefit is the ease with which manufacturers can update their cars’ systems. This is important for a number of reasons, as Alex Thompson, principal safety engineer at the automotive risk intelligence organisation, explains: “If recall work can be done via an over-the-air update, it’s far more likely to be completed on a larger percentage of all the affected cars than if owners have to take cars into dealerships.”

Al-Ani added: “Over-the-air diagnostics can be really powerful, too, because they can enable car makers to understand issues that are happening in the field, and allow them to cluster the evidence to provide a better, more timely fix for a problem.” 

Over-the-air updates: drawbacks 

However, over-the-air updates aren’t without their concerns. For used car buyers, it may be difficult to check if a car has a performance or safety upgrade without contacting a main dealer to check. This could directly affect the car’s value. 

The situation is compounded because insurance companies often expect drivers to proactively tell them about upgrades, and there’s no legal requirement for car makers to tell insurance companies what’s involved in over-the-air upgrades. The only obligation on them is to provide information on the changes to car owners under the EU Data Act.

“One problem with this is that if insurers don’t know for certain whether a subscription-based feature that may increase the risk is turned on or not, they may have to assume the worst case, which is that everybody has turned it on. This could lead to them pricing their policies based on the worst-case scenario, and raising premiums for everyone,” explains Thompson.

“Car makers could also initially tune safety or ADAS systems to ace safety tests, but then dial them back so they’re less intrusive. 

Dialling down the ADAS performance may increase the risk of that system not intervening properly in an emergency, meaning that initial test results could give a false impression of the vehicle’s safety performance. The issue here is that the customer may have a certain expectation of the system based on its safety test rating, and that information may have been used by an insurer to calculate the risk.

For this reason, Thompson believes car makers should inform insurers about all updates that affect performance or safety systems, as well as any performance upgrades that are being offered as options to owners.

“In fact, we’d suggest the introduction of a random retest – essentially the same test the car went through when it was new – after a couple of years to see if the safety systems are still as effective and ensure that any power or other upgrades haven’t detracted from their ability to prevent or mitigate against accidents,” says Al-Ani.

“At present, car makers get a lot of leeway where active safety system testing is concerned. Many will optimise a car’s safety systems for testing, so that all the true activations of a driver monitoring or lane keeping system work well, but there will probably also be a lot of false positives – where systems also activate at the wrong times. These could be reduced via the software after the car's released.”

There are also less serious issues with over-the-air updates that can dent consumer confidence about new technology, as Al-Ani outlines: “ADAS are being rushed out by car makers. Pretty much every new vehicle we assess has one system that is unfinished, and that’s a double-edged sword because, although it can be improved later, if it initially performs poorly by reacting too frequently or being too obtrusive, some car owners will turn it off every time they use the vehicle, unaware that issues with it have been resolved. That means they won’t get the benefit of using it.

There are also potential problems with the growing trend for subscriptions to access certain car features. Some new cars are fitted with a lot of premium features – anything from heated seats to electronic climate control – but these are only activated if the owner pays a subscription to use them. If they’ve not been paid for, they won’t appear on the car’s specification sheet, but the physical components will still be on the car. If they are damaged in an accident, fixing them will add more expense to an insurance claim.

Over-the-air updates could also cause other unexpected surprises for car owners, as Thompson outlines: “An update could drastically alter the way that key technologies behave, making them more annoying than before – car owners won’t be happy about that.”

What Car? says…

While over-the-air updates can make it simpler and easier to get software fixes and updates done, using this technology to alter or enhance significant aspects of a car can be problematic. It can alter the dynamics of the car, and result in additional costs for car owners, especially if their car is involved in an accident, because it may cost more than expected to fix, and there is a risk that their insurance won’t pay out.

Car owners who choose to add performance-related upgrades to their cars should ensure they inform their insurer. It’s also important to share information on any enhancements that affect any of the car’s active safety systems.

Read more: Britain's safest cars

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