Use OTA, No Need To Come To Workshop For Car Features Repairment

Tesla uses OTA technology to update and fix some malfunctions in its products. (photo credit: Bram Van Oost/unsplash)

JAKARTA - Car recalls are an inconvenience for most car owners. But now that has changed. From Tesla to General Motors (GM), more car manufacturers are now using smartphone-style over-the-air (OTA) updates to replace faulty software that causes recalls from factories.

Automotive product recalls have been running at or near record levels in recent years. Last year, some 31 million vehicles were recalled due to safety-related issues in the US. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this number is more than double compared to 2010.

Government data show that most recalls involve glitches in the software that controls a rapidly growing suite of onboard computer systems. In many cases, it is now possible to fix this problem remotely.

All Tesla vehicles come with the ability to download software to update digital control systems, and most EV startups, such as Rivian and Lucid, plan to build over-the-air, or OTA, capabilities into their products as well.

Ford will have 1 million vehicles on the road with OTA functionality by the end of the year. According to Ford sources, that number could grow to 33 million by 2028. Other manufacturers, including GM, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen, are also making similar aggressive moves.

“The technology, which first became commonplace in smartphones, will become quite universal over the next five years,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal automotive analyst at Guidehouse Insights.

Last week, Tesla announced that it would recall nearly 300,000 Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs sold in China due to a fault in their driver assistance system that could cause unwanted acceleration spikes.

Meanwhile, GM is recalling a number of the same 2021 sedans and SUVs sold by the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands in the US because their warning lights may not have been triggered by an airbag failure.

Tesla regularly uses over-the-air updates to change onboard technology, and plans to remotely download new software to fix the latest issues. GM will take a similar approach, remotely replacing the faulty software, though it also says "the owner may schedule the update to be done at a GM dealer."

This approach is becoming increasingly common. In February, Mercedes said owners of 1.3 million vehicles could avoid dealer visits to fix software-related issues if they subscribed to the Mercedes Me service.

OTA technology will not eliminate the need to bring the car in for repair. Many recall still involve faulty mechanical systems, such as bad brakes, leaking fuel lines, or airbags that went wrong during use. But automakers and industry analysts agree that a sizable share of recalls can be handled remotely in vehicles that can accept remote software downloads.

“There are huge cost savings associated with using over-the-air updates versus bringing the vehicle back to the dealership,” says Abuelsamid.

This OTA technology can also be used to deliver new features to vehicles, just as smartphone manufacturers provide new or updated applications and functions.