Software updates

[Peter in Hexham]

Just sitting thinking............ When you have a Sat Nav, iphone or any piece of modern tech costing low hundreds, one is always getting emails or updates on a regular basis as the manfacturers find gliches or improvments to the product.

But on a £20k car with more computing power than Apollo 13, with dealers getting Service Bulletins with updates all the time, why do we as owners never get to know, except on a annual service?

Surerly when we buy a car there should be a Web link for us and a usb port on the dash, or am I being stupid?

[nd10]

I have to agree, not least with the RNS510, when I had a tomtom I got updates about 5 times a year.

[Chungster]

To have a car running like windows (that needs consent patches and upgrades) I think no wud ever buy a modern car! People wud going back and opting for weber 45s not fancy direct fuel injection with windows OS behind it.

Manufacturers spend millions on ECUs and the programming so that u the car run without problems.

Imagine the reputation damage if car makers were constantly making recalls for SW updates. They'd be out of business in no time!!

[SimplyGed]

I have to agree, not least with the RNS510, when I had a tomtom I got updates about 5 times a year.

If you google around, there are lots of sites that post information about firmware updates to the RNS510

http://www.my-gti.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; seems to be the place to look...

http://www.my-gti.com/1966/volkswagen-r ... -2726-2728" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ZephyR]

Its a fair question Peter.
The only thing I can think of is that occasionally software / firmware updates for your phone, music centre, sat nav etc. can go wrong causing major problems with device, sometimes rendering it useless.
You can image the dangers that could arise if an update to a car went wrong or wasn't carried out to strict instructions. There are far too many plonkers out there to trust that type of job to every car owner
And its bad enough writing off a £150 phone when its locked up. How would you feel about a £20K car ?

[ukgazman]

To comply with regulations I imagine they would have to do alot more testing of ECU software than your average consumer device. If the firmware update breaks your phone so you cant make calls any more, bad luck. If a software update breaks an essential car system, say ABS.... can you imagine the fall out from that on however many millions of cars that the the update? In fact you can see the fall out from the recent recalls of some of the big manufactures recently. The period of software testing for embedded systems needs to be so absolute and precise I don't think it would be feasible or logical to auto update cars via USB etc.

[bianco]

There was a recall to Update DSG gearbox controllere.
They are usually done without much talk when doing service.

Well not recall, but "service notice"