Ford to mail new software to all touchscreen vehicle owners.

Wouldn't it be nice if Nissan would do something like this for the Leaf control/display/nav system to fix its numerous problems...

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Sometime early next year, Ford will mail USB sticks to about 250,000 owners of vehicles with its advanced touchscreen control panel. The stick will contain a major upgrade to the software for that screen. With it, Ford is breaking from a history as old as the auto industry, one in which the technology in a car essentially stayed unchanged from assembly line to junk yard.

nice!. its too bad that a cheap easy way to do it online is still not available. the Leaf is connected. what would it take to upgrade software over the air??

would be nice to plug in a memory stick (for additional storage required for download. connect thru Carwings, download, install and be done.

but i guess getting a memory stick would do the trick. hopefully Ford also allows one to pick one up at the local dealer as well

I'd rather that Nissan do it with a memory stick and not over the air. Too many security issues over the air.

curtegg said:

I'd rather that Nissan do it with a memory stick and not over the air. Too many security issues over the air.

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First software upgrade (via physically-couriered memory): add secure, digitally-signed over-the-air upgrade capability.

curtegg said:

I'd rather that Nissan do it with a memory stick and not over the air. Too many security issues over the air.

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Plus there may come a time where there will be a software upgrade that is so bad, I won't want it. Having Nissan break my car remotely does NOT sound like a good idea at all.

While I don't want my car getting the seven-click update-of-the-week (Adobe, I'm looking at you), I confess I'm a little disappointed that all the rushed software in the Leaf is totally unchanged since the first car rolled off the assembly line.

The same "Blonze" typo, the same weird Bluetooth Connect vs Connected confusion, RSS useability issues, and so on. It just seems like the car was shipped with a "fix it later" version of software, sharp edges and all.

Just... nothing. No updates, no improvements, nothing. Not even the Carwings site has been refreshed.

That's big-car mentality, and it stands out in stark contrast to the iPhone-style marketing.


And there's nothing, zero, inherent loss of security in updating over the air. Exactly the same implements that would let the car authenticate the source of a USB stick could be applied to over the air connections.

GroundLoop said:

While I don't want my car getting the seven-click update-of-the-week (Adobe, I'm looking at you), I confess I'm a little disappointed that all the rushed software in the Leaf is totally unchanged since the first car rolled off the assembly line.

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so go to the dealer and get the update installed. i agree it sucks to have to do it that way considering we have a "connected" car, memory card slot, etc. iow, a ton of ways to "conveniently" get the updates.

but there has been an update...or fix maybe the better definition

but then again, its a car. the Ford update is several years in the making. too bad my car was not made by Google/Android

At this point, there are only two updates that the dealers can apply: the A/C shut down VCM update, and the Telematics communication update. This basically only fixes a couple of things that are largely transparent to the owner (some might say one of them is even a step backwards such as the GOM and Bars change brought on by the VCM fix)... There is currently no method to update for any of the display/entertainment/navigation/vehicle operational issues and there may never be... That is what the Ford update addresses and is a first in the auto business.

DaveinOlyWA said:

so go to the dealer and get the update installed. i agree it sucks to have to do it that way considering we have a "connected" car, memory card slot, etc. iow, a ton of ways to "conveniently" get the updates.

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