EV's OTA Updates and Legalities

[kdryden99]

So as usual with new technology I have been doing a lot of reading. One thing that comes up are the OTA updates. I was in a discussion with a good friend of mine and we were talking about how having the car connected could save many ppl time by not necessarily going to the dealer for repairs. It would work almost like any company with IT department where you could call for support, the Manufacturer could remotely run a diagnosis, apply a fix or if extra intervention would be required they would provide you a ticket and make an appointment with your local dealer.
This was something that I just came up with in my discussion with him because my job is being the person on the other side of the phone but I am more hands on. But then I read that most OTA updates are actually illegal, let me explain. When your car is manufactured it needs to go through an inspection and NSTA (USA) Transport Canada (Canada) have to approve the vehicle before it is sold on the market. It is meant to be sold as a final product with no modifications done to any major components especially those related to safety. If any changes are needed to be made to the functionality of the car especially those related to Safety a recall needs to be issued and submitted via the NTSA and again through Transport Canada. So in the instance for example the 2000$ for that .5 second increase in acceleration that Tesla is selling that could be considered illegal because you are altering the performance of the vehicle without resubmitting the car for safety testing. Also an update a while back that improved the braking distance of the Model S would also be considered illegal because you are modifying the functionality of the braking system without having it tested by the NTSA.
This is not the same as a repair where you are replacing a defective part with the same part, you are not modifying the functionality of the vehicle. Right now the NTSA has turned a blind eye to it since Tesla was considered a small player, but slowly as Tesla gets bigger and OEMS start to adapt the OTA route for vehicles, shit will hit the fan. The NTSA will most likely adapt their regulations for OTA but I am not sure where this is headed. I know for one thing these OTA updates are the future but I am not sure if Tesla and the OEMs will be able to continue to provide these updates via OTA as easily as they have been in the past.

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[JCHLi]

Does the submitting for safety testing apply to each car, or can they roll it out to a demo car for safety prior to releasing it up all vehicles?

 

[JamieGeek]

There is a difference between the cars on the dealer's lots that haven't been sold to a customer and the cars customers "own".

I would bet that the legalites don't apply to customer owned vehicles--especially since once you own a car you can modify it however you want; people have been doing that for years. So if you pay Ford for that $1400 copilot upgrade its you doing the modifying, not Ford. For other OTA updates all they have to do is prompt you: "Do you want this update" then the legalites are out of their hands because you accepted the change...

Legally: If there has been a recall on a car a dealer cannot sell it unless the recall has been fixed.

 

[kdryden99]

Does the submitting for safety testing apply to each car, or can they roll it out to a demo car for safety prior to releasing it up all vehicles?

As soon as a car is OKTB it means it passed so all of those cars are available to be sold. Only 1 version of the vehicle would have to go through inspection so if you look at Ford 1 Mach-E would need to go through inspection and poper documentation would need to be provided. A separate inspection would need to be done for the GT because it would be considered a different vehicle.

There is a difference between the cars on the dealer's lots that haven't been sold to a customer and the cars customers "own".

I would bet that the legalites don't apply to customer owned vehicles--especially since once you own a car you can modify it however you want; people have been doing that for years. So if you pay Ford for that $1400 copilot upgrade its you doing the modifying, not Ford. For other OTA updates all they have to do is prompt you: "Do you want this update" then the legalites are out of their hands because you accepted the change...

Legally: If there has been a recall on a car a dealer cannot sell it unless the recall has been fixed.

But in this case it's the manufacturer releasing the update like the braking, they are modifying the functionality of the car not you. Even if you accept the update because it's the manufacturer releasing the update they would be liable.

 

[kdryden99]

There is a difference between the cars on the dealer's lots that haven't been sold to a customer and the cars customers "own".

I would bet that the legalites don't apply to customer owned vehicles--especially since once you own a car you can modify it however you want; people have been doing that for years. So if you pay Ford for that $1400 copilot upgrade its you doing the modifying, not Ford. For other OTA updates all they have to do is prompt you: "Do you want this update" then the legalites are out of their hands because you accepted the change...

Legally: If there has been a recall on a car a dealer cannot sell it unless the recall has been fixed.

Also you cant do whatever you want to the car, that's why modifying suspension, modifying headlights, exhausts and so forth are illegal but whether they are enforced is different. When a manufacturer modifies the functionality of the car that's on a whole different level of legality

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