i've said forever that car makers may make some amazing mechanical engineering bits, they absolutely suck at software.

while this didn't matter much until this century, it matters enormously now.

one giant underrated aspect of teslas is they keep getting new features and fixes after you buy/lease one because tesla can send wirelessly (OTA or over the air) updates to the car's software. sound like no big deal? well they're even able to do recalls that involve software this way, which is a huge CONVENIENCE to owners.

i was reminded of this recently, because i've had quite a lot of experience with hyundai/genesis software in the past few years (starting 2018 with my g90). back from 2019 until my 2023 hyundai ioniq, updating the car's software meant going to a website, downloading a program for windows or mac, which will 'prepare' a very specific setup of flash drive you then plugin the car, and maybe it will update properly, and sometimes that would take 2 hours. it was often unclear what changed after the update, although i definitely saw new features and improvements. these updates came out every few months. however, that process is cumbersome and i bet 90+% of owners either won't do it or couldn't figure it out even if they wanted to. i did flash drive updates on the 2018 genesis g90 and my 2021 hyundai santa fe.

now comes modern hyundai's/genesis (and presumably kia too). like tesla, they now can do over the air updates but also still support the plug in flash drive method. my 2023 ioniq 5 can do OTA as well as my gf's new 2025 genesis GV60.

teslas can connect to your home's (or other) wifi for a fast connection if your cell service is bad where you live, which is awesome. hyundai/genesis? nope. so i've had a few over the air updates on my ioniq 5 but because i have poor cell service where i live, the likelihood of getting an OTA update at home is maybe 50/50. other ones show up if i'm out somewhere.

a bigger problem for hyundai/genesis is that for whatever reason, there's parts of the software they won't/don't/can't update over the air. specifically, software to do with charging and battery management. on their ev's they've had trouble with the 12v accessory battery draining and because it can't be updated/fixed ota they issue a recall and you have to go to the dealer.

a couple of recent incidents here... i got a recall notice for the ioniq 5 12v software so i made an appointment and went in and i waited about an hour until it was done. no biggie, their waiting area is great and i can work anyway. well i guess their recall fix wasn't right because probably a month or maybe less later, i got another notice for a recall. i thought maybe they'd sent me a notice for the same thing that i'd already had addressed but no, turned out to be another software update and another visit to the dealer last week. dealer's online appt scheduler is nice and i wanted to get it down and out of there so i booked the 7am appt, and i'm not a morning person so this was rough THREE HOURS LATER it was done. service person said yeah, after they put the update in (which they had a lot of trouble doing) they got a notice than another update was now due (!) so they did that. whether those reasons were true or not i don't know, but it took too long.

hyundai/genesis (and presumably kia) have a system called 'bluelink' which lets you use a phone app to monitor and control your car. pretty cool, now on the EV's it's particularly important because you can check the charge level to know if it should be plugged in that night. since we have 2 EV's we share the home charger and can't both use it at night of course. the apps (genesis and hyundai) have worked without issue until recently, when the genesis app simply would not talk to the car. i called genesis and they walked me through doing a 'head unit' reboot which didn't fix it. they said they'd have engineers look into it over the next 7 days. when i called back a week later they said the case had been closed with no action (gee thanks). on a second call the person said to try doing a manual software update on the car. i tried, couldn't get it to work, it never would recognize the flash drive despite trying hard to follow their less than perfect instructions.

fortunately, i decided to search online to see if anyone had a solution. on reddit i found a gv60 section that said to disconnect the 12v battery for a few seconds, reconnect and that should fix it. nervously and with rubber gloves on ha, i did that and sure enough that fixed it. both genesis and the hyundai dealer told me they'd been having loads of problems with bluelink recently. being a software guy and seeing various clues i suspect the car had attempted an OTA update that didn't work and left the car 'stuck' maybe still trying to complete it but the bluelink server end had long since given up. the bluelink error i would see in the app was the car was still in a 'call' which indicated to me it was trying to connect to bluelink. anyway, the battery disconnect fixed it. yay.

i have never heard of such issues with a tesla!

love the ioniq 5 and gv60 and i'm sure bluelink and OTA updates will improve, but not great to date.

the larger point here is that software is critical in all modern cars and managing the 'end points' (cars), apps, and servers and keeping it all working reliably is MISSION CRITICAL.

 

Good write up 👍As you know, I've had a few different EV's, including the original Ioniq EV, a Polestar 2, my daughter has a Chevy Bolt EUV, and I currently have a 2023 Ioniq 5. I've had to take it FOUR times to the dealership, for the same recall which is basically a software update. I've had no such issues with my Tesla's, the Model Y has had two recalls, both were addressed with OTA updates, didn't have to make an appointment, didn't have to drop my car off, it just showed up, installed and done.

I would say for an EV, it's more than 50 percent of what makes an EV good, OK or bad. Bad software can leave you stranded, cause the car to go into "turtle mode", or not manage your LV battery properly, which has been the case with the Ioniq 5, 6 and Genesis EV's

 

Legacy auto has a long established supply chain meaning OEM parts from dozens of suppliers, each have their own way of doing things their own firmware. If one of those modules needs updating the auto maker has to talk to the OEM, they have to code and test the new firmware and give that to the OEM. And that assumes all the modules in the car can be updated via OTA which often isn't the case. The only way to fix this is either do most everything in house or get all the OE suppliers on the same page, the latter so far has proven impossible.

 

Teslas are engineered and built around a software first methodology. While legacy car makers have software based functionality, separate systems do not talk to each other from a centralized standpoint.
OTA updates are amazing. Tesla's approach, as you say, offers far more capability to give you "a new car".

 

Excellent write-up Paul!👍

A year after I got my Model S (so approximately 4 years ago), I got my car "uncorked" and that to me was a mind blowing experience demonstrating how powerful and seamless (on a Tesla) such a radical change (power went up by over 20%) was even possible with just a software update.

In this particular case it was not an OTA update, however it was still very straightforward as a Tesla mobile tech came to my house, hooked up his laptop to the car and "modified" it.

 

This is a good topic in this sub-forum. Recently, my MyHyundai app would not connect to the car, which I use to check the charge level just in case I need to plug it in. I don't usually visit the Ioniq forum (CL is still the best car forum) but decided to check if there is an ongoing issue. True enough, Bluelink was down and shortly thereafter I got an email from Hyundai that included instructions how to do a reset.
I also had experience dealing with Hyundai's tech support. When I got the car, my Bluelink subscription would not activate although I was enrolled and the service is free for the duration of the lease. The tech support asked for many information like modem #, IMEI, etc that I read to him from the infotainment screen. I thought if hey have my VIN all those information should be available to them already. Anyway, the issue was not resolved during the call and I did not receive any follow up, just an email that the case was closed. When I went back to the car, the Bluelink signal suddenly appeared.

 

At least the car was upgradable, almost every car is frozen in time.

 

Well I don't yet have a Tesla, but I can confirm that both my Land Rover and my Lightning reliably connect to my home wifi network to send and receive data, that both have had significant upgrades to non-infotainment modules via OTA such as the transmission programming in my Land Rover and mission critical systems on my truck, and that I've had recalls and CSPs on my Lightning be fully resolved via OTA. The recent (and significant) upgrade to BlueCruise 1.4 was all done OTA (and smartly, with some of the update being included in prior but ostensibly unrelated OTA updates). On the other hand I've also had updates fail to install because of 12v SoC misreads (again, an OTA upgrade although mine also required a new BMS sensor) and one or two that installed once the modem had been reset. So legacy auto may not be as good as Tesla, but isn't necessarily the dinosaur that some might think.

 

Me thinks it's time for you to give us an update on your F-150 . I want to hear from an owner who lives everyday with it, any issues you've had, how it's aged, and not from a YouTube channel looking to get views. Also want to know more about how BlueCruise is evolving

 

Awesome rant @bitkahuna ! 🏆

 

haha, thanks. many people see cars and objects we use from a mechanical point of view (engines, suspensions, doors, etc) but cars are now large computers with TONS of software. if a car maker is bad at software or reliant partially or fully on outside parties, they're at a huge disadvantage. and writing great software is really expensive as great software engineers are worth 10x what average ones are.

 

Teslas do have issues with software, but they are very minor compared to what you are talking about... additionally, Tesla introduces major feature additions with their vehicles with software updates, and that usually means there is either 2 steps ahead, one back or 3 steps ahead, one back. With big features update, there are many changes where something can go wrong. Often, additions start as a beta feature and get improved over the next months.

But yes, generally it is crazy good and one of the biggest reasons to own a Tesla. I personally love it.
You can see some of the updates here:
https://www.notateslaapp.com/software-updates/history/

My 2021 Model 3P got so many important updates, hard to even remember it all. It is also way more comprehensive that going from Windows 7 to 11, as Windows mostly gets either look or background changes, you buy 3rd party apps for productivity, but maybe more similar to how iOS changes? Even just a trip planner got so much more useful than before through the years, let alone driver profiles or matrix headlights or gui overhaul or so so so many things.