Regardless of years of effort and the outlay of billions of {dollars}, not one of the world’s automakers have but to match Tesla’s prowess in delivering over-the-air (OTA) software program updates. Similar to together with your cellphone and laptop computer, these working system refreshes permit house owners to improve their vehicles remotely.
Tesla launched OTAs in 2012, however now Elon Musk’s firm pumps out these updates like no different automaker. “Tesla as soon as issued 42 updates inside six months,” Jean-Marie Lapeyre, Capgemini’s CTO for automotive, tells WIRED. However for a lot of different automakers, says Lapeyre, OTAs ship “perhaps annually.”
For conventional automotive firms, software program stays, or has been till very just lately, merely one bolt-on part amongst many. In distinction, for Tesla and different digital-native automakers—amongst them Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, and Chinese language manufacturers reminiscent of BYD, Xpeng, and Xiaomi—it’s virtually the entire shebang.
Curiously, GM was really the primary automaker to introduce OTA performance, two years forward of Tesla, however it was restricted to the OnStar telematics system. OTAs from conventional automakers usually add simply infotainment tweaks, whereas OTAs from the digital-first manufacturers will be shape-shifters, rising vary and boosting pace. They usually additionally present options from the puerile to the genuinely performative: fart noises on demand from Tesla, plusher suspension for Rivian house owners, and automotive unlocking by cellphone from Polestar.
Automobiles have had onboard microprocessors because the Seventies, however till comparatively just lately conventional automakers made their vehicles with software program designed to stay largely unchanged all through a car’s 20-year lifespan. Since 2021, the complexity of the newest car software program platforms has elevated by about 40 % per yr, estimates McKinsey. There are actually 69 million OTA-capable automobiles within the US, reckons S&P International.
Such software-defined automobiles, or SDVs, would increase automotive gross sales, automakers hoped. In response to two scorecards measuring SDV progress, Tesla leads the pack. Gartner’s Digital Automaker Index for 2025 locations Chinese language EV producers Nio and Xiaomi in second and third positions, respectively. Wards Intelligence agrees these are the three to beat. On the opposite finish of the size, and just like the Wards evaluation, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, and Jaguar Land Rover wallow on the backside.
Saving and Promoting
Performed proper, OTAs not solely freshen a automotive’s consumer expertise, they’ll additionally slash the price of recollects for automakers. Greater than 13 million automobiles had been recalled in 2024 as a consequence of software-related points, a 35 % improve over the prior yr. Earlier than OTAs, the common value of an auto recall was about $500 per car. OTAs could also be delivered wirelessly, however they aren’t cost-free, both for the setting or for automakers—Harman Automotive, a provider of OTA software program, estimates that it prices an automaker $66.50 per car to ship a 1 GB replace.
But it surely’s normally solely the digital natives sending out big replace information, as a result of typically solely they’re able to firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates. These can replace powertrains, battery administration, and braking programs. FOTA capabilities require vehicles—normally EVs—to have good, persistent connectivity and vital computing energy, a lot of it left latent for future updates. Lucid’s Gravity electrical SUV, as an example, is supplied with the newest Nvidia Orin-X processor, with 512 GB of onboard storage, but the car’s OS matches on simply 100 GB, leaving oodles of room for later OTA refreshes.
As Western automotive firm revenues fall, automakers want to earn a living from OTA-enabled subscriptions. Give Tesla $2,000 and, with the elective Acceleration Increase, your EV will be unlocked over-the-air to turn into a tire squeal faster off the mark. For an additional $10 a month, Tesla’s “premium connectivity” package deal provides streaming information, reside sentry cams, and different goodies. Need what critics declare is the misleadingly named Full Self Driving (FSD) Supervised characteristic? It’s yours for a further $99 a month.