We have already told you Volkswagen is bragging about being the "first and only high-volume manufacturer" to offer an OTA (over-the-air) software update starting this month. Tesla provides that capability for a long time already, but it is yet to achieve the same sales volumes as Volkswagen, Toyota, or other giants in the sector. We just needed more details about this OTA update, and Christian Stadler helped us with that in his latest video for the Battery Life YouTube channel.
As a First Mover (some of Volkswagen’s first ID.3 buyers), Stadler had a chance to talk to the company and ask everything about the update. HIs video covers the requirements, rollout, procedure, and content that will come over the air exclusively to MEB vehicles.
That said, we already know ID.3 and ID.4 owners will be the ones to get the OTA update, but they won’t receive it all at the same time. There will be three waves of distribution: the first with just a few undisclosed cars so that Volkswagen is sure everything runs as planned. The second group to get the update will be the First Movers, and the third will include all other ID.3 and ID.4 owners all over Europe.
The other requirements to have your EV updated over the air will involve being linked to the We Connect ID app and having software 2.1 in your vehicle, which appears as 0792. This software is posterior to the update that fixed 12V issues and gave ID.3 vehicles the Me 2.0 software, also known by the 0783 code. In other words, it means you will need to visit a Volkswagen dealership to get your car prepared for OTA updates if it is still not running on the latest software.
When the vehicles have everything they need, they ask the Volkswagen backend for updates once a week. Each car has its own time for asking that, which probably helps the download happen without speed constraints and interruptions. Downloads only occur when the vehicle is turned on and through its own 4G connection. The car only warns you that it has the update when the download is complete.
At this point, the car presents the changes the update will make and gives instructions about the update. The driver decides whether he wants the update to happen or not. When the process starts, you cannot drive the EV. It will automatically stop the process if the owner begins the update, locks the vehicle, and unlocks it before two minutes have passed. The car will understand that the driver wants to use it.
Regarding the content, we’ll let you learn about it by watching the video. What we can tell is that the first OTA update will be pretty significant – around 6 Gb – and will demand quite some time to complete. Volkswagen is planning to offer smaller packages in the future to speed up the process.
Google News