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      12-28-2014, 03:19 PM   #7
jadnashuanh
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Drives: 535iGT x-drive; i3 BEV
Join Date: May 2010
Location: USA

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Limited production prototypes will not always show the same results as a large-scale production piece. A part failed, only when hot, and then, not all of them did, so it is quite possible, that never came up during the R&D. THen again, it could have been a process change with the switch to large scale production, or the circuit board was laid out differently but with the same parts, and one trace ended up a bit too small or too long, or too close together, and it failed when hot.

IOW, not everything shows up in R&D or prototype stages. The important part is that they are fixing it to restore advertised capabilities.

While BMW could do s/w updates OTA, there's the potential of causing someone's vehicle to be non-operational when they really needed it even if you tried to execute it in the middle of the night. SOme things, once started, can't be stopped, and you are at risk until it finishes. THen, what if for some reason, there's a glitch and you wake up the next morning, get in your car and it fails to function?! Much safer and more control when done at the dealer's. Or, you decide to leave early, or are out late, and then find your car in the middle of a software update and you're stuck until it is finished?

BMW will let you update some non-critical items yourself, and those again could be done OTA, but some people would be really annoyed if they had everything optimized where they want only to find out the next time they got in the car, the screen was different, the menus had been update, and they can't find what they are looking for because it moved, or maybe even eliminated or combined with something else.

IMHO, I don't find Tesla's OTA updates a big bonus other than the fact that since they do NOT have dealers, and few service centers, it is probably the only way the could reasonably do it...I look at it as an initial design requirement and limitation, not necessarily a benefit.

All modern BMW's are essentially computer driven, and could be optimized for OTA updates, but it would take a huge new effort. I'm sure a good portion of the i3 logic was cloned, and there are a fair amount of common modules with other BMWs...starting over from scratch would be daunting.
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