Th problem is when that over the air (OTA) fails you put the phone in your pocket and go to your local Apple store. If an update fails in your car it has to be towed. I think it will be awhile before cars get OTA updates. There is just to much liability involved.

 

One of the CAB driver described him getting software updates. I can't find his article (not on this site).

He parked the car and contacted OnStar as I recall. They then downloaded the software to it.

 

I know Lyle had it done but an Engineer came out to do it.

 

Really not that hard to build in a failsafe - have the system back itself up, then download the update and verify accuracy, if the transfer was successful - good to go, if it failed, revert to the backup and advise the driver to go to local Chevy dealer for a software update at their convineience.

 

I designed part of the architecture of OnStar to pull diagnostic data many years ago. I know it's possible to build fail safes, but things do fail. You don't want a partially applied fix for your brakes right before you 78 year old grandmother takes the car out to go to church. I'm sure less critical systems can be remotely updated if needed. That said I don't think car manufactures see OTA updates the same way phone manufactures do. Phones are a lot simpler and easy to take backups of. Phone manufactures don't want to see you until you purchase another phone, Dealerships want to see you to maintain relationships.

 

You don't want a partially applied fix for your brakes right before you 78 year old grandmother takes the car out to go to church.

Well it can be designed so that updates may only be applied when the car is off in Park. Also, all critical functions of the car (braking, steering, and even propulsion) should be able to work without the need for the computer. The computer may make it more efficient, easier to operate, etc, but the car should still basically function without it. Now maybe with the Volt, they did not make it that way, but even with an electric drive system, it should be possible to make it so that it works without the computer being functional.

I can't wait for the day when many or most cars have onboard 3G, 4G, (or better), wireless connectivity.

Ugh. I can.
"By purchasing this vehicle, you agree to a 2-year wireless carrier contract billed at $39.99 per month. The customer may terminate this contract at any time, but an early termination fee of $250 will be charged in addition to any fees an authorized dealer may charge for updating the vehicles software configuration... etc etc"

Besides cel phone companies in America suck. I wouldn't enjoy having to deal with them for another aspect of life.

 

I'm glad that GM doesn't use Microsoft products in their vehicles.

Imagine if the Volt suddenly stopped and suffered the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)!!!

Raymond

 

Apparently BSOD is pretty easy to do, according to any earlier post. Just press the little ol' blue button twice in 5 seconds, and, voila, you've turned your car off.... even in the fast lane at rush hour.

So be careful out there...

WVhybrid

Status ==> 3000 ==> 3100 ==> 3000

 

I think it's easy to become trapped into believing that the Volt has WiFi-type connectivity, or mobile wireless. Definitely the Volt does not have WiFi. (Although, how cool would that be?) And I don't think it has a mobile wireless plan because that would be pretty expensive, like $50 per month.

For sure the Volt has a cell phone. In fact there is a real, 10-digit phone number associated with every OnStar vehicle. Furthermore, I'm almost certain that the Volt can send/receive SMS text messages. That's how MyLink seems to communicate with the Volt, and why it takes up to a minute to complete the handshake. Generally SMS is limited to 160 ASCII characters per message.

So...

Downloading a 10K software patch to the Volt at a rate 160 SMS characters every minute or so would be tedious at best. Even with MMS (bigger pipe) it would not be practical.

My guess is that the Volt is eminently upgradeable--at the dealer, with a hard wire.

Please prove me wrong. I want to go crazy thinking of new aps for the Volt using a big wireless pipe!!!

Chris

 

I don't think it has a mobile wireless plan because that would be pretty expensive, like $50 per month.

"Hello Sprint/Verizon/AT&T/Bell South/..., my name is GM and I'm going to need to put 3 million [or what not] cell phones per year into our cars for OnStar. Would you like our business? We'll need to occasionally use data for upgrades and diagnostics, but otherwise not very much.

If you'd like, you can sell air minutes directly to our customers as well. We won't allow unlimited usage so that's an additional avenue for monitization. If you would like our business, what sort of deal can you give us?"

Really now, if GM thinks they want data (and I'm betting they use it for the Volt's monthly "ET Phone Home" moment, it'd be an insane use of Verizon's network to do that on the access channel, and it would leak proprietary information out the yazoo), then GM gets data for something that doesn't look anything like $50 a month! Maybe more like $.05 a month.

 

Interesting. So minor patches can be installed wirelessly (albeit slowly), while major patches may be done preferably by plugging into the OBD port. I'm no expert on how the Volt communicates wirelessly, but it sure seems like the Volt has a pretty narrow wireless data-pipe.

I can't wait for the day when many or most cars have onboard 3G, 4G, (or better), wireless connectivity. That will be fun: real-time streaming media right on the dashboard. And these cars might be able to transmit *out* at broadband speeds as well. Think of the possibilities!!

Chris

 

I can't wait for the day when many or most cars have onboard 3G, 4G, (or better), wireless connectivity.

Depending on which vendor they're using for the modem (I honestly don't know), it would be really difficult to get a modem that doesn't know how to do 3G. They pretty much all do now.

But I could easily believe, in order to get a lower cost profile, that the data link is limited to 1X (that is, no supplemental channels). And I think that means 9.6kbps (there's a 14.4kpbs service option available in the spec, but I don't think Verizon allows it). A 25 minute transmit on the fundicated channel would be around 1.8 MB, which doesn't seem unreasonable.

 

FWIW, I got this in an email from my VA, introducing himself:

As you are probably aware the Volt is a highly sophisticated vehicle with a number of computers in it which from time to time will require periodic software updates. Some of these updates will be done remotely via OnStar. If and when this occurs, you will be contacted by the OnStar option on your vehicle. There are other software updates where you may need to take your vehicle into the dealership. In these instances your dealer or I will notify you to set up an appointment to bring your vehicle in.

 

I've linked to this thread in the FAQ. If anyone has any recent experience with updates, please post! I keep holding out hope that they will give us early-adopters an update to fix some of the annoying little things that we've all been complaining about here. Maybe they'll do that when the 2012 MY build is approved and rolling later this summer.

 

Doesn't every Volt have an IP address? (I'm hoping IPv6, and not IPv4) so if they all do, then they are connected the the net in some form or fashion.

 

This thread has an unfortunate title. It's really about updating the Volt in general, which I have seen no reports of other than Colin Summers experience during the CAB period. Whether there's an IP layer involved isn't really relevant, as it's a closed system anyway.

 

This thread has an unfortunate title. It's really about updating the Volt in general

The issue of Volt software updates has been covered at length on this board. GM will fix bugs - where the Volt does not do what GM intended - and safety issues. Full stop.

There are several good ways available to update Volt software but GM believes feature updates are obtained by trading in your car.

Remember that there are plenty of other GM cars that could use feature upgrades. GM has to decide this as a broad policy question. I believe that competition will force their hand, but that it will take a while.

 

If they can send live updates to the Tesla, they can do it to the Volt. According to Elon Musk, updates are sent to the Tesla Model S frequently.

I spoke with a Volt Advisor a back in Febuary 2013 asking about updates and she said they were already doing it via OnStar. Just hearsay though.

 

This is my biggest concern with the volt. GM still has much to learn. Still stuck in old ways.

Of course the Volt needs to easily update over the Internet. They're protecting an old business model with dealers rather than protecting their customers.

Tesla cars do have wifi, download and install updates over your wifi connection. Of course it can be done. GM just doesn't want to.

 

To be precise, one of our members confirms that the Tesla Model S does not yet have Wifi connectivity: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...7-Tesla-Model-S-Production-Reaches-400-Cars-A-Week-Capacity&p=287305#post287305

Also, one of the early Volt Bluetooth patches was installed wirelessly via OnStar. So the Volt does have this capability, and GM has deployed it.

Cars are much different than PCs. It's all coming, but safety first...

 

Your iPhone has ONE computer in it.

Your Volt has over 200 computers in it. Not all of those processors are connected to the same communication buss. So it's NOT possible to update firmware on all of those processors. And it would be prohibitively expensive to put every single processor on the com buss.

About 1 month ago Apple pushed out an iOS update that made my iPhone battery drain in about 5 hours... vs three days as normal. Apple had to discover this bug when over a million angry customers started flooding Apple tech support with complaints about increased battery drain. It took Apple about a month to find the bug and re-issue the update.

If GM pushed out a software update that had a bug (Like making the BRAKE system fail...) It could KILL people.

Generally car companies don't issue software updates until they discover a problem. (Not to add new features.) And for customers who never experience a problem... They don't NEED to have the software updated.

I don't want my car to have daily software patches. I want my car to have 100% perfectly tested code that works 100% of the time. And once it's perfect... I never want to change it. It's a CAR. Not a computer.

 

Yeah i am also updating everything of my computer from the internet i am mostly update the software which i have installed in my computer and antiviruses from the internet because i have get paid version from the internet of this software and products .........

Network Repairs Gold Coast