A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued policies and regulations related to the upgrading of automobile OTA, which is also the third time that new regulations have been issued for automobile OTA technology in China. Unlike the previous two times, this policy has made a stricter governance plan for some of the escalating chaos currently encountered. Earlier, some car companies behind the scenes of private cars to reduce the charging power, reduce the endurance, the car owner's car life caused a serious impact, is the infringement of consumer rights and interests of the behavior, in response to this chaos, the new policy will play a targeted regulatory and rectification role.
What is OTA and what is it used for?
With the rapid development of smart cars, there are currently many new cars with OTA capabilities, the full name of OTAs is Over-the-Air Technology, over-the-air download technology. The car company pushes a software installation package to the target model remotely, and the owner only needs to perform a simple operation in the car to achieve the corresponding upgrade of the vehicle. At present, it is very important for new energy vehicles with higher and more frequent demand for technological updates, which is the same reason as we use mobile phones.
For example, in the OTA upgrade of the mobile phone, we can not only upgrade its software, such as updating the map, updating some functions such as operations in WeChat, etc., but also upgrade the firmware, that is, we can upgrade from iOS 15.2 to 15.3, which can optimize the mobile hardware, repair flashback and so on. Automotive OTA principles are the same, application upgrades are called SOTA, and firmware upgrades are called FOTA. At present, most of the new forces and new energy vehicles of traditional car companies can carry out FOTA and SOTA, such as automatic driving controllers, central control, battery management, motor control, etc. can be achieved through OTAs.
Second, what can be done through OTA car companies?
As a simple example, let's take a look at what Xiaopeng's OTA has done in the past 2 years.
It is not difficult to find that through OTA, Xiaopeng has made a lot of push updates to assisted driving, and has constantly updated new application software and functions on the car. The interval between each update is also very short, and the small functions are updated from time to time, which is also a very interesting and cool car experience for the owner. OTA is definitely a very convenient, and can greatly enhance the car life experience of the technology, we want to get the car company updated configuration or technology, no longer need to wait for the car company to come out of the new model, an update package can be achieved; when encountering some problems need to be recalled, car companies can also be achieved through OTA, saving time and effort. Some data show that 8.73 million cars will be recalled in 2021, and the OTA recall will involve 2.92 million defective vehicles, accounting for about one-third of the total recall volume in the whole year, because compared with the traditional recall, the owner does not have to go back to the store for repair, of course, it is convenient for the majority of car owners.
However, while OTAs give us convenience, they are also used by some manufacturers to cover up design technology defects through OTAs and harm the interests of consumers.
The most typical thing is the incident of "locking the power" of new energy vehicles in recent years, car companies can lock the vehicle's endurance and motor output power through the OTA without the owner's knowledge, artificially reducing the charging ceiling, theoretically wanting to slow down the battery attenuation, and prevent the battery from thermal runaway and other failures. But for car owners, "locking electricity" very much affects the car experience, you think about charging is already slow, now you have to limit a part, more slow, and the charged electric endurance has become less, the performance experience can not completely match the ability promised when buying a car, it is a bit of "hanging sheep's head to sell dog meat" flavor.
From WM, GAC to Xiaopeng, why do so many manufacturers do this?
Because vehicles affected by "locking electricity" generally have multiple spontaneous combustion accidents, and "locking" vehicles through OTA can reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion at the lowest cost, thereby reducing the negative impact on brand reputation.
Earlier, some experts also said: from the perspective of lithium batteries, by limiting the maximum voltage of charging, such as reducing from 4.3V to 4.2V, for the positive electrode with strong oxidation, it is indeed possible to avoid the decomposition of the electrolyte, and at the same time, for the negative electrode, it is to reduce the risk of negative electrodelysis lithium.
Secretly carrying out "locking the electricity", consumers do not have direct evidence to prove that the vehicle is "locked", or it is difficult to find the "locked electricity", the vehicle life is short, the charging is slow, etc. These problems may also be suspected by the owner of the battery for the impact of loss after long-term use. Obviously, using OTA to lock the electricity to reduce the various risks caused by the vehicle's own defects is undoubtedly an extremely irresponsible approach to oneself and others. Transferring the responsibility for the problem of the three-electric system from the manufacturer's end to the user's end obviously greatly damages the interests of consumers, and will inevitably have a negative impact on the accumulation of brand reputation.
Third, what is the use of the OTA policy launch
In order to rectify the chaos of automotive product OTAs harming the interests of consumers, the relevant departments issued the third "OTA Upgrade" policy this month.
In the new policy, its filing requirements first emphasize the need to "ensure the consistency of production of automobile products", which is undoubtedly to clearly injunct the previous "power locking" behavior. At the same time, car companies are also required to submit a report on the implementation of the specific upgrade activity within 5 working days after the completion of the upgrade activity. Where the interval between the start and end of the upgrade activity exceeds 6 months, a phased report on the implementation status shall also be submitted every 6 months. This series of policy requirements makes the content of OTAs more secure.
At the same time, the policy also carries out three levels of classification of OTAs, of which there is no need for too strict filing requirements for relevant upgrades like SOTA, and there are very strict process requirements for the upgrade of technical performance-related and assisted driving functions to better ensure the safety of post-OTA products.
The editor said:
In addition, those car companies that have previously used illegal methods to conduct OTAs need to supplement the filing within 60 working days after the promulgation of the "new regulations", and failure to file, conceal the true situation, and provide false materials will affect the OTA upgrade management qualifications of enterprises. If the owner finds that there is a consistency problem with the product, it can be reported to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Announcement" management, and for the owners of the OTA who are locked in the power and do not know it, they can be regarded as waiting for the "savior".
In the past, although there was a filing system, in the end, car companies wanted to rise what they wanted, what they wanted to rise; now, not only for the record, but also for the announcement, the user must be aware, and retain the right to choose. The biggest change in the new regulations is that the owner is no longer passive or even insensitive to accept the OTA push, and the enterprise should fulfill the obligation to inform, inform the vehicle user of all the information of the OTA upgrade before the upgrade, and inform the vehicle user of the upgrade result after the upgrade. At the moment of rapid technological development, chaos and problems are inevitable, and what we see is the rapid response and positive problem-solving attitude of competent authorities like the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which will inevitably have a positive effect on the transformation of the automobile industry and the better acceptance of new things by consumers.