But starting from the second half of this year, a new term "FOTA Upgrade" has gradually entered our field of vision. In fact, FOTA upgrade technology has already been tried by auto companies, and the most representative one is Tesla.
Tesla uses "remote OTA upgrade" for its models to improve its own hardware problems or improve the performance of the vehicle itself. As the development of my country's smart car level is accelerating, more and more auto companies have begun mass production of FOTA-upgradable models. The most representative ones are the cars Xingrui under the Geely CMA framework and the ones under the Lemon platform of Great Wall Motors. The third generation Haval H6 and so on.
at the 2020 Guangzhou Auto Show, Geely Automobile’s booth, although there is no latest product on display, but the C position is still reserved for the first car Xingrui under the CMA structure that was just launched in early November. This new car with Volvo Drive-E 2.0TD power and a wheelbase of 2 meters 8 will officially undergo the first FOTA upgrade at the Guangzhou Auto Show. According to the introduction of the staff, Starray’s upgrade this time is mainly aimed at the vehicle’s hot engine idling strategy in SPORT mode to improve engine noise. In addition, this upgrade also includes improving the cooling performance of the air conditioning system and adjusting the NVH of the air conditioning.
This is not just upgrading the car system, but also upgrading the hardware. Therefore, in front of the three letters of OTA, an "F" is added. And F stands for "Firmwave", which translates as firmware.
Generally, there is an ECU in a car, that is, an electronic control unit, which can also be understood as the brain of the entire car. It can be responsible for the executive mechanism of the vehicle, including the engine, gearbox, driving mechanism, driving assistance system, etc., equivalent to the "CPU central processing unit" in the car.
In the traditional sense, OTA upgrades are only for car-machine systems, but the content is obviously only for the addition, deletion, improvement, and upgrade of software and entertainment functions in some car-machine systems.
For the richer upgrades of the car itself, such as the specific functions of the automatic driving assistance system, braking strength, and vehicle NVH, dynamic response speed, shift logic, etc., if you want a proper upgrade, you rely on FOTA. Among them, vehicle-mounted 4G and vehicle-mounted 5G systems provide possibilities for the realization of FOTA.
In early 2020, Tesla adjusted the long-range versions of its models Model S and Model X through OTA upgrades to "increased the range by 30km."
With the development of the automotive industry, vehicle FOTA upgrades are bound to become the direction that manufacturers pursue. But, is the car FOTA upgrade really that all-round? Can the defects of vehicle design be completely changed? I'm afraid it can't.
At present, although the car FOTA upgrade can solve and upgrade many logical problems, it is the same as the continuous upgrade of our computer operating system. It is more seen in supplementing the existing design logic defects, similar to "patches" . However, some defects in the hardware design cannot be "FOTA upgraded".
For example, the well-known Takata airbag, which is a pure hardware defect, must be recalled. And FOTA is more to solve the system logic problem, that is, the so-called ECU logic problem, not a panacea.
In the follow-up promotion of their products, automobile manufacturers should also pay attention to telling consumers what is "FOTA upgrade", what is within their power, and how to solve the out of control problems, all need to be addressed to relevant departments And consumers inform.
Editor's comment:
We do not reject any kind of emerging technology, and we absolutely reject enterprises to deceive consumers by "stealing the concept". Of course, Geely Xingrui, which we just talked about, has not yet found such a problem, and hope that it will not have such problems.
"FOTA upgrade" seems to be a step forward in OTA upgrade, from only software upgrade to car versionUpgrade of body ECU. The changes to the car have also moved from the software to the hardware level, which is indeed a greater degree of progress. It's just that, while progressing, we cannot create new problems or create the possibility of existing problems.
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