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Comment by booyaa00 | Hacker News Reader

So as there have been instances of an OTA update "bricking" phones, there will likely at some point be an OTA to cars which causes mass crashes and casualties. It's just a question of when...

Yet more movement of freedom and power from individuals to corporations.

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Tesla is a very low run product compared to even the least successful phone.

Something that happens once in a million will happen on an iPhone, not on a Tesla.

If / When they produce a mainstream car that will be another story.

All cars in Tesla premium category have quirks that require trip to the dealer. I have had colleague with bricked Series 5 BMW that requires full rewiring, ... Except for Tesla being overhyped with people that will not buy it, the actual clients of that kind of car seems generally happy to go through the "pain". (see, not an opinion I share, but then I don't buy 85K car either)

How is that different from the cases where batches of faulty cars are sold and cause crashes and deaths?

With OTA updates you can at least fix it with a rollback, quickly, before more people die.

I fail to see this as a move of power from individuals to corporations.

I guess I just trust hardware far more than software in general.

I don't agree. There would be no OTA bricked phones if enough thought and cost were put into the verification and installation process. Critical components could e.g. be duplicated, such that critical software like the bootloader can be restored in case the new version cannot start up.

Newer vehicles often get software updates as part of the maintenance schedule; so all OTA does is avoid a trip to the dealer

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