over-the-air programming

È la realtà attuale per oltre 22.500 proprietari di Volkswagen ID.4

E quando un'azienda immensa con tutte le risorse ingegneristiche di Volkswagen si ritrova costretta a imporre un limite hardware, o meglio, a limitare l'hardware tramite un aggiornamento OTA, ammettendo che la causa è sconosciuta

È un collasso, un vero collasso diagnostico.

Ed è esattamente il labirinto che vogliamo esplorare oggi.

Cioè, se il problema esplode sotto la pressione di questi specifici profili di ricarica, perché non limitare la velocità di ricarica invece della capacità totale?

Mm, è una reazione istintiva, ma c'è un motivo preciso

Perché un aggiornamento OTA che riduce i kilowatt che entrano mi sembrerebbe, ehm, meno punitivo rispetto a dire: "Ti taglio via un quinto della batteria e dell'autonomia per sempre

sempreLo capisco, ma limitare la velocità non risolve il problema dell'espansione fisica e del degrado chimico che avviene quando si arriva al 100%.

Yeah

... we are gonna talk about OTA, over-the-air updates.

This has been one that's, like, there and it's like magic for us React Native devs, and like, you know, native devs don't have access to this, so it's like ha ha.

But Robin, what are over-the-air updates? Why do they exist? Like, why do we even need them?

if that makes sense.

Okay.

Um, so basically the only difference between a, an app without OTA enabled and one with OTA enabled is just a little bit of code that, like, checks the manifest URL on launch to look for new bundles and a little bit of native code that knows how to reach into the private storage and grab the bundle that was downloaded rather than the one that was baked into the binary.

Okay.

Both have an 82.7 kilowatt hour LFP battery.

Inside there's a 12.3 inch digital instrument display, 15.6 inch central touch screen, TomTom navigation, voice control, OTA software updates, 12 speaker audio system.

The Emerge gets 18-inch wheels while the Pioneer gets 19s.

The Pioneer also adds a panoramic glass roof fragrance system.

Oh, that's definitely not gonna happen.

Yeah, and that, in some ways, that might actually be part of the reason that quality standards have improved, is because they're able to just push OTA updates, and that means even a fleet that is just stock that's inventory on a lot somewhere probably gets those OTA updates.

The owner-

Assuming a lot jockey has powered them up at some point to receive the updates

So when we discuss non-volatile memory, it's important to state one very important term which is what we call endurance or programming cycles.

So, for example, if you program a software, then yes, you would need to change it, right? Software versions, people do even what is called FOTA, firmware update over the air today.

So your system can update code even in the field or over the air.

So all this requires reprogramming of the data.

There is a critical silver lining here regarding how these devices handle software updates in the field.

The documentation makes it very clear that over-the-air or OTA updates are completely unaffected by this vulnerability.

Why use that? I mean, if the chip fundamentally doesn't know how to check signatures properly, why are remote software updates safe?

This raises an important question about execution environments.

It comes down to which piece of code is actually doing the math.

When a device is already running in the field and receives an OTA update payload over its Wi-Fi connection, it doesn't immediately reboot to let the ROM check the incoming file.

right because the ROM only runs on that very first power on reset.

Exactly.

There's someone here who's been waiting to weigh in on this, and he's got a correction about what the physical sim world was actually doing behind the scenes.

The OTA updates! Sorry? The over-the-air updates.

Carriers pushed them to sim cards constantly.

Roaming tables, bug fixes, new network entries.

There was a sound.

The updates you mentioned.

The OTA ones.

How did those actually reach the card? Binary

We cannot treat inferences of a theoretical attack chain as confirmed facts.

The operational reality is that an emergency over-the-air update, an OTA, in an automotive environment carries massive quantifiable risk.

Of course it does, but...

If we rush a patch to the Qualcomm Snapdragon kernel, we risk bricking the infotainment systems of vehicles that are currently on the road.

I know the NHTSA guidelines well, but let's be clear.

Those are technically non-binding recommendations.

They don't mandate an immediate OTA for a local privilege escalation bug.

They are non-binding, yes, but they establish the legal and industry baseline for reasonable care.