> You don't understand. Most car manufacturers have agreements with dealerships that will prevent OTA updates from being possible.

There are also legal frameworks that make OTA updates edgy. Tesla is being investigated in germany because pushing additional features ("auto"pilot) might substantially alter the car from the approved version, leaving it without approval to drive on german roads.

OTA also suffers from all the beautiful issues that networked updates suffer from, most notably security, authentication, encryption. I for one prefer updates done via good old fashioned removable media.

So yes, OTA updates are nice, but I'm not certain I really really want that in my car.

There's also the problem all software updates can suffer: a code change breaking something in production. In this case it would be a car carrying humans.

sure, but thats a different argument. I am arguing with semi-extrinsic who claimed that Gasoline cars have similarly complex ECUs and entertainment systems and are already being updated for free (usually at regular services).. I'm arguing that no-one else comes close to what Tesla are able to do with updates. e.g. in the next month or two autopilot 8 will be pushed out, bringing significant new functionality to the 30,000+ autopilot equipped Teslas already on the road.

I'm not sure what type of software updates we're talking about but BMW allows idrive updates (nav/media) via the USB port. They provide the updates for free on their site.

I drive a Hyundai that has a navigation system. I purchased it in 2010. I have to dish out $250 or something at the dealer to get updated maps. The nav system's update process is password-locked so I can't just do it myself.

We're talking about pretty major things like new features for Autopilot, and performance enhancement from better battery/motor management.