OTA updates certainly present risks, but we shouldn't pretend there is no downside to the old approach. For example, both Tesla and Toyota have had similar problems with the brake software on their vehicles. Tesla had a software fix in a few days which immediately began automatically fixing vehicles [1]. Toyota also had a fix quickly, but they had to recall 185,000 vehicles so a technician could manually apply the update [2]. Were all those impacted Toyota's updated, how quickly were they updated, and how many accidents occurred because they weren't updated quick enough? This is especially important when it comes to self driving or driver assistance software. What happens if there is a bug discovered in Toyota's version of that software?

I think in the end we need some type of regulation or oversight on this because a company being either carelessly aggressive or anti-consumer with OTA updates is a serious risk, but that doesn't mean the potential of OTA updates should be thrown out with the bath water.

[1] - https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/tesla-model-3-get...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9311_Toyota_vehicle...