> Sure, but 1) cars come out of factory with sensible defaults. If you knew what you're doing, you could trade e.g. engine longevity or fuel consumption for extra HP but most people would be better off with factory defaults 2) visiting a dealership or doing update manually is not that much of a deal if it only needs to be done once or twice during the lifetime of the vehicle
Just look at the CVT Ford Fiesta / Ford Fusion. In the 2012 model of the cars, the transmission would "slip" under certain conditions. I know because my friend Pete owns one. He went to the dealership. The mechanic there drove it with him in the passenger seat. Sure enough, this was a problem. They call Ford and they adamantly denied there was a problem of any sort. Fast forward about eight months and the dealership calls Pete. Apparently, there's been a software update. Pete went to the dealership. The transmission slips no longer happen.
I guess the point I am making is that it really sucks when Ford denies there being a problem when there is clearly a problem. I am not saying the software was the problem but they had a fix for it in software. I don't think Ford even publicly announced this software update. For sure, I understand that you should be able to decide when and which updates happen to your device. However, I see a positive change if they come up with a good change list with each update. Someone above noted that until recently Toyota didn't even have a bug tracking system for its software.
Just look at the CVT Ford Fiesta / Ford Fusion. In the 2012 model of the cars, the transmission would "slip" under certain conditions. I know because my friend Pete owns one. He went to the dealership. The mechanic there drove it with him in the passenger seat. Sure enough, this was a problem. They call Ford and they adamantly denied there was a problem of any sort. Fast forward about eight months and the dealership calls Pete. Apparently, there's been a software update. Pete went to the dealership. The transmission slips no longer happen.
I guess the point I am making is that it really sucks when Ford denies there being a problem when there is clearly a problem. I am not saying the software was the problem but they had a fix for it in software. I don't think Ford even publicly announced this software update. For sure, I understand that you should be able to decide when and which updates happen to your device. However, I see a positive change if they come up with a good change list with each update. Someone above noted that until recently Toyota didn't even have a bug tracking system for its software.