Something in the air
We love our BYD Dolphin, but we’re not always keen on the over-the-air updates
If my first long term report on the BYD Dolphin sang the praises of over-the-air (OTA) updates, this one is going to be all about the potential downsides of the very same thing.
While the initial OTA update on our Dolphin vastly improved the irritating fake engine noises and gave you an option to turn them off, the latest one has basically done the opposite of that.
One of the changes BYD made with the latest update was to inexplicably make the Dolphin WAY more irritating by making the speed limit alert much louder and way more insistent, while failing to improve the already inconsistent road sign recognition system.
While the shouty intrusion when you fractionally go over the signposted limit is irritating, the biggest problem is that there is a very good chance that the Dolphin has a wildly different interpretation of what the speed limit is than you do thanks to the flaky sign recognition.
For example, our office car park has a 10km/h speed limit sign, which the Dolphin recognises, but will then insist that the speed limit through the city and all the way over the harbour bridge and to the North Shore where I live is also 10km/h, so will shout loudly at me the whole time because it simply hasn’t seen the other speed limit signs after leaving the car park.
It will also randomly decide that the speed limit is, say, 30km/h when you are on the motorway and start shouting at you again.
This hellish annoyance can be turned off, but you do need to set it up properly.
Like most cars with assists like this, the Dolphin defaults to having them turned on every time you start it. Unfortunately, the option to turn off traffic sign recognition is hidden deep within several layers of menus.
However, there is a sneaky little customisable menu that appears when you swipe down from the top of the homescreen, where you can set a shortcut to turn it off.
While the fix is simple, it highlights the perils of the whole OTA thing and how one seemingly innocuous update can tarnish what is an otherwise excellent car.
The Dolphin was a top three finalist in our AA DRIVEN NZ Car of the Year for 2023 and it also scored the best BEV category win.
On the upside, BYD does seem to be very responsive to this and open to making improvements based on customer feedback.
These issues aside, the Dolphin remains a fantastic little runabout that is superbly comfortable, delightfully responsive and impressively practical (even if the boot is quite tiny).
Spending a more time in the more dynamically engaging MG4 (our COTY winner) has made me appreciate the Dolphin’s interior even more, with its sensible storage options, a wireless charge pad that actually holds your phone in place (rather than sending it flying across the car every the first time you take a corner, like the MG does) and noticeably higher quality materials throughout the cabin.
It is also superbly comfortable. The fact that it is unashamedly a small hatch means you get a nice traditional driving position, sitting down in the car, rather than higher up, which is a refreshing throwback.
Wet conditions do show up a weak point: the tyres the Dolphin comes on struggle to deal with the instant torque if things start getting a bit wet, even with a gentle right foot, leading to much scrabbling for traction.
Putting the Dolphin into its Snow drive mode helps immensely with this, while sorting it entirely with a decent set of rubber when it comes time to replace the originals will banish it entirely.
The Dolphin has proven itself to be faultless and effortless when it comes to charging, as well as being impressively consistent with its range estimations: it will easily do more than 400km on a full charge, largely regardless of how or where you drive it and while 80kw isn’t exactly shatteringly fast in terms of charging speed, the Dolphin is like most other BYDS we have driven and will actually charge slightly faster than that most of the time anyway.
The removal of the Clean Car Discount has seen the Dolphin Extended lose its status as a sub$50k car, making it a slightly less appealing package overall, but it still represents good value for money and is a thoroughly satisfying package to live with on a daily basis.