Ford announces OTA updates

Taking a page from Tesla’s playbook, Ford has announced that owners of the new Mustang Mach-E, an all electric SUV, will be able to get updates for the vehicle’s software through over-the-air connections, with no need to visit a dealer. A Ford press release quoted John Vangelov, Ford’s connected services manager, as saying, “The beauty of the Mustang Mach-E is that what our customers experience on day one is just the beginning – it will evolve to add even more features and capabilities over time. Our clever over-the-air updates also minimize downtime through incredibly fast activation and ensure your Mustang Mach-E is always getting better, even when you’re asleep.” The press release continued, “These improvements go well beyond SYNC® updates. Nearly all Mustang Mach-E computer modules can be updated wirelessly, meaning Ford can provide performance enhancements and entirely new features that might not exist when customers first take delivery of their vehicles.”

Ford expects the updates to start about six months after the first Mustang

Mach-Es are delivered. These over-the-air updates can be accessed using either a Wi-Fi or cellular connection, depending on the update.

In an obvious reference to Tesla, Ford wrote in the release that, “…unlike some vehicles that require owners to wait while a software update takes place, Ford has developed a way to allow secure updates to download in the background, and in some cases, be completed in under two minutes.”

Some updates, however, will require that the vehicle be parked, as is the case with Tesla’s updates. These can be scheduled to take place at the owner’s convenience. Ford also announced that the company will include this over-the-air updating ability in most of their redesigned vehicles.