其中，有东风俊风、吉利、北京汽车、传祺等国产车企，也有上汽通用、一汽大众等合资车品牌。近日，老牌传统车企别克更是宣布将推出涵盖14款车型的OTA升级计划，而大众转型新能源汽车的主打系列ID.家族，也公布了在明年实现OTA升级落地的消息。

而已经提供整车OTA升级服务的车企，例如特斯拉、理想、小鹏、蔚来等品牌，也都在原有基础上，不断拓展增加可以搭载OTA升级的车型。一时间，整车OTA升级似乎成为新能源汽车的标配，缺了这一环节，仿佛身价都要跌落几个档次。

只不过，尽管OTA升级早已在手机领域拥有了成熟的技术积累，但在汽车系统层面，却是由于特斯拉近两年爆火才逐渐走入大众视线，甚至连很多业内人士对OTA都知之甚少。如此这般暂时浮于表面的狂热，会否只是个伪命题？

联接IOT，铺垫下阶段自动驾驶

OTA升级也可以称作空间下载技术，最早应用于手机系统的在线更新功能，属于传统更新手段中借助ROM固件进行“刷机”的迭代科技。现如今安卓、IOS等移动平台操作系统的更新，也都是在沿用这一技术。

在2000年，海外部分车企开始尝试将OTA升级技术应用到汽车领域，只是当时这项技术还被称作T-BOX，功能也局限于远程启动、锁车、道路援助等基础功能。而后随着科技发展和移动互联网体系的不断完善，OTA升级才真正开始用于车载系统更新。

其中，早期的OTA升级作用于燃油车平台中，主要实现偏娱乐功能的车机系统，比如音乐播放器、导航、CarPlay等软件。而此类专注于车载软件更新升级的技术，也被称作SOTA。

现如今被各大车企厂商所追捧的整车OTA升级技术，却是针对整车电气化架构的固件升级，能够通过程序更新，对整车的性能、驾驶体验、能耗进行不断优化。这一技术名为FOTA，其最早应用于新能源汽车，还是在2012年特斯拉推出Model S(配置|询价)时，所首次搭载采用的“OTA空中升级”。

中国特斯拉车主最早接触的，大概是2014年开始进行免费更新的V5.9版车载系统，在后续的更新中依次实现了语音导航服务、自动巡航、防撞倒车辅助、自动紧急制动等等在当时极为超前的功能。

而真正让所有人都开始重视起整车OTA升级，还是2019年特斯拉CEO马斯克宣布将在OTA更新中，为Model S“凭空”增加了50匹马力，以及12km的续航里程。马力的大小或许只适用于部分有赛车需求的消费群体，但续航里程的增加，却可以直接缓解所有新能源汽车车主的里程焦虑。

再加上，目前的整车OTA升级大都是通过手机APP对汽车进行远程操控，已然成为了物联网相关应用场景的进一步延伸。除了可以在IOT框架下建立独立的闭环生态外，新能源智能汽车所带来的交互方式革新，催生出了智能座舱的市场需求，更是离不开OTA升级技术的支持。

同时，在部分新能源车企已经公布的整车OTA升级计划中，有着诸多类似于导航辅助驾驶、一键泊车、交通标识识别、自适应巡航等等，与自动驾驶相关的量产功能。不难看出，除了对整车OTA升级业务的看好，各大车企最主要的目的，还是在为下一阶段的自动驾驶场景做铺垫。

现阶段，国内外自动驾驶场景正在不断铺设，无人配送、无人出租车、无人铁轨等相关业务都已经处在即将落地的阶段，通过整车OTA升级，可以让自家的汽车产品提前适配最新的自动驾驶技术，在行业环境发生新的改变之前，抢占系统优势。

尽管科技优势所带来的赋能显而易见，但目前阶段的整车OTA升级仍然处于相对早期的阶段，也存在着不容忽视的附加风险。

BUG繁多，OTA升级侵犯隐私？

之所以车企都对整车OTA升级趋之若鹜，主要还是基于汽车行业向人工智能化不断转型的大趋势。在这种行业大环境下，软件定义汽车，正在逐渐成为业界的普遍共识。

汽车作为交通工具，从诞生至今，始终都保持着受动力来源驱动的特性。蒸汽动力时代，机械定义汽车；电气时代，内燃机定义汽车；信息时代，电子零件定义汽车；到了如今的新能源时代，电机开始取代发动机，加载人工智能的软件系统，也就成为了新的定义方。

甚至可以说，现如今的汽车，早已在朝着“软件产品”的方向前进。决定未来汽车核心竞争力的，不再是马力大小、机械性能、外观内饰，而是整车系统的高智能化。

高智能化的整车系统，自然也意味着软件代码数量的不断攀升。尤其是对于新能源汽车的高端科技属性，大部分高端车型的控制器节点大概在100个左右，整车系统的代码量也超过了一亿行。

相比之下，微信的代码量约为50万行；安卓手机的操作系统代码量大概有1200万行；而全球最大的社交媒体Facebook，其代码量也只有6200万行左右。

庞大的代码数量，意味着整车系统必然存在着更多的BUG，不提今年特斯拉因“踏板无响应”、“车辆失速报错”、“锁电”等负面信息一度口碑暴跌，国产新能源汽车小鹏、蔚来、理想，也都各自被频繁爆出的BUG问题所困扰。

尽管整车OTA升级可以通过及时有效更新的方式，修复漏洞、解决故障，但汽车不同于其他电子产品，整车固件程序的开发和维修难度极高，很难完全规避软件风险问题。在道路环境下，任何程序BUG都可能引发直接危及生命的故障，因此目前的OTA升级，还存在许多的不安全因素。

而且在目前的电子架构下，电动汽车的OTA升级时间相对漫长，再加上更新时会和手机电脑一样，进入必须关机重启的状态，很容易出现类似于蔚来车主“误触”、“误判升级时长”，在错误的地点更新OTA升级，导致车辆长时间停留在路上，进而严重堵塞交通的情况。

这直接暴露了，部分厂商的OTA升级技术尚且不够成熟，并没有做好应对使用者操作失误造成伤害的“防呆”设计。

除去OTA升级本身，高智能化的汽车产品，归根到底还是离不开互联网流量逻辑的框架，产品设计和更新迭代的核心驱动力仍是大数据。为了进行更匹配的OTA升级更新，软件开发厂商必须掌握足够的车辆数据和信息，其中很大一部分或许涉及到车主的个人隐私，也是短时间内都无法解决的问题。

当然，目前存在的种种缺陷，都会随着相关技术应用和科技发展得到解决，整车OTA升级的高便捷性、高用户体验，以及极大程度减少车辆召回成本的优势，还是拥有着极大的市场潜力。只是从政策和市场环境来看，想要真正落地，还需要很长一段时间。

OTA落地，无法舍弃燃油车

近期，随着陕西、广东、河南等国内多个省市先后出台了支持新能源汽车产业发展的政策方案，加上近期石油价格经历了14连涨，新能源汽车的销量迎来了新一轮的上涨。与之同时上涨的，还有新能源汽车的市场渗透率，截至今年下半年，已经达到了13%的水准。

只是尽管从数据上来看，新能源汽车市场已经走上快速增长道路，或许用不了太久就可以完全取代燃油车。但实际上，这些数据都是建立在国际疫情失控、芯片荒、电池荒等大环境下，汽车行业的产销量整体所呈现的是不断缩小的状态。

而且，今年8月份，工信部发布了对智能网联汽车的管理意见，要求在未经审批前，各个厂商都不能通过在线软件更新的方式，为汽车增加或更新自动驾驶功能。纯粹由新能源汽车和无人驾驶技术搭建的场景，很可能距离真正落地还有极为漫长的道路要走。

因此，尽管渗透率和销售数据都有了明显的增长，但电动汽车的普及，以及对市场环境的培育依旧任重道远。对于技术层面还不成熟，仍需要更多市场反馈和数据支持的OTA升级而言，或许目前阶段还不是放弃传统燃油车的时候。

高科技向的新能源汽车，固然是最契合OTA升级技术的产品平台，但并不意味着传统燃油车并不能使用FOTA内核的OTA技术。

例如吉利星瑞、北京汽车魔方、福特EVOS(配置|询价)等车型，都是在传统燃油车的基础上加载了OTA升级技术。尽管由于OTA升级对汽车硬件过高，不同系统和动力驱动版本的适配都各不相同，OTA对大部分传统车企都具有极大的难度，但是别克、大众为首的传统车企正在积极部署OTA升级，也证明了对于有技术积累和资源实力的厂商而言，并不是无法实现的。

目前阶段的OTA升级技术和新能源汽车一样，仍处于培育市场的阶段，但并不意味着OTA升级不能够成为一条独立的赛道，以额外附加服务的名义进行研发和经营。从天眼查的OTA升级相关搜索中，能够发现已经有154家从事相关业务的公司，而且不小一部分企业都有着多年的积累。

特斯拉在去年推出了提升车辆加速能力的OTA付费升级服务，定价14100元人民币，而后又上架了解锁座椅加热和方向盘加热的可选OTA升级付费包。与之类似的，许多车企也都在逐步推动OTA升级付费，就好比吉利星越L(配置|询价)混动车型的2750元付费升级包、大众ID系列或于未来上线的付费选项等等。

对于未来汽车领域竞争的核心因素，车主用户体验也是重要的一环，这些付费服务不仅可以有效提升用户体验，在增强用户粘性的同时，也能够为厂商带来额外的稳定收益。现阶段大行其道，且兼具燃油车和电动车优势，也汇集了二者缺陷的混合动力汽车，或许对能够显著提升性能和体验的OTA升级付费选项，有着更大的需求。

总的来讲，哪怕现在整车OTA升级更多起到的是噱头的宣传作用，但基于汽车逐渐趋于软件产品化，OTA升级已然隐约呈现出成为主流的态势。只要能够克服目前阶段的种种不足，必将成为再如何增加投入都不为过的潜力股。

Since November 2021, as if it was an appointment in advance, major domestic and foreign car companies have launched OTA upgrades for in-vehicle system update plans. Last year, it was only the patented OTA upgrade of Tesla and individual new energy vehicle companies. It has become a new wealth code to stimulate sales.

Among them, there are domestic car companies such as Dongfeng Junfeng, Geely, Beijing Automobile, and Trumpchi, as well as joint venture car brands such as SAIC-GM and FAW-Volkswagen. Recently, the old traditional car company Buick announced that it will launch an OTA upgrade plan covering 14 models, and the ID. family, the flagship series of Volkswagen’s transformation of new energy vehicles, also announced the news that the OTA upgrade will be implemented next year.

Car companies that have already provided OTA upgrade services for vehicles, such as Tesla, Ideal, Xiaopeng, Weilai and other brands, are also expanding and adding models that can be equipped with OTA upgrades on the original basis. For a while, the OTA upgrade of the whole vehicle seems to be the standard for new energy vehicles. Without this link, it seems that the value will drop several grades.

However, although OTA upgrade has already accumulated mature technology in the field of mobile phones, at the automotive system level, it has gradually entered the public eye due to the explosion of Tesla in the past two years. Even many people in the industry know about OTA. very little. Is such a temporary superficial frenzy just a false proposition?

Connect with IOT to pave the way for the next stage of autonomous driving

OTA upgrade can also be called space download technology. It was first applied to the online update function of mobile phone systems. It belongs to the iterative technology of flashing with the help of ROM firmware in traditional update methods. Nowadays, the update of mobile platform operating systems such as Android and IOS is also using this technology.

In 2000, some overseas car companies began to try to apply OTA upgrade technology to the automotive field, but this technology was also called T-BOX at that time, and its functions were limited to basic functions such as remote start, car lock, and road assistance. Then, with the development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of the mobile Internet system, OTA upgrades have really begun to be used for in-vehicle system updates.

Among them, the early OTA upgrade acts on the fuel vehicle platform, and mainly realizes the vehicle-machine system with partial entertainment functions, such as music player, navigation, CarPlay and other software. This type of technology, which focuses on in-vehicle software updates and upgrades, is also known as SOTA.

Nowadays, the vehicle OTA upgrade technology, which is sought after by major car manufacturers, is a firmware upgrade for the electrified architecture of the vehicle. It can continuously optimize the performance, driving experience, and energy consumption of the vehicle through program updates. This technology is called FOTA, and it was first applied to new energy vehicles. It was the first time Tesla launched the Model S (Configuration | Inquiry) in 2012 with the OTA air upgrade.

The earliest contact with Chinese Tesla owners was probably the V5.9 in-vehicle system that began to be updated for free in 2014. In subsequent updates, voice navigation services, automatic cruise, anti-collision and reversing assistance, automatic emergency braking, etc. have been implemented in turn. A feature that was extremely advanced at the time.

What really made everyone pay attention to the OTA upgrade of the whole vehicle is that in 2019, Tesla CEO Musk announced that he would add 50 horsepower and 12km of cruising range to the Model S out of thin air in the OTA update. The size of horsepower may only be suitable for some consumer groups with racing needs, but the increase in cruising range can directly alleviate the mileage anxiety of all new energy vehicle owners.

In addition, most of the current vehicle OTA upgrades are remotely controlled through mobile APPs, which has become a further extension of IoT-related application scenarios. In addition to the establishment of an independent closed-loop ecosystem under the IOT framework, the innovation of interaction methods brought by new energy smart vehicles has created a market demand for smart cockpits, which is inseparable from the support of OTA upgrade technology.

At the same time, in the OTA upgrade plans of the whole vehicle that some new energy vehicle companies have announced, there are many mass production functions related to automatic driving, such as navigation-assisted driving, one-key parking, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise, etc. It is not difficult to see that, in addition to being optimistic about the vehicle OTA upgrade business, the main purpose of major car companies is to pave the way for the next stage of autonomous driving scenarios.

At this stage, autonomous driving scenarios at home and abroad are being continuously laid, and related businesses such as unmanned distribution, unmanned taxis, and unmanned railways are already in the stage of being implemented. Through the OTA upgrade of the whole vehicle, you can make your own car products adaptable in advance. Equipped with the latest autonomous driving technology, it can seize the system advantage before the new changes in the industry environment.

Although the empowerment brought by technological advantages is obvious, the current stage of vehicle OTA upgrade is still in a relatively early stage, and there are additional risks that cannot be ignored.

There are many bugs, and OTA upgrades violate privacy?

The reason why car companies are rushing for OTA upgrades of complete vehicles is mainly based on the general trend of the continuous transformation of the automotive industry to artificial intelligence. In this industry environment, software-defined cars are gradually becoming a general consensus in the industry.

As a means of transportation, automobiles have always maintained the characteristics of being driven by power sources since their birth. In the era of steam power, machinery defines automobiles; in the electrical era, internal combustion engines define automobiles; in the information era, electronic parts define automobiles; in today’s new energy era, motors begin to replace engines, and software systems loaded with artificial intelligence have become a new definition. .

It can even be said that todays cars are already moving in the direction of software products. What determines the core competitiveness of future cars is no longer horsepower, mechanical performance, appearance and interior decoration, but the high intelligence of the entire vehicle system.

The highly intelligent vehicle system naturally also means that the number of software codes continues to rise. Especially for the high-end technological attributes of new energy vehicles, most high-end models have about 100 controller nodes, and the code size of the entire vehicle system exceeds 100 million lines.

In comparison, WeChat has about 500,000 lines of code; Android phones have about 12 million lines of operating system code; and Facebook, the worlds largest social media, has only about 62 million lines of code.

The huge number of codes means that there must be more bugs in the whole vehicle system, not to mention that Tesla’s reputation has plummeted this year due to negative information such as “pedal unresponsiveness”, “vehicle stall error report”, and “power lock”. Energy vehicles Xiaopeng, Weilai, and Ideal are also plagued by frequent bugs.

Although the OTA upgrade of the whole vehicle can fix bugs and solve the fault through timely and effective updates, but the car is different from other electronic products, the development and maintenance of the whole vehicle firmware program is extremely difficult, and it is difficult to completely avoid the software risk problem. In the road environment, any program bug may cause a direct life-threatening failure. Therefore, there are still many unsafe factors in the current OTA upgrade.

Moreover, under the current electronic architecture, the OTA upgrade time of electric vehicles is relatively long. In addition, when updating, it will enter the state where it must be shut down and restarted, just like the mobile computer. Update the OTA upgrade at the wrong place, causing the vehicle to stay on the road for a long time, which will cause serious traffic jams.

This directly exposes that the OTA upgrade technology of some manufacturers is not mature enough, and they have not done a fool-proof design to deal with the damage caused by the users operation error.

In addition to the OTA upgrade itself, highly intelligent automotive products are still inseparable from the framework of Internet traffic logic in the final analysis, and the core driving force of product design and update iteration is still big data. In order to perform more matching OTA upgrades and updates, software developers must master enough vehicle data and information, a large part of which may involve the personal privacy of car owners, and it is also a problem that cannot be solved in a short time.

Of course, all the existing defects will be solved with the application and development of related technologies. The high convenience and user experience of vehicle OTA upgrade, as well as the advantages of greatly reducing vehicle recall costs, still have great advantages. Market potential. Just from the perspective of policy and market environment, it will take a long time for it to be truly implemented.

OTA landed, unable to abandon fuel vehicles

Recently, as Shaanxi, Guangdong, Henan and other domestic provinces and cities have successively introduced policies and plans to support the development of the new energy vehicle industry, and the recent 14 consecutive rises in oil prices, the sales of new energy vehicles ushered in a new round. rise. At the same time, the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles has reached a level of 13% as of the second half of this year.

Its just that although from the data point of view, the new energy vehicle market has embarked on a rapid growth path, and it may not be long before fuel vehicles can be completely replaced. But in fact, these data are based on the environment of out-of-control international epidemic, chip shortage, battery shortage, etc., the overall production and sales volume of the automotive industry is showing a state of continuous shrinking.

Moreover, in August this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a management opinion on intelligent networked vehicles, requiring that manufacturers cannot add or update autonomous driving functions for cars through online software updates without approval. The scene purely built by new energy vehicles and driverless technology is likely to have a very long way to go before it actually hits the ground.

Therefore, despite the obvious growth in penetration rate and sales figures, the popularization of electric vehicles and the cultivation of the market environment still have a long way to go. For OTA upgrades that are not yet mature at the technical level and still need more market feedback and data support, perhaps the current stage is not the time to abandon traditional fuel vehicles.

High-tech new energy vehicles are of course the product platform most suitable for OTA upgrade technology, but it does not mean that traditional fuel vehicles cannot use FOTA core OTA technology.

For example, Geely Xingrui, Beijing Auto Rubiks Cube, Ford EVOS (configuration|inquiry) and other models are loaded with OTA upgrade technology on the basis of traditional fuel vehicles. Although OTA upgrades are too high for car hardware, and the adaptations of different systems and power-driven versions are different, OTA is extremely difficult for most traditional car companies, but traditional car companies led by Buick and Volkswagen are actively deploying OTA upgrade also proves that it is not impossible for manufacturers with technical accumulation and resource strength.

The current OTA upgrade technology, like new energy vehicles, is still in the stage of cultivating the market, but it does not mean that OTA upgrade cannot become an independent track for R&D and operation in the name of additional services. From the OTA upgrade related search of Tianyancha, it can be found that there are already 154 companies engaged in related businesses, and many of them have accumulated for many years.

Tesla launched an OTA paid upgrade service to improve vehicle acceleration last year, priced at 14,100 yuan, and then launched an optional OTA upgrade paid package that unlocks seat heating and steering wheel heating. Similarly, many car companies are gradually promoting OTA upgrade payment, such as the 2,750 yuan paid upgrade package for the Geely Xingyue L (configuration|inquiry) hybrid model, the Volkswagen ID series or the paid option to be launched in the future, etc. Wait.

For the core factor of future competition in the automotive field, the user experience of car owners is also an important part. These paid services can not only effectively improve the user experience, but also bring additional stable income to manufacturers while enhancing user stickiness. At this stage, it is very popular, and it has the advantages of both fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, but also brings together the two defects of hybrid vehicles. There may be a greater demand for OTA upgrade payment options that can significantly improve performance and experience.

In general, even though vehicle OTA upgrades are more of a gimmick now, based on the fact that cars are gradually becoming software products, OTA upgrades have vaguely shown a trend of becoming mainstream. As long as it can overcome the various deficiencies at the current stage, it will surely become a potential stock that can increase investment no matter how much.