Over-the-air updates just made this electric car way better – and yours could be next

Over-the-air software updates aren’t anything new – in fact, since smartphones became ubiquitous, almost all of us have carried a device with us, 24/7, that’s capable of receiving them. But did you know many new cars can also receive over-the-air updates?

Modern vehicles are becoming more and more like smartphones, after all. They feature big touchscreens, app stores, and usually a constant network connection – so it’s only natural that they should be able to receive updates just like a phone. The difference is that a car’s over-the-air update might not just add a new app or straighten out some security bug, it could fundamentally alter what your car’s like to live with.

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I’ve found as much this week, because I’ve been driving around in a Geely EX5. I was impressed with this budget-priced electric SUV when I drove it at the media launch back in November 2025, but I had a few criticisms – the main two being that there was no Android Auto, and that you had to do a lot of fiddling about in the onscreen menus to deactivate all the annoying safety aids.

Well, my original review needs an update now – because in six months, not only has Geely added Android Auto, but it’s introduced a Renault-style ‘my safety’ mode, which allows you to save a full drive profile and activate it with just two presses of a steering wheel button.

For me, these are transformative, and turn the EX5 from a decent car that was quite annoying to one that was genuinely painless to live with. It had me thinking of a long list of other updates I’d make to the car – from the ability to use the centre control dial for more functions, to a more informative homepage with widgets for weather, navigation and media. All small additions that would make life just a little easier.

The thing is, with electrified cars being so software driven under the skin, it’s not just the infotainment where over-the-air updates could make changes. The car’s performance or comfort could easily be tuned, maybe changing the engine’s acceleration curve, unlocking greater reserves of the battery pack or altering the settings of the regenerative braking.

We saw something similar during a particularly vicious set of California wildfires, where Tesla sent out an update to – temporarily – unlock the full potential of its cars battery packs, to aid in rapid evacuation.

That’s the good side of over-the-air updates: a car you already own being improved, refined and made less irritating without you having to visit a dealer or trade it in for the facelifted version. It makes buying a new car feel slightly less like a snapshot in time. Instead, there’s the possibility that the rough edges you notice on day one might be smoothed out months or years later.

But there’s a slightly murkier side to all this, too. Some manufacturers already have online stores that let you activate features after purchase, whether that’s adding adaptive headlights, unlocking extra driver assistance tech or turning on heated seats that were physically fitted to the car all along. On one hand, that’s convenient: buy a used BMW without a feature you want, and you may be able to add it from your driveway. On the other, it’s hard not to feel slightly short-changed if the hardware is already there and you’re simply paying to remove a software padlock.

Night drive in a 530e. Pressed the high beam assist button, but a message from the car essentially said "no, you need to buy the feature first on the ConnectedDrive store." BMW and Merc both keen to do this more in future, so this won't be the first time we'll see it… 💡💰 pic.twitter.com/hQzkwhP1Oe

— Jake Groves (@_jakegroves) March 24, 2021

And there’s always the possibility – conspiratorial though it may be – that your vehicle could simply be remotely turned off or ‘bricked’ without your knowledge or consent. Plenty of people worry about that.

That’s where car makers need to be careful. Updates that fix annoyances, improve usability, add smartphone mirroring or make safety systems easier to live with feel like genuine aftersales care. Updates that hide existing equipment behind a digital checkout risk making your car feel less like something you own and more like a rolling subscription service.

Still, the Geely EX5 shows just how powerful this technology can be when it’s used properly. In the space of a few months, the car I drove went from promising-but-flawed to far easier to recommend, all without a mechanical change. If that’s the future of car ownership, then I’m all for it – provided the updates are used to make our cars better, not just to find new ways of charging us for things they could already do.

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