they did not check if the vehicle was stationary, motor disabled before updating. They were all surprised at how I thought that this could possibly ever lead to issues.
My anecdata is that my car won't update its software without the owner explicitly requesting it. And then, it will only do it if the car has something like 50% charge, hasn't been used for an hour, and nobody is inside.
I once tried to do the update while I was inside, and it refused.
My BYD wants the battery over some percentage, the vehicle in park, and the hood closed. The hood one was surprising, I wonder if it's for the safety of the car or of anyone working on it.
Probably a safeguard to keep sonebody from unplugging something during the update.
I can't speak about other cars, but my EV has nothing you can unplug. It's not like a regular car where stuff is exposed.
All it has under the hood is a storage space for charging adapters, a first aid kit, and a cap for the windshield washer fluid.
Even accessing the regular 12V battery takes a bunch of time and tools. The manual states several times that it should never ever be used to jump start another car, though it doesn't explain why.
If a power failure during the upgrade causes some unrecoverable problem that is a serious design failure. The answer isn't "make power failures less likely" instead it's "make the update process robust to power failure". This kind of disconnected hubris--thinking you can just wish reality away--seems unique to software. Why are they allowed to get away with it?
My anecdata is that my car won't update its software without the owner explicitly requesting it. And then, it will only do it if the car has something like 50% charge, hasn't been used for an hour, and nobody is inside.
I once tried to do the update while I was inside, and it refused.