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Originally Posted by motrek
I don't think it's a question of cost....It clearly suffers from a design flaw that could probably be fixed pretty easily with a firmware update, if only they would get off their asses and put a little effort into correcting their mistakes. (Or they could make the firmware open-source and other people, like me, could correct it for them!)
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If Clarion is contracted out to provide Subaru HUs, they agreed to a spec and price. Unless updates were written into that contract, Clarion doesn't have to do squat to make their units/HUs perform better as long as all contract obligations were met in the design.
I think this issue is rampant through the auto industry, from a technology standpoint, not including Tesla who sends vehicle updates over the air.
Imagine your car HU/Infotainment getting as many updates as your phone over the first 3 years of its life. The downside is you would be at the dealer every 6 months, which can be good or bad, depending on how you accept it.
Very few manufacturers offer post sales support on infotainment systems. You are stuck with the factory design shortcomings until you decide to change the HU itself or the manufacturer is forced to make a firmware update on newly released cars and makes the update available for cars already sold with similar equipment.
Mazda, as of recently, is guilty of this with their MazdaConnect system offering firmware update #59.X from #55.X or #57.X on certain HUs that administer a certain fault or performance problem, assuming the car comes back to the Mazda dealer.
Personally, offering updates to already sold cars is a great way to get people back into the dealer and establish a rapport with the customer, whether they are the original owner or the 2nd/3rd owner. And service after the sale, sells cars as much as the new car itself. Too bad this logic is lost in the current automotive environment.
Manufacturers are required to have parts available 10 years after a car's production, but the same thing isn't true for updates to the software inside.
hope the work arounds remain positive.