How/when Honda Clarity software updates happen / how to avoid them?

[DucRider]

That's a possibility; on the other hand -- other than the software update -- what could have possibly have been done to my car to make e.g. cruise control buttons literally behave differently as compared to what there was before? *And* changing minimum LKAS speed to 70 kph instead of 60 kph.

Btw, I tested, lane tracking is 'operational' after ~60 kph -- it will alert me if I'm about to leave the lane, it just won't let me toggle active lane keeping under 70kph (unlike before).

These behaviors are how the car was designed, is what is published in the manual, and consistent with the experience of others on the forum. If your car was behaving differently at some point, it was not functioning correctly and a reboot of the system likely brought it back to functioning as designed without any update or recall (even if not how you would prefer it to behave).

Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS)
Provides steering input to help keep the vehicle in the middle of a detected
lane and visual and tactile alerts if the vehicle is detected drifting out of its lane
while driving between 45–90 mph (72–145 km/h).
​

I doubt if it is possible to get it to malfunction in the same way it was, you'll likely have to adapt to it functioning as designed.

 

[Cash Traylor]

Calling all experts!

Ok, I want to ask the auto experts out there (ok, those here) with experience in the industry regarding warranties. I think it is applicable to this thread. I'm not talking about the Magnuson-Moss stuff. I mean where you need to show that you maintained your vehicle (even if you did your own oil changes etc) in accordance with the manufacturers guidance in order to your factory warranty to remain in force.

In my personal industry, where most of my expertise is, we get OEM Service Bulletins, Service Letters, Air Worthiness Directives (you can guess those are not optional by the name) etc. They come in flavors of OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, MANDATORY, and the occasional LIFE LIMITED CRITICAL (comply within 5 hours of issuance). The effect of or on warranty depends.... Some are from the stance of the work, the bulletin is covered under warranty. Some are issued where if you do not comply - your warranty is immediate forfeit as is the legality to fly the machine. So....

Our vehicle's have different requirements as do OEMs. To my knowledge, none of the these bulletins say anything about warranty other than if improperly applied, or applied by the owner that Honda will not reimburse costs or be "responsible" for compliance. If the NHTSA puts out a safety recall, the OEM has to make the repairs period. So there are obviously times when the OEM will be required to provide coverage for a failure by a regulating authority.

However, if you decide to not do a service update (as this thread is about), is there a time where the OEM can say, well we told you and you said no, so nothing on this "system" effected is covered under warranty. My "specific" example would be the EWV 18-090 bulletin. Where based on Honda's data and my anecdotal observations I can easily play devils advocate and see a situation where Honda could deny your HV Battery warranty if you never complied with that letter after it was documented you said no (at a dealer). I am not saying that will happen, but I can see where there is reasonable argument if your pack failed slightly early (15% prior to your end of warranty) the OEM could and would likely want to point to any valid reason to deny a claim. The warranty act mentioned above basically says they have to prove what you did or didn't do actually contributed or caused the failure. In the situation above (although you would have to also ignore a lot of dash warnings) that coolant valve error can be a reason for HV pack premature failure...

So, based on this - does anyone with industry experience (previous dealer, mechanic, insurance, service writer, end user effected, etc) think this is a valid concern?

I also I firmly believe that "user experience" improvements are not part of this concern. If you don't want to update the Driver Range Display, or the commercial charging hiccup patch, that is up to you as it only results in your owner experience changing - not a post manufacturing defect identification.

Cheers,

Cash

 

[JohnT]

That's a possibility; on the other hand -- other than the software update -- what could have possibly have been done to my car to make e.g. cruise control buttons literally behave differently as compared to what there was before? *And* changing minimum LKAS speed to 70 kph instead of 60 kph.

Btw, I tested, lane tracking is 'operational' after ~60 kph -- it will alert me if I'm about to leave the lane, it just won't let me toggle active lane keeping under 70kph (unlike before).

That would be one of those "who knows? " or its an error of the 5th kind.... Have you done the complete reset by pulling the 12V power off for 10 minutes? Things might change if you do that (range etc will reset to default and will take a while to settle down) . I did it once when the car was behaving a little strangely - don't remember what now - but it DID fix whatever ailed it then.

 

[Edd]

I thought updates is a grate idea? Should I not be doing as prescribd by car dealer?

Edd

 

[Solf]

I thought updates is a grate idea? Should I not be doing as prescribd by car dealer?

That's a deep philosophical question

For me, I feel strongly that an average software update (in general, not specific to cars) creates far more problems for me (via breaking or changing stuff that I'm actively usign) than it fixes.

However I do agree with the above posters that not installing an update may have reliability and/or safety consequences for a car.

At the same time I do feel strongly that whatever happened to my car is essentially 'cheating' and I assume it's 'against the law' -- I imagine they can't legally have a car behave in a certain way during a test drive / purchase and then silently 'make it worse' at some point after the purchase.

I am not sure though that I will be able to do anything about this though. Based on the feedback (thanks people!) I've received here and in the previous topic -- it does seem likely that no actual software update was done on my car (or at the very least it wasn't something 'very visible' as e.g. on that recalls page).

I have no idea what actually happened to make my car worse and I have no idea how I can reliably prove that it in fact happened -- so I'm not sure I can e.g. try suing dealership and/or Honda.