Sunday morning, eight o’clock, you turn on the machine, look down at the screen, and see that message again: UPDATE INSTALLING. Yeah, yeah, do not turn off before install is complete. Don’t you just hate it? You might as well hang up your helmet and gloves and go back inside and play with your computer for a while.
Something wrong here? No, it’s just the vehicle recall notice of the future coming at you. Already, Zero Motorcycles has issued a recall for its 2012 and 2013 models that requires only the installation of a firmware update. And while owners are currently required to take their electric motorcycle to a dealership for this, the day will come, says Wired magazine, http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/01/zero-recall/
When updates to an electric motorcycle’s software are received wirelessly, just like they are in the majority of today’s personal computers.
Some Zero customers have experienced intermittent power failures with their bikes, and so the company updated its firmware, and the U.S. Transportation Department issued a recall notice. Wired even predicts that customers with broken-down bikes will call Zero from the side of the road, explain their problem, and have a solution wirelessly transmitted to them. Sounds pretty good, until hackers start producing viruses for motorcycles.