Why does Ford do automatic Over-The-Air upgrades?

Why incur costs of managing a software team which does all this?

Question: Why does Ford automatically upgrade the software of its pickup trucks? What justifies the costs of software expertise needed to manage all this?
Answer: Because the software upgrades lead to cost savings in their warranties.

Welcome to Costs Matter, a series that asks different questions all of which have the same answer: to better manage costs. The costs are frequently economic though not always. The series focuses narrowly on the impact of costs. It does not claim these costs are the sole cause. To read more in the series, visit https://medium.com/galileo-onwards/costs/home.

In a May 13, 2021 article in CNBC authored by Michael Wayland, Ford says a single Over-The-Air (OTA) update to its F-150 trucks’ batteries saved the company $20 million in warranty costs. The relevant excerpt is shown below:

Ford said it has already sent OTA updates to more than 100,000 F-150 pickups… customers since late March. An update to the F-150 for a battery drainage issue saved Ford more than $20 million in warranty costs, according to the company.

Ford offers a warranty on its batteries. If the batteries don’t last as long as their warranty’s promise, they’ll have to replace the batteries. And the cost of those replacements is, by their estimates, $20 million. The cost of their software department must be less than their warranty costs. Of course, I don’t know the cost of all their warranties combined. If their software systems give them a leg up in those costs, it’s justified. And going by the article, Ford expects these cost savings to pan out. They say they expect “OTA updates to save them and other automakers billions in warranty and recall costs”.

The article is available at https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/13/ford-plans-over-the-air-tech-upgrades-to-millions-of-cars-like-tesla.html.