Tong Family

Man having a Tesla vs having a Bolt, it really does feel like a Mac vs Windows. Normally with Tesla updates, you get an icon and a popup saying an update is available (I’m dying for 18.10.1 by the way for the new vision updates).
But if you have an early model Bolt, then over the air (OTA) updates were not enabled. So you have to go through a manual process to update. You can try to go to the Chevy dealer, but there are horror stories because you really need to find someone there who knows something about a Bolt.
So here are the steps that worked for me:

• There seem to be a few versions out there, 13.4.0 seems to be the version that was the original ship release. We got probably one of the first 10,000 bolts (ok more like first 2,000 but whose counting :-). They did an update to 14.1.0 which required a dealer visit because they don’t do things over the air.
• However with 14.4.0, someone posted the instructions and the update on megaload. YMMV, but what the heck, what’s the worst than can happen if you install bad firmware in your car 🙂 This is supposed to have. bug fixes and also Google Assistant for Android Auto.

So how do you get this update, well Chevy Bolt forums have instructions, but they are:

1. Download the 14.4.2 update
2. Unzip the file and you should see a 14.4.2 folder
3. Find a USB drive with at least 1GB of spare memory, the thing takes about 300MB
4. Format the USB drive to FAT-32 (you can do this on your Mac). I set the partition type to MBR, although that shouldn’t matter.
5. Copy the contents of the 14.4.2 folder to that drive. Note there should be a long funny file name and a directory with a bunch of .bin files
6. Now go to your Bolt. Make sure you have a full charge or are plugged in. It takes 12 minutes, so you need to make sure you have enough charge.
7. If you have setup Wifi connection, make sure to turn this off, otherwise the car will not search for a USB drive.
8. Power up the car. This is important because otherwise the car shuts down in accessory mode after 10 minutes (and that means the upload dies :0)
9. Now insert the USB key into the car slots. Make sure you unplug everything else
10. Press the hard Home key and then go to Settings, then scroll all the way down to Software Information and Software Update
11. It should then recognize your new version and ask if you want to upgrade.
12. Now wait for 12 minutes, leave the car powered up and in park.
13. It will then reboot and you should be set.
14. Android settings are reset so you need to repair and you can establish wifi communications too.

Wow that was easy!
Photo by Gary Sandoz on Unsplash