[Eli5] How can software updates in Electric Vehicles “unlock” more range. Isn’t range something that should be determined by the efficiency of the hardware?

Question

[Eli5] How can software updates in Electric Vehicles “unlock” more range. Isn’t range something that should be determined by the efficiency of the hardware?

In: 7

Answer 1

Updates can make your car work better which could increase your range. Basically the software just gets better at controlling the hardware. Just like how a person that isn’t very good at using a knife might take 30 second to chop an onion and a chef could do that in 3 seconds. It’s not that the chef has super strong and fast muscles, they just know how to use a knife better.

There’s also the more devious version where the hardware can go a certain range but the software is preventing it from doing so. I don’t know what the underlying mechanism could be, might be stopping the battery from charging past a certain percent.