Over The Air Updates

[abhishek.balaji]

A patch update (4.1.2) is being released to all vehicles tonight. It contains fixes to a bug introduced by the previous update (4.1.1).

For more information on scheduling and installing updates, refer to this post:

How to Download and Install an OTA update?

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @Ather_Owner,

We’re rolling out a patch update OTA (4.1.3) soon to all vehicles. It contains some improvements and bug fixes. This will be rolled out over the next few weeks.

For more information on scheduling and installing updates, refer to this post:

How to Download and Install an OTA update?

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @Ather_Owner

There’s a new App update coming your way! This addresses a bug where your scooter’s location would be displayed incorrectly. It also has fixes and improvements under the hood, and should make your experience smoother.

We’re releasing this as a Beta first. If you don’t want the beta version, you can wait a few more days for the full release.

Android

To get the beta version of an app you have to have the public version installed. Sign up here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.athermobileapp or using the instructions below:

1. Open the Google Play Store .
2. Search for the Ather app and go to the app detail page.
3. Look to see if the app detail page mentions a beta version. Make sure you scroll down as this information could be at the bottom of the page.
4. If it’s available, tap Join

iOS

If you’re on iOS, you can sign up for our Testflight beta here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/9KP9GCQC

1. Download the Testflight app first, then click on the link above to enroll for the beta.
2. Download the app through Testflight and login with your Ather credentials.

If you experience any bugs or issues when using the beta version, report it in this thread on the forum: https://forum.atherenergy.com/t/ather-app-beta-program/5631

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @Ather_Owner,

Over the next few weeks, your vehicle will receive 2 over-the-air updates 4.1.4 and 4.1.5 (tentatively), that aim to fix issues with the powertrain as experienced by some customers. We will release 4.1.4 to vehicles in batches. This update will reduce the number of instances of the vehicle going into low power mode and carry some bug fixes.

For more information on scheduling and installing updates, refer to this post:

How to Download and Install an OTA update?

---

Why are you releasing it in batches?

This is a bug fix update with 2 objectives -

1. resolving issues experienced in affected vehicles, and

2. preventing possible occurrences of these issues in currently unaffected vehicles. We will release this update to affected vehicles first, monitor its effects and then release it to all other vehicles.

What is a low power mode? When will this get activated? How long will this last?

The low power mode is a safety mode that will get activated when there are any issues detected in your scooter. When this happens, there’s a warning displayed on the screen & the performance of the motor will gradually be reduced to ensure the safety of the vehicle and the user. Also, the rider may be asked to turn the key off and on to reset and check if the error still occurs. If it does, the customer may get in touch with Customer Support for assistance.

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @Ather_Owner,

We’ve released an update to the Ather App, with some new features and bug fixes. It will be available on iOS and Android today. Here’s what’s new:

In-app reminder about periodic servicing

If your Ather 450 is due for periodic servicing (every 5000km), you’ll see a notification in the support tab of the Ather App.

Reminders to charge the Ather 450

If your Ather 450’s charge level is low at the end of the day and it’s not plugged in yet, you’ll get a push notification reminding you to plug-in, so it’s ready for your daily commute while you snooze.

Note: To avoid unnecessary notifications during the lockdown, we’re pausing charging reminders till 1 April.

Set notification preferences in-app

Set notification preferences in-app under the settings tab, instead of using your phone settings.

Bug fixes

• Shows ride statistics older than 45 days
• Back button now works as expected after scrolling to the last ride statistics entry
• The app will no longer be stuck on the loading screen when launched

Thank you to all the beta testers and others who shared feedback and reported bugs!

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey folks,

Some of you have been experiencing an issue with the mobile app where pushing location to the scooter doesn’t work. We’ll release an update shortly to the Ather app for iOS and Android (3.3.0) that fixes this bug.

Do update the app on your phone to the latest version

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey folks,

We’re rolling out some notifications on the Ather App! Now you’ll get alerted when your vehicle’s charge is low, and when charging has completed.

Low charge notifications

Get notified when your vehicle charge is below 40% at 9 PM. Low charge notifications will ensure you don’t forget to plug your scooter in at night for a hassle free commute the next day.

100% charged notifications

While it is recommended and safe to leave your vehicle charging overnight, a lot of you have been asking for a notification when charging is complete, whether you want to just unplug your scooter at home or get notified when you’re using an Ather Grid point. Now, you’ll get a notification on the Ather App when your vehicle charge is 100%

You’ll start getting these notifications over the next few weeks as it gets rolled out to all users in a phased manner. No App or OTA update necessary, but do make sure you have the latest version of the App installed (3.3.0).

@abhishek.balaji

Hey @Ather_Owner,

We’ve released an update to the Ather App, with some new features and bug fixes. It will be available on iOS and Android today. Here’s what’s new:

In-app reminder about periodic servicing

If your Ather 450 is due for periodic servicing (every 5000km), you’ll see a notification in the support tab of the Ather App.

Reminders to charge the Ather 450

If your Ather 450’s charge level is low at the end of the day and it’s not plugged in yet, you’ll get a push notification reminding you to plug-in, so it’s ready for your daily commute while you snooze.

Note: To avoid unnecessary notifications during the lockdown, we’re pausing charging reminders till 1 April.

Set notification preferences in-app

Set notification preferences in-app under the settings tab, instead of using your phone settings.

Bug fixes

• Shows ride statistics older than 45 days
• Back button now works as expected after scrolling to the last ride statistics entry
• The app will no longer be stuck on the loading screen when launched

Thank you to all the beta testers and others who shared feedback and reported bugs!

[abhishek.balaji]

The much awaited Dark Theme is here

Hey @Ather_Owner ,

We’re excited to roll out the next OTA update for your Ather 450. A lot of owners have been annoyed by the brightness of the dashboard while riding at night. The much awaited “Dark Theme” is being rolled out as part of the this update (4.2.0). We’ll be deploying this update in stages, so you’ll receive this update over the next few days.

What’s new?

Dark theme

The dark theme reduces the white light from the dashboard and makes it easy on your eyes when riding at night, allowing you to experience a more comfortable, distraction-free ride.

As a bonus feature, we’re also introducing automatic toggle between the light and dark mode. Set your theme to “Auto” and the dashboard will be in light mode between 6AM to 6PM, and in dark mode from 6PM to 6AM.

Ride mode persistence

The ride mode you were last using before shutting down or restarting the scooter will be remembered automatically when you boot up.

More responsiveness

We’ve improved the keyboard as well, so now you’ll have a better experience when typing in your destination to use the onboard navigation.

Bug fixes

We’ve squashed a few bugs in this update as well:

• Fixes for incorrect location being displayed. No more cross-country tours for your Ather 450 when parked.
• Unresponsive dashboard in a few unique cases
• Critical bug fixes through a motor firmware update.

For this update, we also had a handful of Ather owners experience the feature searly to share their feedback. See what they like about the new Dark theme here: https://forum.atherenergy.com/t/4-2-0-ota-early-users-start-here/

@yunuswillbe

Kudos to the team for the Dark mode. It is lit .

@hemanth.anand

Remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.

• P.C. Cast, Betrayed

No other quote could explain this update 4.2.0 better that the above. The bright dashboard was a pain in the xxx. The last word was not something that was beeped, I just wrote it myself just to be different If you still didn’t get it…it is Eye. The bright dashboard was a pain for the eyes during night times and to a certain extent dangerous too. Finally we have the dark mode and it’s lovely to say the least. It was a nice coincidence that the scooter got an update on the 2nd anniversary of the day of booking.

The update download got delayed by a couple of days (read my previous post on thus topic) and due to other work I couldn’t check it immediately. Yesterday evening spent sometime and below is my experience…

I switched it on and the first screen I saw said “Completing…” with a progress bar below. Couple of minutes later I saw the message that the scooter is updated to 4.2.0.783437.

Updated

The scooter booted up and I heard the usual “tiding” sound. But for the first time ever, my scooter dashboard didn’t turn on. The headlights were on but the screen was blank. I was fearing this but wasn’t actually expecting that.

Blank!

Without panicking I turned off, removed the key and turned on again. This time there was no issue…phew!

I went into the settings screen immediately and saw the 3 new buttons Light, Dark and Auto. Light mode was on by default. Switched to Dark and in 1 second the white & green theme turned to Black and Blue theme. Nice…

Light mode

Dark mode is finally here!

Took the vehicle outside to see it in the ambient light. The screen was dull and readabillity was a little too low for my liking. When I increased the brightness to almost full, it was perfect. But then I realized that during night times or in basements or if I switch back to Light mode, the LCD screen will still be too bright and dazzling at this level. Tried Autobrightness but it was (it has always been) a little too high for me.

A little too dull

Ok for outside, but too bright for night time

Although I’d have loved to use the dark mode all the time, I realised soon that in order to have the best readability/visibility and still not be dazzled by the screen, it would be best to switch to Auto mode with my preferred level of brightness.

Auto mode and preferred brightness level

Since there is no ALS, the Auto mode will apply ths dark mode from 6PM to 6AM and the Light mode from 6AM to 6PM.

Ather dashboard Auto mode

Auto mode in action

I then changed over to the navigation screen. The map screen too looks really nice in dark mode. The touchscreen panning is now really smooth.

I called my friend who also has an Ather and I wanted to show (off) him this new update and make a comparison. So I started to search for his apartment address on the navigation screen and when I selected the address from the search result, it said Connectivity issues: cannot look up . Even after repeating the search operation, I got the same error message even though there was full signal strength

Connectivity issues:cannot look up

Ather navigation connectivity issue

Connectivity issues

However, I searched the same location on the Ather app and pushed it to the scooter and it worked like a charm and immediately appearing on the scooter too.

Typing on the touchscreen has improved a lot without a doubt but it is still far away from being good…many keys are not easily recognized and need a real hard tap.

I rode to my friend’s home which is around 3kms. During the ride I noticed that my indicators were cutting off neatly…don’t know if anything was done here, but it worked perfectly. Also I noticeable was the red halo on the black dash looked stunning. I also felt that the red halo appears slower/later than it used to earlier.

Once I reached my friend’s home, we kept both scooters side by side and started comparing.

Black and white

We tested the mode retention feature…I shut down the scooter in sports mode and after restart, it stayed in sports mode. My friend’s scooter which had the previous version still, went to eco mode after shutting down in sports mode.

Ather 450 mode retention

Mode retention

Next I told his that it didn’t look up his home address. We tried to recreate the bug. I searched for my office address and it did so seamlessly. Then we tried to look up Ather space and the bug came back. This time the difference was that it didn’t show any error message but simply failed to complete the search and start navigation.

Ather navigation search issue

Can’t search Atherspace!

After having checked the major changes in this update, I headed back home.

To summarize: The dark mode is a major milestone in the dashboard experience and looks beautiful. Mode retention is another good thing. But still there are minor bugs which I’m sure will be addressed soon.

Humans are generally not satisfied and Ather customers are one level higher. Of the many things, in the immediate future I want 1.the light/dark mode in the app to sync with that of the scooter and 2. I want the ability to view range in different modes. Ironing out all the bugs needs no special mention of course.

@bharu1905

I use Dark mode all through out the day, Have not faces any issues or noticed any serious bugs. Just one small observation is that, When starting the bike, The welcome screen feels so laggy. It would take it’s sweet time to load. Some times, the motor on sound will also not come. But the Bike state, is Motor ON. This is what I have noticed. All other features work just great.

@AnaghDeshpande

Finally Ather welcomes us to the dark side. I am not sure how many were excited about this update. But as soon as I updated, I just couldn’t stop staring at the UI. Dark mode is very close to my heart. I use it almost everywhere. On my phone, PC, tablet and wherever I can

I must say that it is a great move. A much awaited update. It reminded me of the 450X dashboard which I was fortunate to see it myself in Delhi. @Ather.Team just wanted to thank you guys again for this! I was staring at it asking myself when will we see this on our mighty Ather. It took a while. And it was totally worth it. The Auto theme works perfectly. 6 am to 6 pm light theme. 6 pm to 6 am dark theme. I hadn’t expected this to be included in update. But I would like to thank Ather team for including this. I have even set my phone settings to the same 6 to 6 cycle. In my opinion that is the best way to use the dark mode. Ideally, dark mode isn’t meant to use during the day. Even though it looks much better than the light mode, its meant to reduce the brightness and make it pleasant to see when the sun goes down.

Bonus update - Last Used mode. Its something we wanted (silently)

Overall it is a fantastic update. A major update which we all wanted. I haven’t encountered any bugs till date.

@hemanth.anand Saaar you put out the best posts out here! I think you have included all the quirks and features of the latest update!

Once again I would like to thank the Team for coming up with this major update. My Ather feels super new and fresh on the Dark Side!

Looking forward to seeing more updates in the future. I guess the developers can take some time off for a while They have really exceeded my expectations. Kudos to you guys!

Cheers!

@rajeshkav

My review comments on 4.2.0

1. Finally, Dark Theme is here. Great and really welcome move. For me it used to be a pain to drive at night with Light mode.

• It really looks gorgeous.
• Having Auto mode is even better. I liked it.
• I have no problems with the efficiency indicator in Dark Mode. However, I do agree that it is not that easy as Light mode.

2. Thanks for the Last Used mode. Good update.

Looking forward to seeing more useful updates in the future.

@prasathvishnu

Sorry for the delay in sharing my feedback… For the most part, I reflect the thoughts of others’ feedback. Most effective OTA since long time…

My observations:

1. Dark Mode - Without a doubt, this is long due and most welcome feature. The benefits of dark mode at night time has been shared by many and I agree too. To my surprise, in the bright day light, the visibility of important details like speed, time, battery % is much better than Light Mode.

Even map looks brilliant with the dark mode enabled. Yet to ride much with navigation ON. Will share more observations later.

2. Real Time Efficiency: As couple of others mentioned, the real time efficiency hue is very difficult to see… able to spot only when the efficiency is very poor the hue circle becomes big red…

I assume with black background, it is difficult to show this without much intrusion… But, a subtle change should make it better and usable.

3. Mode Retention - Persisting the last used mode is a simple but very useful addition.
4. Navigation Keyboard - The keyboard lag has improved a lot. Earlier, you have to do Pranayama before typing each key to avoid jumbled words. Now, you can type-in keys much faster.

Yes, now the keys looks smaller. Can it be made little bigger to avoid typo errors?

In the map, there is still there is overall lag… For e.g. when u touch a key, that key gets highlighted in blue, but there is noticeable delay from when u press and when it appears… Basically an useful feature becomes irrelevant…

Another e.g. When you switch between the tabs in Navigation (Recent Places, Favourites, Charging Points), there is lot of delay… But, when you keep using it for few mins, the lag reduces… Not sure, if any caching helped in repeated usage.

[subramanian.g (Subbu)]

Hey @Ather_Owner,

We’ve released the Android version of our next app update v3.3.3 to Play Store. Here’s what the update carries:

• In-app reminder notification for Ather One renewal
• Back-end changes and bug fixes.

In addition, the iOS version will have a provision for sign-in with an Apple ID, as mandated by Apple. Since this is currently being tested, we’ll release the iOS version to App Store in a few days. Android users can update their Ather app now!

Update: iOS app version 3.3.3 has been rolled out. Do update to the latest version as soon as possible.

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey Ather Owner,

We are rolling out a patch OTA 4.2.2 for all scooters on the road, with bug fixes and improvements to optimise for slower networks. It’s being rolled out in batches and your scooter will automatically download and install it when plugged in overnight.

Here’s what’s changed:

• Tweaks to make onboard navigation smooth when using 2G networks
• Fix for navigation search issue
• Other bug fixes and improvements

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @Ather_Owner ,

We’re rolling out a new app update (3.5.4) for iOS and Android. We had released a version (3.5.2) to beta users a few weeks back, and we’ve fixed the bugs and issues reported hence.

What’s changed in this version:

New Forum tab

The forum is now a separate tab on the home screen of the app, to make it easier for owners to access the Ather Community from the app.

Share Google Maps Links to your scooter

One of our most requested features. When you get a Google Maps link on WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS or other apps, you can share the location directly to the Ather App.which can then be pushed to the vehicle to start navigation.

Navigation reminders

While most of us have been working from home, we might be getting back to work soon. And if you’re heading back to work, you’ll now get a prompt at 8AM and 5PM to remind you to push the location to your scooter for navigation.

And a bunch of bug fixes and improvements.

The update has been rolled out from our side, there might be a delay of a few hours, before you’re able to see on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

[subramanian.g (Subbu)]

Hey @Ather_Owner

We’ve just released a new Ather app update v 3.6.1 which will now allow you to share ride statistics from your app easily.

There’s been a lot of friendly competition in the community about statistics like high range projections, max speeds, or best efficiencies. Unfortunately, the only way to share those statistics with everyone was to take a screenshot, crop, and edit it to cover a specific section, remove location related info, and share it.

Considering how much we obsess about good user experience, we couldn’t leave this as it is. Hence, this new feature will let you share your ride statistics directly from the app in just 2 taps.

It’s now easier than ever for you to brag about your favorite ride statistics on social media (and when you do, make sure you use the hashtag #MyAtherRide to help us spot it.)

Note - This will be accessible to customers who’re currently on an Ather One subscription (& who will subscribe to Ather Connect Pro from when it’s available for purchase)

The update is now available on Play Store, and is under review on App Store & will be available shortly.

[subramanian.g (Subbu)]

We will be releasing OTA update 4.3.1.93X to Ather 450s over today and tomorrow. It carries a new feature to alert you when a theft / tow event is detected on your vehicle!

Here’s how it works

1. The algorithm uses on-board geospatial sensors to detect any theft/tow activity, i.e. when the vehicle has moved some distance without the key being on.
2. When this is detected, a push notification is triggered to your phone that reads “Movement detected on your vehicle”.
3. Tap on it to track the current location (provided Incognito has not been enabled) to aid your next course of action.

Note that your vehicle shouldn’t be shut down for this to work. Since the feature involves app-scooter sync, it’ll only be available for Ather Connect Pro subscribers.

In addition to this, we’ve also improved the ride statistics sync and fixed an issue where the vehicle wasn’t earlier getting charged right after an OTA update installation.

For more information on scheduling and installing updates, refer to this post: https://blog.atherenergy.com/how-to-download-and-install-an-ota-update-c3f087f4e877

An OTA update for Ather 450X is also coming up this week. We’ll update here when we release it.

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey @450-Owner,

We’ve started rolling out the next OTA update (4.4.0) for all 450 owners. This update will be rolled out in batches starting today.

New features:

• Unlock charger when the vehicle is charged up to 100% at Ather Grid locations. This should allow for much better sharing of Ather Grid points.

Improvements and fixes:

• Improved auto-cut off indicators
• Handles battery health-related changes

The update might take a few hours to download on your scooter, so expect it to be ready for installation in the next few days.

[abhishek.balaji]

Hey folks,

We’ve started rolling out the next patch update for all 450 owners. This update will be rolled out in batches starting today. The update carries a fix for the 4G upgrade module, optimizing the reconnection to the network. In addition, there are a few bug fixes and improvement to the motor fan algorithm.

The update might take a few hours to download on your scooter, so expect it to be ready for installation in the next few days. Keep the charger plugged in overnight once the update is downloaded, for the installation to happen automatically.

If the update doesn’t get downloaded within a few days, reach out to the service team to get the update installed manually.