BYD Pushes Major OTA Update to Ocean 6-Series Vehicles — Sentry Mode Cloud Upload, HiCar Mirroring, and More
There is a quiet war happening inside the world’s best-selling EVs. While Western automakers are still figuring out how to deliver over-the-air updates that don’t brick the infotainment system, Chinese EV makers are shipping OTA packages that fundamentally change what a car can do after it’s been driven off the lot. BYD’s latest update for its Ocean Network 6-series vehicles is a case in point.
On Sunday evening, Zhang Zhuo, general manager of BYD’s Ocean Network sales division, announced the OTA rollout for the 6-series lineup. The update packs over 10 new features and 10 optimizations, spread across the Sealion 06, Seal 06 EV, Seal 06 GT with intelligent driving, and the Seal 06 DM-i Touring.
What’s new across the lineup
The biggest additions center on phone-car connectivity. HUAWEI HiCar now supports a mirror mode for HarmonyOS 6.0 and above, projecting a phone’s screen into a small window on the car’s display. ICCOA Carlink compatibility has been extended to Samsung phones running One UI 8.0 or later — a notable expansion given Samsung’s relatively small but growing presence in China’s auto accessory ecosystem. For OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi users, the update enables network sharing: the car can piggyback on the phone’s mobile data connection the moment they connect, no hotspot setup required.
Security and surveillance features get a meaningful upgrade too. The all-around dashcam now supports five viewing angles — preview, record, and playback. The sentry mode gains high-risk video upload, allowing owners to browse the last seven days of recorded events directly through the BYD app. A Wi-Fi quick-transfer option sends dashcam and sentry footage to a phone, and sentry videos can also be exported to local storage or USB drives from within the playback interface.
Driving assist improvements include a new emergency parking assist for highway and expressway environments: if the driver fails to hold the steering wheel for an extended period or multiple alerts are ignored, the car will automatically pull over, slow down, and stop. The steering wheel’s custom button can now be mapped to parking assist activation, and a distance-interval button reports driving-assist events on tap.
The default navigation system has been swapped to a customized version of Amap (AutoNavi), promising better routing stability and accuracy — though previously saved locations and routes will be reset. Other system-level changes include updated privacy permission logic, revised panoramic camera triggering behavior, and UI display tweaks.
Model-specific refinements
The Sealion 06 gets the longest list of exclusive improvements. The EV version adds a wiper-linked door function and optimized climate control. Both EV and DM-i variants see better DC fast-charging stability and drive smoothness, while the DM-i version gets improved engine start reliability. A new curve speeding alert toggle lets drivers decide whether they want audible warnings during sharp turns. There’s also a smarter lateral lane-change protection strategy and a delayed-exit mechanism for parking pause scenarios.
The Seal 06 EV focuses on refinement: improved power steering feel and better air conditioning comfort.
The Seal 06 GT (intelligent driving edition) adjusts the driver seat adjustment logic and improves standby power management to reduce unnecessary energy drain.
The Seal 06 DM-i Touring — BYD’s long-roof variant — also gets standby optimization aimed at cutting parasitic drain.
What ties all these updates together is a philosophy that’s becoming distinctly Chinese: the car is not a finished product the day it leaves the factory. In BYD’s model, the relationship with the customer begins at delivery, and software is how that relationship evolves. The 6-series Ocean Network vehicles will be receiving this OTA package over the coming days. Owners should check the BYD app for availability notifications.