Automatic upgrade of a vehicle-based processor based on a physical component change

A system for upgrading a first component of a vehicle to a second component, comprising:

• an electronic control unit (ECU) disposed in the vehicle and having a non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory being employed to store instructions on the operation of the first component and the second component;
• and
• an upgradeable vehicle cockpit interface disposed in the vehicle and configured to load data onto the non-volatile memory, wherein
• the ECU is configured to detect that the first component has been replaced with the second component, wherein the second component comprises a vehicle add-on,
• and in response to the detection, the ECU is configured to determine whether the add-on is supported,
• and subsequent to the determination, the ECU is further configured to automatically instruct the upgradeable vehicle cockpit interface to rewrite the stored instructions to allow the ECU to interface with the second component, wherein rewriting the stored instructions comprises modifying the ECU to support the vehicle add-on,
• the first component and the second component being non-software physical hardware.