Fisker Ocean software comes with several version numbers that do not obviously relate to each other, which makes it hard to tell what your car is running or whether it is behind. Here is what each number refers to.
The short version
Your car does not run one piece of software. It runs a great many, and they are shipped in packages, with packages inside packages. That is the whole reason the numbers look confusing.
Marlin, currently version 1.0, is the name for a car running FiskerOS 2.2 or newer plus VCU24, PDU4000 and ADAS 3.1.1. FiskerOS 2.2 is itself a package, not a single program, and the other three are not extras bolted on beside it: VCU24 and PDU4000 are newer versions of software that 2.2 already contains in an older form.
So a car on Marlin 1.0 is a car on FiskerOS 2.2 or newer. Those are not competing numbers. One describes the car as a whole, the other one layer of it.
FiskerOS
This is the one people get wrong most often. FiskerOS is not the software behind the touchscreen.
It is a package of updates for the car’s ECUs - the electronic control units, the small computers that each run one part of the car. The motors, the battery, the screens, the systems you never think about: each has its own controller, and FiskerOS 2.2 carries the updates for them.
So when someone says a car “is on 2.2”, they are describing the state of the whole car, not the version of its infotainment. It is a much bigger statement than it sounds like.
You may also come across 2.2.2. That is not a version newer than 2.2. It is a 2.2 install that did not finish, which is why it sorts oddly beside the others. A car on 2.2.2 still qualifies for the Marlin components.
VCU24 and PDU4000
FiskerOS 2.2 already carries software for both of these control units. VCU24 and PDU4000 are simply newer versions of it, installed on top of an operating system the car already has.
- VCU is the vehicle control unit - the software coordinating how the car actually drives
- PDU is the power distribution unit - the software managing how power moves around the car
You will not notice these the way you notice a new menu layout. They are the part of an update that changes behaviour rather than appearance.
What you get from them, in plain terms, is stability and efficiency. The car behaves more predictably, and it makes better use of the energy it has. Neither arrives as a new button anywhere, which is exactly why these two are easy to undervalue.
ADAS
ADAS is the driver assistance software: the systems that watch the road and intervene or warn. Version 3.1.1 is what ships inside Marlin 1.0.
Because assistance systems are the ones that act on the car while you are driving it, this is the component where the difference between versions is most worth knowing about.
Whatever driver assistance software your car is running today, ADAS 3.1.1 is newer than it. It is one of the parts of Marlin that comes with an FOA membership.
What changes in practice is the nagging. Fewer false alarms, and fewer alarms that repeat after you have already acknowledged them. Anyone who has been warned three times about the same thing will know why that is worth having. 3.1.1 also brings something the car did not do before at all: automatic high beams.
What a membership changes
This is where the version numbers stop being trivia. Without an FOA membership you can have FiskerOS 2.2 installed by a workshop, and you keep the older VCU and PDU software that comes inside it.
With a membership, an Advanced Installer brings those two up to VCU24 and PDU4000 and adds ADAS 3.1.1. That is a separate step on top of the operating system, and your car qualifies for it on FiskerOS 2.2, 2.2.2, 2.5 or 2.6.
Why the numbers do not line up
The confusion is structural, not anybody's fault. Marlin is a bundle with its own version number, and the things inside it keep the version numbers they already had. Marlin 1.0 being "lower" than FiskerOS 2.2 does not mean it is older or behind. They are counting different things.
A useful habit: when someone asks what your car is running, say both. "Marlin 1.0, so FiskerOS 2.2" answers the question in a way nobody can misread.
How to find out what your car is running
The car reports its own software version on screen, in the vehicle settings. That gives you the headline number.
The fuller answer comes from OceanLink Pro, which reads an ECU version report out of the car: a list of what every control unit is running, rather than one number standing in for all of them. That is the report to look at when you want to know exactly where your car stands, or when the headline number is not what you expected.
Reading it takes a key. Owners have mapped which ECU versions belong to which operating system version in a thread in the FOA community. You will need to be signed in to open it.
If the number you find is not one described here, the association's community is the place to ask. Owners there have seen most combinations and can tell you what you are looking at.
What to do if you are behind
Updating is not automatic and does not happen over the air. Somebody has to connect a tool to the car. How to get the Marlin update covers who can do that, what it involves and how to arrange it.
Which route you need depends on where you are starting. Below FiskerOS 2.2, the first step is a workshop with a SURF tool to put the operating system on. From 2.2, 2.2.2, 2.5 or 2.6, the operating system is already sorted and what remains is an Advanced Installer adding VCU24, PDU4000 and ADAS 3.1.1. Two different appointments, two different people, and only the second one depends on your membership.