I think they stopped doing the service center wifi thing. It used to be if you just parked in front of the service centers you'd get the update right away, so of course too many people were doing that.
Now you can just select the option to get the software update right away though.
Yep, I hide my 2nd phone with a power bank in the car sometimes just to provide an AP for the car to initiate a download (it's in a public garage with no public WiFi nearby).