I don't remember the brand(s) exactly --- don't think it was ASUS however --- but I do remember a few years ago of laptops which would automatically and silently download and install BIOS updates, and inevitably some of them would fail, leading to bricked machines.

IMHO the BIOS is not something that should ever change unless there's a very important reason to, and even then it should be on the explicit action and consent of the user, because of the risks of ending up with a completely non-working machine. UEFI is a whole new mess, but I think the same principle applies.