After changing its mind about the buttons on its steering wheels, Volkswagen now wants to look into its touch screens. The brand wants to make them easier to use and more responsive with an update planned for the end of the year.
Today, touch screens are everywhere and almost all cars recently launched on the market are equipped with it. And there are plenty of different systems, from the simplest to the most advanced. But if these are practical and provide access to many features, they are not necessarily safe. A recent Swedish study shows that physical buttons would allow much safer driving.
A complex system
Especially that some embedded systems are rather complex, forcing the driver to take his eyes off the road for longer. This would also be the case of the one proposed by Volkswagen, named MIB3 and inaugurated on the ID.3 and Golf 8 that we recently had the opportunity to try on the Volkswagen ID electric van. buzz.
Widely criticized by customers for its lack of practicality, this system may not last long in the models of the German brand. Indeed, the managing director of Volkswagen, Thomas Schäfer, also a member of the board of directors of the eponymous group spoke about this during an interview with Car Magazine at the Los Angeles show.
And the latter admits that some mistakes were made in the development of this system. He claims to have heard the criticisms of customers, who complain in particular about the complexity of using the screen for certain basic tasks.
They also deplore the absence of backlighting of the capacitive keys located just below as well as the unresponsive side of the system in general. Constructive remarks that the brand will therefore take into account, as stated by Thomas Schäfer, who explains thatan update will be proposed by the end of the year to improve the experience of unhappy customers.
He then points out that the new software 3.0 is coming, while the improvements concerning the physical elements will come a little later, by 2024. In 18 months, Volkswagen plans to install a new hardware part, with a new processor. What increase the responsiveness of the system, at least, we hope.
In addition, Volkswagen will also change the steering wheels of its vehicles, while the brand recently admitted that the touch keys were ultimately not a good idea. A strategy that goes the opposite of Tesla, which for its part hunts for the slightest physical button in its interiors. It is the next Tiguan which will inaugurate this new strategy, starting next year.
Further testing
At this time, Volkswagen isn’t giving details on its upcoming infotainment system, only confirming that the capacitive keys below the screen will be nicely illuminated in the future. Thomas Schäfer also explains that this new device will be much faster and will offer more functionalities.
Remote OTA updates will also help resolve any issues more efficiently. But that’s not all. From now on, brand executives will test and evaluate each system proposal, using models. In addition, people completely outside the company will also participate in these tests. Ultimately, the goal is to design an infotainment system that is both complete and easy to use.
In particular, this should go through better prioritization of orders, while the ten most commonly used functions will be more easily accessible. The boss takes the opportunity to make his mea culpa, saying that “over the past few years we have unfortunately created some confusion in the car“.
The goal now is to simplify everything again, without going to extremes. This will undoubtedly pass through the resurgence of physical controls, always acclaimed by customers. At the risk, however, of increasing production costs, these buttons being more expensive than when all the functionalities are integrated into the touch screen.
No revolution at Volkswagen before 2030?
It will be recalled that the next major overhaul of the software part of Volkswagen electric cars is not expected before… 2030, with the Trinity project. This must come to revolutionize the Volkswagen range with a brand new platform. But it has taken a lot of delay, precisely because of the software part which is not yet developed.
We were able to try the Volkswagen ID. buzz. The famous combi is back in a 100% electric version, to eventually replace the Multivan. Does the Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a van, an electric car…
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