• Volkswagen says it make the necessary corrections to its new multimedia system.
• The company has acknowledged that mistakes were made during the design stages.
• As early as next year, consumers will be able to start seeing some of the fixes made, some via the airwaves.
The first criticisms were heard last year when the new Golf GTI and Golf R were introduced, as well as the reworked version of the Tiguan SUV. We're talking about the new multimedia system in Volkswagen products.
The system shows several weaknesses, which users wasted no time pointing out. There’s the issue of touch controls, which has been the subject of much discussion. On this subject, the company has already promised to bring back buttons as soon as possible. Then, the system's interface has also received its share of brickbats, namely because of its slowness and the questionable location of certain features.
With the new generation of the regular Golf, still offered in Europe, Volkswagen was forced to issue several recalls to solve various problems, even going so far as to postpone deliveries in Europe. Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer admitted that mistakes were made during the design stages.
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At the last Los Angeles Auto Show, while answering questions from Car Magazine, Schäfer said the company knows what it has to do to make the necessary corrections. In fact, version 3.0 of the software will be rolled out this winter via over-the-air updates. The CEO promises faster systems with more features.
New controls that are illuminated (radio volume, heating settings) will also be added next year.
Steering wheels with touch functions will also be removed, starting with the new Tiguan, which is scheduled for release next year.
Volkswagen is also working on improving the design of the user interface of its multimedia system. Users, chosen at random, are being asked to evaluate what is being done. This is a step in the right direction.
Thomas Schäfer promises that future Volkswagen vehicles will benefit from this strategy and that a uniform approach will be used across the model range.