[RahulNagaraj]

Thomas Schafer, the new CEO of Volkswagen, has admitted that the infotainment systems and touch-capacitive switchgear on some of its new models are off the mark. He also confirmed that the company is working to fix the issues over the course of the next 18 months.

Schafer told media outlets that in a rush to create these vehicles to be quick off the mark, the team had to come up with different ideas. However, after receiving multiple complaints & feedback, they now know what to do in order to fix the issues quickly.



Volkswagen rolled out its latest touch-first digital infrastructure called MIB3 on the latest ID electric models as well as the new Golf. However, the system soon received numerous negative reviews. Users found it laggy, with important functions buried in menus. One of the main criticisms was that the capacitive sliders were not illuminated, which created visibility issues during the night.

The Volkswagen boss confirmed that the company will soon roll out a new 3.0 software update, while hardware changes will come in early 2024. Schafer promised that the update would make the system faster, boast new features and have more frequent over-the-air updates.

The CEO also conceded that over the years, Volkswagen vehicles have been inconsistent by constantly moving essential switchgear around. However, this time, the top 10 functions used by customers will be put on the first level in hard buttons, then the next 20 and so on.

Schafer also announced that going forward, touch-capacitive switches on the steering wheel will be replaced by physical buttons. These new steering wheels will debut next year on the upcoming Tiguan.

Source: CarMagazine

Link to Team-BHP news

[lordrayden]

The first step in fixing a problem is admitting there is a problem. Credit to VW on the infotainment part at least .

Also, I'm glad companies are slowly realizing that "touch screens/buttons for everything" is something customers don't really like. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back in the next 5-10 years and we wont have dashboards machine gunned with touch surfaces like some cars today.

[GForceEnjoyer]

Good to see some sense prevailing. I guess VW didn't learn from Honda after the touch-interface debacle on the old Civic, but better late than never!

Those who bought the new generation VW products in the last couple of years really got the short end of the stick, with the god-awful interfaces, blatant cost-cutting and on top of all that, the niggles that come with new launches.

To this day, I find it perplexing that someone signed off multi-colour ambient lightning but didn't bother to illuminate the volume controls.

[chinmaypillay]

Maybe the public admission is to avoid another "Touchgate" like their Dieselgate :P

Better to admit and get started with the fix before it escalates, as today most of the functions are running on computers and gizmos.

[2000rpm]

Unfortunate to see the VAG group falling for the touch gimmick. Their touch + button interface was the best amongst all the infotainment systems in todays, touchscreen obsessed world.

[tracerspiff]

Hoping for the day Tata Motors will come out and agree that the infotainment system in the Harrier is still crap. :P

[tsi_niks1989]

Good to see VW acknowledging that their new infotainment systems, mostly in electric cars requires some major changes - both hardware and software. The infotainment in the 2.0 cars is one of the best one can get at that price point.

Similarly would want brands like Honda, Tata to update their infotainment systems as well as it is one of the important aspect a car should have. Honda infotainment system is a joke when it comes to user experience.