Volkswagen has announced sweeping changes to their suite of tech-driven safety features for the 2016 model year, making a vast array of options available on almost every model within its range.
The features, which are currently only available on the Touareg, will trickle down to a number of other models including the Beetle, CC, Jetta, Passat and Golf in all its flavors.
“Forward Collision Warning and Autonomous Emergency Braking (Front Assist); Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC); the Parking Steering Assistant (Park Assist); and an active Lane Departure Warning (Lane Assist) system” are all mentioned in the release sent out today by Volkswagen of America.
The changes are also part of a planned upgrade to infotainment systems in Volkswagen vehicles for 2016. The new infotainment system, dubbed MIB II, will bring with it an improved touchscreen display and USB ports to Volkswagen’s most popular models.
You can check out the full changes to Volkswagen’s safety features on their media portal.
Electrical goodies on a VAG product – what could possibly go wrong?
Enough with the electronic nannies already. People are already poor enough drivers as it stands. Hooray for enablement. Are they just going to chop out a number of sections from drivers education textbooks because the work is already done for you with electronic features? Eventually, there will be no rear view mirrors or side mirrors. They will simply become mounting points for cameras, because God forbid you should be aware of your surroundings and check your own damn mirror.
Well, to be fair, of the people I know whose cars have these driving aids, none of them uses it as a crutch for not paying attention. But, blind-spot monitoring, for example, is good for the rare time you switch lanes without checking your blind-spot thoroughly and there just *happens* to be a car there.
You make a fair point.
Once I drink my Metamucil and catch an episode of Perry Mason, my blood pressure should drop. Now, if I could just get those kids to stay off my lawn…
And so do you, because, on the other hand, lane keeping—for example—eems sort of unnecessary. Most of the time, a person can stay in his lane, and if he can’t, it’s because (a) he can’t drive the car, (b) he’s tired or inebriated, or (c) he can’t drive at all.
My thing, though, is less about the presence of these systems and more about how much they cost. You can expect Volkswagen to charge upward for $3,500 for the whole shebang, and that’s a pretty big chunk of change.
My own car is a 2015 Golf SportWagen TDI SEL. I have the Lighting Package and the DSG. The one option I left on the table was the Driver’s Assistance Package, which has Forward Collision Warning (will it actually stop the car before a collision? who knows) and Park Distance Control (which are parking sensors that I don’t need, especially because I already have a camera). I might have bought that package if it had included Adaptive Cruise Control, which is just nice on long drives…not so that you can stop paying attention.
I regularly see people who can’t stay in their lanes because they’re reading (or even watching video) on a smartphone or tablet. So I’m all in favor of these nannies. A lot of drivers couldn’t possibly be paying less attention to the road. I trust a computer to keep a vehicle in its lane a lot more than I trust most people I encounter on my commute to do so.
The whole package with all these features is like $1700 from the pricing I’ve seen. Considering the Driver’s Assistance Package on the 2015 models was $700 and basically just had parking sensors, it’s really not a bad deal at all.
@Kyree S. Williams
Let me tell you something, Mr. “I’m a 90-year-old-ignoramus-fart”.
In 31k miles and 2 year on my 2014 Mazada 6 due to “smart city braking” I’ve avoided kissing someone bumper twice. Once from 5mph and once from 10mph. The system stopped the car, which otherwise would be a bumper bender.
And one time, when I did have a bumper-bender it was in place of a trunk-bender of the car in front of me. I got distracted and came to senses when the forward-collision system alerted me about…. collision by loudly bipping. I hit the brakes (here comes the brake assist that applies full force when it senses panic application of a brake pedal) and only kissed a bumper of the car in front of me, instead of smashing into it at 25mph or so
We can discuss my driving skills, but that would be a different topic. But the bottom line is that “nannies” saved me from two accidents and reduced a severity of another one significantly.
It’s important to note that I was distracted not because I relied on nannies, but because of idiot-ism of looking at the phone in a stop and go (the two times “smart city braking” saved me, and being distracted by a police violently arresting a group of youngsters I was driving by, when hitting the stopped car in front of me
http://www.techhive.com/article/155984/worst_tech_predictions.html?page=2
@SatelliteView:
>Let me tell you something, Mr. “I’m a 90-year-old-ignoramus-fart”.
Based on that overly-defensive opening, methinks you are taking yourself a bit too seriously.
Relax. This is an automotive forum, not an automotive death match…
VW may be inspired as they have just passed Toyota for No 1 Globally. I would suspect they are going to be rolling out a lot electronic ” goodies” to keep the ball rolling.
I’m thinking these nannies could keep me driving well into my 90s!
@SatelliteView: You need to pay closer attention to driving. I’ve had close calls because I stared at something beside the road instead of paying attention to what was in front of me. That has taught me to limit my concentration to what’s important in avoiding accidents. When I’m driving, there are me, my car, the road and nearby traffic. My destination is a vague notion at the edge of my consciousness. Nothing else exists. When I have passengers, it’s not unusual for me to ask them to repeat what they just said because I was paying attention to driving, not to them.
I always mocked and pooh-poohed the blind spot monitoring until I had a Q5 loaner for a month this spring.
I often see people start a lane change and then suddenly swerve back, likely because they either weren’t paying attention or their eye caught a blind spot and didn’t think someone was next to them.
Park and lane assist are interesting, but I can do without. Blind spot warning, however – awesome stuff.That feature is worth its weight in gold, and I would argue, probably far more effective at reducing accidents and deaths than any backup camera ever will be.
Blind-spot monitoring would be a good idea, too. Currently, only the Touareg and refreshed 2015 Jetta offer it, IIRC.
Good; I won’t buy my next car without radar cruise control. Just need it to trickle down more to small cars. I think this tech has the potential of reducing stress for freeway driving.
Will never have another car without ACC. I’d like to see low-speed-follow more across the board.
My wife’s Odyssey has an alarm telling you when it thinks you should brake. Of course, it’s almost always wrong.
I have blind spot warning (flashing light only). I think it’s a good supplement to mirrors, especially given how quickly window sizes are shrinking in new cars.
Let me be among the first to welcome Volkswagen to 2014.
To hell with all this safety stuff…when will VW bring cloth seats to the people?
Das V-Tex oder nichts!
Cloth is for the peasants buying a Jetta S! Anything above that and you get V-Tex and you like it!
Why isn’t the radar wave thingy or some other system going off for that dumb ass pulling out from behind the truck with out enough clearance? He’s closer to the middle car than is the blue one doing the radar beaming.
Perhaps they could call this “Safety Uber Alles,” and shout it at you in German.
I want somebody to invent an electronic nanny that figures out:
– if the car is in the left lane, and if yes
– if there is a big gap in front and a line of other cars stacked behind, and if yes
– finds a gap to the right and changes lanes into it
Not VW per se, but all automakers. And if this nanny has to activate more than, say, five times within a 24 hour period, it applies a painful (but nonlethal) electric shock to the driver.
I have other good ideas.
Better still, I want somebody to invent an electronic nanny combined with directed-energy beam countermeasures which figure out:
– If the car is in the left lane, vaporize it
– If there is a big gap in front of a left-lane bandit and a line of other cars stacked behind, send a directed-energy pulse to remove the left lane obstruction and free up the traffic logjam
– If it doesn’t find a gap to the right, create one.
– If a car is tailgating you, automatically send a warning pulse, and if the situation doesn’t improve within the next mile, clear the obstruction behind you.
– Nominate any driver who meets the criteria (listed above) to be on the receiving end of the directed energy beam for a Darwin Award.
Without stating the obvious, just FYI, these systems are available on EU VW models for years now. As far as I know, they are considered quite mature already in terms of functional refinement and false positive activations.
It baffles me though why are they making them standard (or optional) on US models only now.
Actually I fail to understand VW’s US strategy as a whole :)
I don’t think they could’ve offered them at a reasonable price in the US until now. They probably got lower priced revisions now that the tech isn’t quite as new, and so they can now offer this stuff as a package at a price that won’t scare off US customers. Buyers are a lot more price conscious than they are in Europe.
Is any car company going to introduce a GTFA (get the eff away) feature that shoots the car up to 80-85ish immediately? It would be ever so helpful when you’re trying to pass a trucker who happens to be texting/conversing with a friend of the road and starts steering into your lane.
I have a working brain and I’ve got aspherical mirrors so I can see the idiots that are camping in my blindspot (WHY ARE YOU SITTING THERE!?). The electronic nannies are getting to be a bit much. However VW does need to offer decent lighting packages as standard equipment, it shouldn’t be an option.
While we’re on it, something to get revenge on people who have “inconsiderate/absent-minded syndrome to use brights/high beams enDlessly” (aka I AM STUBHBID) when driving right behind others and when there is oncoming traffic. The big laser cannon from the Death Star would be nice.
On a serious note, these occasional “aggressive driving” crackdowns could easily issue written warnings for the high beams-on-all-the-time-idiots. Get the ones who use front running lights only at night too. I bet they’d find out most people they pull over for this are not paying due attention to driving anyway, so win win. They’d also net a few decent drivers who just made an honest mistake, but OK. Written warnings, not $$ fines, because traffic enforcement is about safety (not tax collection, riiiight?).
I’d like to see people using Fog Lights outside of inclement weather added to this list. I see so many idiots driving on the highway on a clear night with their fog lights on, and they drive right behind you so they glare right in your mirrors.