[Neilto]

My Passat GTE is allegedly equipped with this feature which is meant to connect the mobile to the car aerial to improve reception and to wirelessly charge the phone. This is in the spec of the car and the compartment in front of the gear selector has the phone and aerial logo confirming the feature.
However when I put my new naked (case removed) iPhone SE onto it nothing happens. No charging symbol on the phone and nothing on any of the car menus to indicate the presence of the phone. I'm up in rural Scotland so would like anything that boosts the phone reception. Not that fussed about the wireless charging but its annoying not to have something that i should have.
Have checked the phone menus to see if something needs to be enabled but nothing obvious. Also nothing amiss on the car as far as I can see. The phone bluetooth pairs well enough so its not that.
Anyone else been through this particular learning process.
Nothing on Google that I could find.

 

[GrahamS]

IIRC this requires support for remote SIM (rsap) which the iphone does not have. So that's a no. Have a look in your manual to find the list of compatible devices.

 

[Neilto]

Thanks for the input. For once I can say that I have read the manual in this regard. There is no mention in respect to incompatible devices and if iPhone was you might think it would get a mention. The only prerequisite for success is that the phone is Bluetooth connected which mine does. It might be that the phone is not flat enough in the bay as its a bit tight in there for a SE. Given that its probably the smallest phone currently on the market I guess this is not VW's best bit of future proofing. I'll probably just give up on the feature as I'd normally USB connect the phone to get all the Apple Car Play stuff which immediately kills the Bluetooth connection anyway and presumably the induction loop that would give better signal. I'll probably use the cubby for hand sanitiser now anyway so maybe VW were thinking ahead after all!

 

[GrahamS]

Does it say that the phone has to support RSAP?

This from VW says you need it:

and this list of suppprted Bluetooth methods from Apple doesn't include rsap:

Bluetooth profiles that iOS and iPadOS support

Learn about the Bluetooth profiles that iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch support.

support.apple.com

So I think it's not gonna work. But maybe I'm wrong here.

 

[Neilto]

The phone and car Bluetooth connection work fine but it gives me nothing more than the USB connection and an awful lot less. I don't really see the point of having it or am I missing something? The phone charging doesn't work on the Qi pad even when its Bluetooth connected so confirming its pointlessness. It looks to me like Bluetooth as a connection method is dead/superseded as the government found out to there cost with their tracking app. Only things that I have that seem to work with it are my iwatch and Mu-So. I've ordered a mains Qi charger to satisfy myself that it works and save using the usb3 port on the phone which has a limited number of operations - another backward step for Apple!

 

[davesul]

I suspect that the phone reception with this function correctly working will only be about the same as if you were using the phone outside the car - so compensating for the screening effect of the car body metalwork when inside.
Are you aware of any drop of signal reception when using the phone inside the car?

 

[aspergerguy]

The phone and car Bluetooth connection work fine but it gives me nothing more than the USB connection and an awful lot less. I don't really see the point of having it or am I missing something? The phone charging doesn't work on the Qi pad even when its Bluetooth connected so confirming its pointlessness. It looks to me like Bluetooth as a connection method is dead/superseded as the government found out to there cost with their tracking app. Only things that I have that seem to work with it are my iwatch and Mu-So. I've ordered a mains Qi charger to satisfy myself that it works and save using the usb3 port on the phone which has a limited number of operations - another backward step for Apple!

Situation becomes even more complicated when basic, comfort and business hands-free telephony comes into play if you haven't come across this resource yet:MOBILTELEFON-KOMPATIBILITÄT

 

[Neilto]

I suspect that the phone reception with this function correctly working will only be about the same as if you were using the phone outside the car - so compensating for the screening effect of the car body metalwork when inside.
Are you aware of any drop of signal reception when using the phone inside the car?

Its a new phone so I have not had a chance to test its signal performance in the car for calls. Like many others I suspect, I seldom use my smart phone as an actual phone its all the other smart stuff that i have it for.

 

[Neilto]

Situation becomes even more complicated when basic, comfort and business hands-free telephony comes into play if you haven't come across this resource yet:MOBILTELEFON-KOMPATIBILITÄT

Thats confessed me even more as the link shows the comfort option having less functionality than the basic - That can't be correct. I have "Comfort Telephony with WLAN" spec code 9IF and I can definitely hot spot and have full Apple Car Play something is wrong - I suspect this linked article.