Do you have WEConnect and WeConnectplus "apps" installed in the car from the Shop in the infotainment screen? You need these to get the good stuff.

 

Do you have WEConnect and WeConnectplus apps installed in the car from the Shop in the infotainment screen? You need these to get the good stuff.

Not noticed these, Many thanks - I'll give them a try!

 

I remember two apps, one of which was first EVs but it didn't tell you that...

Once you manage to get in, the software isn't that great.

 

I remember two apps, one of which was first EVs but it didn't tell you that...

Those were amalgamated into a single app around 18 months ago. Now the app is simply called VW.

 

While the app isn't the best compared to say Tesla's, it's not that bad, you can do a limited number of things depending on what your car is capable of and software version.

However, your headline of "VW app utterly useless" is misleading, you've simply not managed to connect to the car which involves being in the car as I remember doing it via a QR code on the setup process on the infotainment when we got our ID4 (and rented an ID3 way back).

 

I guess the headline reflected my frustration. However I finally got it to work in the car and now it works outside the car as well, a major step forward for mankind. Just displays projected miles and % charge, but a lot better than nothing! My last EV was a Zoe and the App was amazingly comprehensive. I guess I was spoiled.

 

The app is not useless, just very limited. I would struggle to keep it if VW want a subscription though.

 

After the 3.0 update you did have to do some infuriating stuff though, I couldn’t download the apps in the car so I had to log in to vw.io on my phone and buy the apps from there. You also had to extend the free data with a free “purchase” through the vw site before the car would reconnect to data. From memory I also had to make sure the cars adress was complete, you didn’t need it before the update but it needed it afterwards, it just didn’t give an error message to say so. This was two years ago so may now be bad info.

 

I've always found it basically OK, at least for the last couple of years. It glitches sometimes but so does any app I've used. It's slow in getting a response from the car to confirm an action was successful but I've learnt to ignore that.
You can monitor charging, control charging and temperature, see whether the car is unlocked or doors/windows open, sign up for rapid charging through wecharge, and use it as a map to plan routes (although I think the route planner in the app is rubbish and never use it, the car is better, or ABRP etc).
If you get a new car now, you can also lock/unlock the car from the app and in high spec cars you can park the car from the app with no one in it. I would never want to do this!

 

Agree. It's fine.

With software 3.7 the miles/kilometers bug where the range is incorrectly reported seems to finally be fixed, which was my main annoyance with it.

In some respects I'm happy with the app being relatively bare-bones... it means there will be less to miss when it inevitably stops working in the future! (whether that's VW turning off the servers, charging exorbitant fees for it, or the 4G network being retired)

 

Do people actually trust that the apps on these cars (and make) actually have locked the vehicle? What if it glitches, will you know your car hasn’t received the “lock” command and is left open. I think I prefer knowing I have locked it by actually seeing it lock.

 

Although not a replacement for seeing it lock, the app does shows the last sync time so you should know if it's up to date, also you can force a sync if you want to make sure.

 

I can't really understand why you would ever need to put high reliance on it. Surely when you are getting out the car you will always lock it using the keyless function or the remote anyway, as that's way more convenient than opening an app? I thought the point of this was if you opened the app and realised the car had been mistakenly left unlocked when you weren't next to it, you could still lock it remotely. At that point, anything is better than nothing.
I may be missing something as I've never had a car with lock/unlock via an app.
The indication of locked status in my VW app seems mostly reliable but I think there have been at least a couple of occasions it was (temporarily) wrong for some reason.

Mostly same for me, ID3 doesn't have the remote lock so it's me that locked it, it's just those few occasions where you doubt yourself so knowing how to check the app has synced is important. If the apps synced it's always been accurate and I'll trust the status of the 'lock', it's when it hasn't synced you get the out of date info.

Is it not possible for the ID3 (new ones) to auto lock as you walk away from the car? Isn’t that what Teslas do? Or is just unlocking as you approach the car?

The walk away locking is the one thing I don't trust, when I tried it I could get it to consistently work.

 

You can do more than that.

Rather than slagging it off, do a bit of self learning first.

Assuming you have an ID3 in regards to the capability of what's in the app.

 

There's a lot more:

Shows data on the charge when plugged in.
Remote control of aircon
Departure times/locations for charging and aircon
Vehicle health report
Change authorised workshop (car automatically contacts them when warning appear on dash)
Map with chargers and ability to send routes/destinations from there to cars sat nav
Roadside assistance
We Charge subscription options
Shows status of doors, windows and boot

 

Having used the app for 3 1/2 years - its functional. Remote unlocking etc might be a nice feature, but tbh its not an issue pressing a button on the keyfob as I walk up

I've no complaints.

 

Shame about the massive data breach causing user data to be accessible by cyber criminals from the Amazon cloud..

 

Whilst it’s not great it does seem a bit of a misleading title for that video. Odd to compare a lapse in security from a subsidiary with no evidence it was accessed to the practices of the Chinese. But I guess it helps the Viking get some views.