Advice needed with extras ?

[markusschork]

Quite a lot different to U.K. spec there including (I think): we can’t spec electric seats; ACC and Park Assist are included (Ocean anyway); black aracaju’s not available; Edition not available; Z2A not available

I was also not able to order the electric tailgate in UK. Something I would have chosen

 

[two-saabs]

It was MY 2021 that it changed to nav working on both screens.
Search for Discover Media v Pro thread - it has the California Chris video about it.

Ahh great! Thanks I'll check that

 

[two-saabs]

I was also not able to order the electric tailgate in UK. Something I would have chosen

Don't worry, electric tailgate is not an option here either... the foldaway chairs are too heavy, apparantly.

So we can fly to the moon and make cars drive by themselves and would ideally like power from nothing but water... but you know, can't lift a "heavy" tailgate.

You could retro fit yourself (using the new replacement parts from the Multivan), although I saw some threads that its quite a bit of cost in both time and money.

I'd even consider the switch from tailgate to barndoors, but would also be the retrofit route...

 

[66tim99]

I d

I was also not able to order the electric tailgate in UK. Something I would have chosen

idnt realise the electric tailgate was available anywhere. I know it’s available on Transporters, but thought the chairs made the Cali door too heavy

 

[66tim99]

As I have the sat nav announcements turned off I haven’t found out yet if google & Vw have an argument as to which route to take.

Does the VW nav show the same route as Google? Is VW live with traffic/best route?

 

[Sunstoner]

I remember the 1996 screen less sat nav we had at work. Used to boot up the pentium PC load autoroute, input the destination & hit print, it gave a turn by turn print out of where to go.
If you strayed off the route, especially if you didn't realise that you were off route it got interesting.

I think map reading & peoples general sense of direction is becoming a lost art due to reliance on sat nav.
Fortunately I can find my way around generally with just a sat nav for the last mile to find a specific building & find it useful for traffic info.

My Mrs is absolutely hopeless at navigating abroad, she gets totally confused between left & right as if they have been reversed over here, and if she shouts out that I need the first exit at the roundabout I know that means the last exit as I'll be going the other way round.

Its funny that, im entirely useless at knowing where the hell I am at any given point. I quite literally need sat nav. Ive always had it.

My Mrs on the other hand is stunning at knowing where she is. Years of map reading curtesy of a mum who ran Duke of Edinburgh expeditions for youngsters. She has an inbuilt compass.

I just cannot get my head around where the hell I am at times. I can complete the same route a few times on a motorway and will still question whether its north or south I need. Its mad and it totally baffles my wife. Its a weird inability to make sense of it. This is curtesy of my mum who gets lost in her own handbag.

 

[Sunstoner]

Does the VW nav show the same route as Google? Is VW live with traffic/best route?

Must admit, ive not used the VW sat nav yet as Google maps is that easy and intuitive to use and because it uses (rightly or wrongly) peoples phones for instant traffic info weve found it hugely accurate and upto date.

Ive not dug too deeply into Google maps sat nav features but its so far proven a doddle to use.

 

[66tim99]

Must admit, ive not used the VW sat nav yet as Google maps is that easy and intuitive to use and because it uses (rightly or wrongly) peoples phones for instant traffic info weve found it hugely accurate and upto date.

Ive not dug too deeply into Google maps sat nav features but its so far proven a doddle to use.

Though you can’t get Google maps on the digital dash?

 

[Sunstoner]

Voice control, had it, never used it.

Ive never been convinced by gesture, voice or even touchscreens.

Voice controls from car manufacturers are often limited and less natural than the likes Google/Apple et al so youve got to learn a set of voice commands to do stuff your index finger can do in seconds, so i dont bother.

Google maps has proven the exception thus far.

 

[Sunstoner]

Though you can’t get Google maps on the digital dash?

Is that right? I thought the dig dash was android auto compatible?

 

[two-saabs]

Ive never been convinced by gesture, voice or even touchscreens.

Voice controls from car manufacturers are often limited and less natural than the likes Google/Apple et al so youve got to learn a set of voice commands to do stuff your index finger can do in seconds, so i dont bother.

Google maps has proven the exception thus far.

Car manufacturers will always be behind voice technology of the tech giants, due to their slow update cycles and lack of AI, and lack of access to big data.

Amazon Alexa has approx 5 million corrections to speech commands every day. That's just the corrections. With each and every one of those corrections making the next instruction more accurate. No other companies can possible work at that level.

It makes sense car manufacturers focus on their core business and out-source pieces of the tech to Google, apple or Amazon. Just like they do for other OEM parts of the supply chain.

Volvo are now introducing in to their cars full Google Android auto. They accepted what they are and are not good at.

VW need to partner with a tech giant!

 

[reserves]

Though you can’t get Google maps on the digital dash?

You can’t on the digital dash, only on the main screen.

 

[Joker 1299]

Go for the diamond cut Cascaval wheels and the five year extended warranty so that you can have them replaced when they corrode.

 

[Private_Kelly]

OK at the risk of starting a riot on here, why an Ocean? My Coast is due any day. I looked at the difference in options and cost and thought why pay more than you have to. I don't know about you but after 45 years of driving I've mainly kept to my lane and haven't often driven into things. Why are you paying for stuff you don't need?

I quite agree with you. I also have a Coast. I don’t want all the silly bells and whistles. Just something else to go wrong. I have the bog standard radio and it is fine.

 

[Private_Kelly]

I cannot abide by some of these full touch-screen only entertainment systems.

Thankfully many manufacturers have quickly learned and listened to their customers with a now sort of halfway house where key functions are returning in actual button form.

Re Satnav. Google maps via Android Auto has proven a really good option. Works really well with voice recognition and keeps things nice and simple for most uses. I hardly ever have to manually enter addressing information and the traffic monitoring proved pretty accurate too whilst recently out and about in Cornwall. One of the most useful features for the Cali imo.

I hate the things as well. Fumbling about trying to alter the volume or finding a radio station while you are drifting all over the road. I think that’s why they invented lane assist so you can tune your radio in.

 

[Private_Kelly]

I think I follow your point @66tim99 , in that there's more to just the size of the screen.

In this case we are doing two very different things, both inputting data, and reading data. So both need looking at.

If there are controls on the steering wheel and ideally voice then that solves part of the problem, you're right.

If you still need to stare at the screen to get vital information then thats the other part of the problem that needs fixing.

In my current car (Volvo XC60) there is a huge screen and some things must be done on that touchscreen, like zooming in and out of a map. Crazy bad design for a company at the forefront of car safety.

The best thing is that the heads-up display shows the most important navigation info which is why I like it.

The worst things are it's too slow for real-time traffic info, map updates are rare, the voice control of maps is awful, and as said you must use the touchscreen to perform certain essential functions.

I can plug in android auto to fix those negatives, but then lose the heads-up (so have to look down to the screen), and still have the issue of needing to use the touchscreen to zoom in and out, re-center, that sort of thing.

Warning: Old man moan alert:

Old stereos allowed the user to learn where the buttons go and reach out to them without needing to look, you could just fumble around and do what you need. I think around year 2000 Audi had a sat nav which didn't really have any screen, just arrows in the main dial console which someone was sufficient. Perfect.

I think that's where we need to get back to, hybrid style, input via voice and buttons, and new (or maybe old) ways to present the information to the user. Heads-up display would be one way.

Instructions are always read-out, that's fine, maybe more information could be read-out and be more interactive. Perhaps the advancement of natural language processing in artificial intelligence will take the lead there.

All this “tech” which was originally invented to make life easier is so silly nowadays. It’s so ridiculous now it actually makes most tasks more difficult.

 

[couplands]

Ive never been convinced by gesture, voice or even touchscreens.

Voice controls from car manufacturers are often limited and less natural than the likes Google/Apple et al so youve got to learn a set of voice commands to do stuff your index finger can do in seconds, so i dont bother.

Google maps has proven the exception thus far.

I have a newish Mercedes with their MBUX user interface. The voice control is a revelation, very natural.

”Take me to Tescos” navigates me easily, “Turn on passenger seat heater” does just that. No faffing, especially with navigation and having to find addresses or postcodes on traditional systems.

I’m hoping the Cali is as good…

 

[two-saabs]

I have a newish Mercedes with their MBUX user interface. The voice control is a revelation, very natural.

”Take me to Tescos” navigates me easily, “Turn on passenger seat heater” does just that. No faffing, especially with navigation and having to find addresses or postcodes on traditional systems.

I’m hoping the Cali is as good…

That's good to hear.

Bearer of bad news: The VW dealer told me the only voice control is the sat nav, so none of the car commands. Which is odd really as that's much easier to get right with voice. And arguably a great safety feature. (Not just a fancy gimmick).

In our Volvo the type of commands that work well are "I'm too hot" or "set temperature to 21 degrees".

The worse commands are also simple like "navigate to Zurich" gets the reply "navigation paused" or "cannot find Zurich in your music library".

What's annoying is it's been nearly 4 years of ownership and there's been not a single improvement in the voice. Even generally the software, sat nav etc has only had very minor updates, even though it's all in warranty and has the over-the-air enabled.

*End of grumble*

 

[couplands]

That's good to hear.

Bearer of bad news: The VW dealer told me the only voice control is the sat nav, so none of the car commands. Which is odd really as that's much easier to get right with voice. And arguably a great safety feature. (Not just a fancy gimmick).

In our Volvo the type of commands that work well are "I'm too hot" or "set temperature to 21 degrees".

The worse commands are also simple like "navigate to Zurich" gets the reply "navigation paused" or "cannot find Zurich in your music library".

What's annoying is it's been nearly 4 years of ownership and there's been not a single improvement in the voice. Even generally the software, sat nav etc has only had very minor updates, even though it's all in warranty and has the over-the-air enabled.

*End of grumble*

I guess I wasn’t expecting much from the Cali, it is a van after all. It’ll be fun going back to pushing buttons and doing things the old fashioned way…lol…

 

[two-saabs]

I guess I wasn’t expecting much from the Cali, it is a van after all. It’ll be fun going back to pushing buttons and doing things the old fashioned way…lol…

Yep, with the right expectations, you can't lose!

 

[andyinluton]

That's good to hear.

Bearer of bad news: The VW dealer told me the only voice control is the sat nav, so none of the car commands. Which is odd really as that's much easier to get right with voice. And arguably a great safety feature. (Not just a fancy gimmick).

In our Volvo the type of commands that work well are "I'm too hot" or "set temperature to 21 degrees".

The worse commands are also simple like "navigate to Zurich" gets the reply "navigation paused" or "cannot find Zurich in your music library".

What's annoying is it's been nearly 4 years of ownership and there's been not a single improvement in the voice. Even generally the software, sat nav etc has only had very minor updates, even though it's all in warranty and has the over-the-air enabled.

*End of grumble*

Anything done via CarPlay also works on voice control mode using Siri not just the sat nav.

 

[two-saabs]

Anything done via CarPlay also works on voice control mode using Siri not just the sat nav.

Proving once again not to believe the dealers

 

[two-saabs]

Proving once again not to believe the dealers

Ahh hang on, you mean calling people / sending WhatsApp etc? I'm talking about car commands (e.g. switch off air con)

 

[R_Sargeant_CH]

That's good to hear.

Bearer of bad news: The VW dealer told me the only voice control is the sat nav, so none of the car commands. Which is odd really as that's much easier to get right with voice. And arguably a great safety feature. (Not just a fancy gimmick).

In our Volvo the type of commands that work well are "I'm too hot" or "set temperature to 21 degrees".

The worse commands are also simple like "navigate to Zurich" gets the reply "navigation paused" or "cannot find Zurich in your music library".

What's annoying is it's been nearly 4 years of ownership and there's been not a single improvement in the voice. Even generally the software, sat nav etc has only had very minor updates, even though it's all in warranty and has the over-the-air enabled.

*End of grumble*

Inspired by the above, I tried this on our Tesla Model S. Saying "My a**e is cold" resulted in the seat heating increasing. Saying "My passenger's pu**y is cold" also worked! Much fun ensued, trying to find the limits of acceptability...