VW Improves Charging, Adds Features To Entire ID. Lineup With Over-The-Air Update

Volkswagen announced today that it has introduced a new set of updates for the entire ID. family of electric vehicles. These updates will be rolled out remotely to customers and will improve charging speeds, add new features, and improve existing ones.

The updates are part of ID. Software 3.0 and will allow vehicles equipped with a 77 kWh battery to charge at a maximum of 135 kW3 at DC charging stations with sufficient power, instead of just 125 kW. The improvement comes thanks to thermal management improvements for the battery that makes charging and driving more efficient and can increase range, especially in cold weather where it has not historically been good.

Further helping ID. vehicle owners go farther is the Smart e-route planner, which now appears on the first screen of the infotainment screen. It is structured in a more informative and clearer way and allows the car to plan multi-stop routes for long journeys that get you to your destination as quickly as possible. It takes traffic data into account as well as the desired state of charge upon arrival in planning the route.

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To make interacting with the system even easier, VW has optimized its voice controls to make them accurate up to 95 percent of the time. The system can also now be interrupted and better react to colloquial phrases such as “I’m cold.” The improved microphone system can also recognize whether the driver or the passenger is speaking and manage the dual-zone climate control based on who asked for more heat, for example.

For the driver, VW has improved the augmented reality heads-up display to include more information, as requested by customers. The display, which is projected onto the windscreen, now has symbols for roundabouts and provides the driver with information about the distance to their destination and state of charge. Turn arrows for the navigation system are also more integrated into the surroundings and it can recommend which lane to be in to make following those directions easier.

Owners with Travel Assist may not even have to worry about following directions at all because the advanced driver assistance system has been improved with anonymous swarm data. The improvements help keep the vehicle in the center of the lane and will also learn from the driver if they sometimes prefer to be over to one side of the lane, such as if they’re driving past a large truck.

Along with a variety of other features, the system can also keep an eye on traffic behind it with an ultrasound and two radar sensors at the back of the vehicle. That allows the partially automated driving system to accomplish lane changes if the driver simply activates the indicator.

Finally, the system will automate some parking maneuvers. That will allow the vehicle to park itself on the street better but it also adds the ability to “learn” a parking maneuver. If, say, your front door is at the front of your property but the garage is at the back, you can teach your car how to get from your door to the garage and it will remember how to do it.

“The new ID. Software 3.0 is an upgrade for our whole ID. family: we are taking our products to a new level of functionality because we are working faster, are more connected, and are more customer-oriented,” said Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand, responsible for Technical Development. “Again, we are living up to our claim of offering high-quality technologies and innovations in all classes.”

Volkswagen says that ID. Software 3.0 will come installed on all of its new electric vehicles and will start being installed via an over-the-air update starting in Q2 2022.