Will re-enrolling my car enable voice control of heating?

[simonrg]

I don't want to waste my time re-enrolling my car if it isn't going to fix my issues and may break the app as others have found.

My car was displaying the manual in German and showing an error when I tried to switch to English while telling me to phone the freephone number.

I found the 00800 number which just routed to UK VW customer care, I asked for help with the manual language, my voice control not controlling heating and inability to access manual online - it didn't recognise VIN or registration number. Customer care immediately put me through to digital help, who couldn't help either, but asked me to detail my questions by email with screenshots which I did.

I have now received the standard re-enroll your car instructions, am I wrong to think this is not appropriate for the problems I am seeing - it is not going to effect the online manual, it is not going to change the voice control system and the manual has already changed to English.

"We are sorry to hear about the inconvenience which you are currently facing, however, we would like you to try to re-enroll the car.

Please make sure to follow the below steps:
Perform a long-press reset by constantly pressing down and holding the ON/OFF switch for over 20 sec.
Park your ID.3 in a safe location where there is good mobile phone reception.
Next, switch off the ignition. Make sure once again that on the exit screen the online mode is switched on for the next start.
Exit the vehicle, lock it and wait for at least 10 minutes.
After this time has elapsed, you can enter the vehicle again and perform a factory reset by selecting “Setup” -> “Restore factory settings” in the infotainment system. Confirm this action with the “OK” button.
Enroll your car again as you did the first time.

We hope this solves the issue. In case it still persists please respond back to this email us back so we can escalate your issue to our technical team for further analysis with a screenshot of the error and the exact timestamp."

[Deleted User 192]

This came up on another forum, so I created this post on the UK Facebook group on Feb 19th as an FYI:

"Smart Climate" and voice control of climate functions are specific to the 2-zone climate system (part of Comfort Pack Plus) as found on these configurations:
Family
1st
Max
Tour

The configurations which only have the single zone climate system do NOT have "Smart Climate" or the ability to voice control any climate functions:
Life
Business
Style
Tech

[simonrg]

Thanks Scott, so there is no point me following the instructions sent to me by VW Customer Care.

Do you know if "Smart Climate" hardware or software or both?

I had read your previous post, but this is still one of the outstanding issues that VW assure me they are addressing.

In fact VW customer care have told me this is a fault with my car/software and nobody from VW has told me that I do not have Voice Control of heating.

On multiple occasions when bemoaning the lack of appropriate / safe physical controls I have been told the solution was Voice Control that would be fixed in 2.1.

It is a shame that despite giving VW Vin number, model number they still can't help and appear to revert to "switch it off and then switch it on".

[simonrg]

VW have just replied to tell me that my issues will be solved by changing the language:

"Dear ....,

Thank you for your response and the provided photos and screenshots information.

Please note that in order to make the voice control work you will need to change the language on your ID3. As it seems on your pictures, your ID3 is set on German. By that been said it seems that voice orders in English language while the vehicle's language is set up in German or other language in general will give not work.

Kindly please change the preferred language to the one you want to be speak to the voice control feature in order to work.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

If the issue persists, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We remain at you disposal around the clock, 7 days a week. You may reply to this email, or call us on our dedicated line 0800 – 279 7508. We kindly ask, that you indicate your reference ......... for a quick follow-up.

We wish you safe and pleasant journeys with your favorite Volkswagen ID3!

Yours faithfully
Your Digital Service Team"

[Deleted User 192]

Wow, really keen to hear if that works...

[DaveA]

I would not hold out too much hope for heating voice control - I have a Tech (single zone AC) and queried this with my dealer, who was told by VW that "voice control for climate control will only work with 2 zone systems".

I guess VW can't just activate the 2-zone voice control as that is designed to detect who is speaking and apply heating to the left or right independently, so VW would need to re-write the s/w for a 1-zone system. Who knows whether VW will ever do this, I hope they will but I'm not expecting it in 2.1.

[Kaygee]

I think I have mentioned this in a previous thread, but a couple of weeks ago I got talking to one of the Master Techs at my local VW dealership who informed me that ALL ID.3's are fitted with the necessary equipment to have 2-Zone climate. However, it is not activated in the LIfe, Business, Style and Tech models.
He said he was not sure whether this could be activated (at a cost) at a future date, but this begs the question, if the voice control is within the software, why can't it be used on single zone vehicles.

[simonrg]

Thanks for all your replies, I can stop wasting my time, despite VW continuing to suggest procedures I can carry out.
I conclude:

• VW "customer care" do not know about the ID.3 and so it is quicker for them to tell me to follow standard procedures which won't solve my issue, rather than find a correct solution.
• Only dual zone climate cars are able to use Voice Control for heating.
• Even on single zone cars heating is controlled by software as it shows on the infotainment system and via app for pre-heating.
• The help system in the car is incorrect in stating failure to operate as a language issue.

Voice control was sold to me as a major feature of the ID.3, VW use the ability to voice control the heating in many of their videos and brochures.

Before purchase or in the course of my 10 weeks of ownership, no one official (dealer or VW) has told me that my ID.3 does not have voice control of heating, in fact on numerous occasions I have been told my ID.3 has full voice control.

So I feel short changed that my vehicle does not have this feature, as such I feel voice control should either be retrofitted or some kind of refund for this missing feature should be offered by VW.

[DaveA]

I agree about feeling short changed - VW has made a big thing about 'Smart Climate' and voice control of heating and nowhere in the literature does it explain that 1-zone cars don't have it!

Kaygee's comments about 2-zone/Smart Climate/Voice Control being a future OTA add-on perhaps explains why it's not available on 1-zone equipped cars today - It allows VW to sell it to us in the future.