Wleafing through the sales brochure for the VW Arteon comes across a new term: there is talk of the “touch steering wheel”. What is meant is the replacement of the physical steering wheel buttons with controls that react to very light finger pressure and confirm the input with a vibration. There is something similar in the Golf 8, and we didn’t like this detail in either the Golf or the Arteon. You have to look to hit the button, your finger doesn’t automatically land in the tactilely correct spot, and even with some experience, pressing the button exactly takes more attention than a mechanical control.
The omission of physical buttons, switches and rotary controls in the vehicle is therefore not well received by customers, but is considered indispensable by developers because this is the only way to implement more and more functions, especially infotainment. If each innovation had its own button, the car cockpit would soon look like that of an airplane.
In the VW Arteon, the air conditioning, ventilation and seat heating are also operated with touch elements. To set the temperature and ventilation level, you have to move your finger over a horizontal slider area. This has already been heavily criticized by customers in the Golf 8. Here, however, VW has at least learned something new and illuminated the sensors so that you can see where you have to touch at night.
Digital first: cockpit landscape in the VW Arteon
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Image: manufacturer
The maxim of buttons instead of switches also applies to navigation, provided you order the upscale Discover Pro infotainment in the Arteon for a surcharge of 1690 euros. A Discover Media is standard in the three more expensive model variants on board, it has a smaller monitor and lower resolution. The large version comes with a 9.2-inch TFT display that reacts very quickly to finger movements and, for example, shows a high working speed when displaying the navigation map. The surface is covered with glass, the side buttons on the left are also touch elements.
Unfortunately, after starting the engine, many long seconds pass before the navigation is finally available. Proximity sensors pop up menus as soon as the display detects an approaching finger. From the main menu, a tap on the symbols takes you directly to the individual function departments. Praiseworthy: You can make detailed individual privacy settings and prevent the sharing of vehicle data with VW at the tap of a finger. Android Auto and Apple Carplay are also supported, and a compatible smartphone can be trained as a digital car key.
The main screen shows the familiar menus for navigation, telephony, radio and media playback in detail. Three-dimensional city models are new compared to older VW systems, and the real-time traffic information is said to work more with predictive, predictive models. As with other vehicle manufacturers, the navigation learns, it records frequently used routes and suggests them. The speech recognition remains at VW level and cannot keep up with other upper class systems.
One of the plus points is the possibility of personalization, content to be displayed can be selected and arranged on the main screen. The standard cockpit display in front of the steering wheel also offers the advantage of customization. All conceivable displays around the vehicle and the assistants can be displayed here in different representations, and of course you can call up the navigation map again between the speedometer and rev counter. The head-up display (for 565 euros) is unfortunately only a cheap solution with a small plexiglass pane in front of the windscreen.