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Infotainment Hardware and Software Updates

PanEuropean

Ready to race!
Someone in Canada said the dealer upgraded him because of a TSB and people in Europe seem to be getting it OTA (that's what I think I saw)
@Braxton

The behaviour of the three VW Importers in the North American Region (NAR), those being VW Canada, VW of America, and VW Mexico, is very, very different than the behaviour of the European country importers. What I write below applies specifically to the MK 8 vehicles, but some of the concepts carry over to other models.

In Canada, VW does not push out OTA updates unless there is a problem that is both serious & urgent. This implies a safety or "car might not work" issue, and those OTA updates are rare. The preferred update path is dealership visits, and when the car goes in for annual service, if updates are necessary (note: 'necessary', not simply 'available') they get installed.

VW of America is pretty much the same, although they seem to be a bit more liberal about sending out less-critical updates such as map updates OTA.

VW Mexico has no Car-Net program at all for the MK 8, everything is done at a dealership.

Michael
 

Paul_W

Passed Driver's Ed
I had 1941 come through OTA at the weekend. I set it installing when I arrived at work this morning. Everything went smoothly so I think it’s finally up to date. I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference though lol

This might be an odd question but does my car has discover or pro nav? It’s a 2020 r-line. In my VW account it says “Navigation system "Discover Media" incl. Streaming & Internet. But it has the gesture feature and the option to have nav display in the cluster which I thought was only on the pro. I don’t see any option to have it on both screens at the same time though
 

PanEuropean

Ready to race!
...does my car has discover or pro nav? It’s a 2020 r-line.
If your car is a 2020 model, I believe that makes it a MK 7 vehicle.

Below is a picture taken from the VW Map Updates website that shows the two possible configurations of head units in VW Golfs manufactured between 2017 and 2021. Hopefully this will answer your question, but to be sure, go to that website and have a look there.

Michael

Golf 2017-2021 Head Units
Screenshot 2024-02-26 160413.jpg
 

Paul_W

Passed Driver's Ed
If your car is a 2020 model, I believe that makes it a MK 7 vehicle.

Below is a picture taken from the VW Map Updates website that shows the two possible configurations of head units in VW Golfs manufactured between 2017 and 2021. Hopefully this will answer your question, but to be sure, go to that website and have a look there.

Michael

Golf 2017-2021 Head Units
View attachment 299940
No, it’s a mk8. First registered December 2020
 

PanEuropean

Ready to race!
Hi @Paul_W :

That's odd - the VW website (cited above) lists 2017-2021 as one 'family'.

Best suggestion I can give you is that you call your local VW dealer, ask to speak to the parts department, give them your VIN and ask them to tell you what model (Discover Media or Discover Pro) is fitted to your car. The parts staff will be able to look that information up very quickly if they have your VIN.

Michael
 

gjm

Passed Driver's Ed
@PanEuropean, US Model vs. RoW models? on that website (for the UK at least) it lists the head units you have shared as "From 2017", whilst the Mk8 head units are listed as "From 2020".

@Paul_W, 1941 is the latest available OTA, there should be another update coming out soon, some people have been loading it manually via USB, but I personally prefer to wait for the official roll-out. Gesture control and Nav map in the instrument cluster is standard for the Discover Media, so I would go on what you see in your account in that you have the Discover Media head unit. Having Maps display at the same time in both instrument cluster and head unit I think is a feature of the Discover Pro, the Discover Pro also came with Voice activation as standard, whereas with Discover Media it was an optional extra, or £299 after the fact option through AppConnect.

This was the blurb in 2020 regarding Discover Pro;
Discover Navigation Pro touch-screen navigation infotainment system including streaming and internet with integrated voice activation, ‘Gesture Control’ and We Connect Plus preparation
Voice activated control system – responds to spoken voice commands for navigation and telephone functions.
10" colour touch-screen control system for navigation and audio functions. Preloaded European navigation data, 3D map view, three calculated routes (Fast, Short, Eco), dynamic guidance via We Connect Plus online traffic information, branded points of interest and Speed Limit Display.
We Connect Plus services access providing online access to a range of useful information such as traffic reports and petrol station and parking locations. Includes online navigation software updates, enabling you to download the latest map data.
All yours for an extra £1200! (in 2020). I struggle to see apart from the included voice activation anything that is different to what we have in Discover Media units. I think internally it had upgraded processors & memory to cope with dual map display, but apart from that no difference. I could be wrong and maybe somebody with it installed will say otherwise.
 

Paul_W

Passed Driver's Ed
@PanEuropean, US Model vs. RoW models? on that website (for the UK at least) it lists the head units you have shared as "From 2017", whilst the Mk8 head units are listed as "From 2020".

@Paul_W, 1941 is the latest available OTA, there should be another update coming out soon, some people have been loading it manually via USB, but I personally prefer to wait for the official roll-out. Gesture control and Nav map in the instrument cluster is standard for the Discover Media, so I would go on what you see in your account in that you have the Discover Media head unit. Having Maps display at the same time in both instrument cluster and head unit I think is a feature of the Discover Pro, the Discover Pro also came with Voice activation as standard, whereas with Discover Media it was an optional extra, or £299 after the fact option through AppConnect.

This was the blurb in 2020 regarding Discover Pro;

All yours for an extra £1200! (in 2020). I struggle to see apart from the included voice activation anything that is different to what we have in Discover Media units. I think internally it had upgraded processors & memory to cope with dual map display, but apart from that no difference. I could be wrong and maybe somebody with it installed will say otherwise.

Ahh sound like I just have discover media then. Voice activation appears to be enabled, not that I really use it. I had it on my last car but just used CarPlay most the time anyway.
 
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subby26

New member
Hi everyone. My UK MK8 was stuck at 1803 until 8th December last year when out of the blue it received update OUB8 (A896) OTA which is stage 1 of a 2 stage package, OUB9 being the second stage package. It's been stuck on A896 ever since, the second stage never seems to arrive OTA. OUB8 fixed a lot of issues but removed voice control, so had no voice control for almost 3 months. I would have thought that stage 2 (OUB9) would have arrived relatively quickly after OUB8 but 3 months and nothing. I know OTA is working as its received a couple of small updates. Can anyone shed any light why it's not getting the second stage. Incidentally, my car is at the dealers today for the 47U4 Heat Protection Mat recall and I asked if they could update the software to the latest but they are refusing saying they no longer do manual updates, it must arrive OTA.
View attachment vw1.jpg
 

Manicmillions

New member
The dealer not wanting to do manual updates is one thing, but this sounds like a stuck update, so I would take the line that it's actually a fault that needs resolving.
You could also try connecting to WiFi if you can get in range in case its a connectivity thing? I don't know if updates download over that though.
Worst case you could try the USB 1969 update that people have been talking about doing
 

TJFused

Passed Driver's Ed
Hello everyone. Not been on here since I got my MK8 R last year in May after waiting almost 2 years. Below is my current software, however my car has been showing a constant software update which is always downloading, doesn’t progress and can’t delete, it mains updates are minor fixes, not an actual major update. Has anyone else had this issue?

IMG_1641.jpeg
 

rstultie

New member
What you need to do in this situation is work together with your dealer to assist the dealer in applying pressure to the importer (VW of Netherlands). In this case, it's not the dealer you are up against, it's VW of Netherlands. So document your whole history as carefully as you can and share that documentation with your dealer to assist them in pressing the matter with VW. Hopefully VW will be able to solve the problem without needing to take the car back.

The key concept to keep in mind here is that in this particular situation, the dealer is your ally. So do your best to work together with them to assist them in pressing the matter with the VW importer.
Last week my car has been at the dealer again for the whole week. When returning the car they said that the software of the car control unit was not updating OTA anymore, and they have now updated this manually. After updating this, the infotainment software 1941 was re-installed. I hope this is going to solve the endless amount of errors from the software, but I'm not too hopeful to be honest
 

rstultie

New member
I think it will solve your problems. My car came from the factory with 1939 in it (it's a North American car) and it has been trouble-free.
It has not worked unfortunately. After 3 days already errors on lane assist, front assist and traffic sign control. Lane assist stopped working during the ride and had to be manually activated again after arriving.
 
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