The Innovision Cockpit in the new Touareg
“Real innovations still excite me!”
He has turned his passion for cars into his profession. Dr Friedbert Weizenecker, freelance car journalist and editor of Der-Autotester.de, has been trying out the new Touareg for us. But his first experience driving in a Volkswagen was a long while ago:
What was my first car? A Beetle. My second? A Golf GTI. My third? A Porsche 924. My parents never had a car so the topic of cars was always somewhat amplified for me. Studying did nothing to change that. After obtaining degrees in business, economics and sociology, my doctorate didn’t stop me from pursuing my passion. After writing academic features for an economics magazine, I came into auto journalism in 2008. Why? I just have a fascination with cars – and I still do today, after 10 years. My dream job can sometimes be exhausting. I’m at the car producers’ driving events almost every week, around the world. So it’s not just the cars which become my living room, its the airports and hotels as well.
And where can you see my writings, my photos and video clips? I write for several daily newspapers and websites. I founded the Der-Autotester.de online car magazine five years ago. I work there as editor and as a writer, and the project is going very well: we get an average of 4,000 visitors to the site every day.
Is my job now a dream job? I actually really enjoy my work. As a journalist, I test cars. Test? Sounds like a challenge. Technically challenging. But that isn’t really reality. In truth I put myself into the shoes of the average driver when I get into a new car. As so often, the experience here is irreplaceable. The more vehicles you’ve driven, the easier it judge how good the one you’re in really is. What still has the power to excite me? Real innovations! They’ve become a rarity. Even better when there’s something really new. Just like in the new Touareg.
The thing that especially fascinates me about the big Volkswagen SUV is the new digital Innovision Cockpit. In my view, it’s the dash panel of the future, because it revolutionises operations in a car. This system almost does without any traditional buttons or switches. The digital instruments and the infotainment system merge into one unit for digital operations, information, communication and entertainment.
In contrast to the basic version, which has analogue tubes behind a 7-inch screen and a 9.2-inch touchscreen, the digital version features a 12-inch display in front of the driver seat and just next to it is the touchscreen for the superior infotainment system, which is 15 inches. Climate, seat heating and navigation controls are integrate into its touch screen interface alongside a host of other functions. It can be used and adjusted to your personal preferences practically without any instruction or guidance. Because the human being really should be at the centre of the action.
The driver can adjust the assist, driving dynamic and comfort systems to their own taste. They allows them to create their own totally personal Touareg. Drivers and passengers no longer have to adapt themselves to the car. The car adapts itself to them. It’s as easy as setting up a new smartphone. Even the technically uninclined won’t face any problems, most of all because a lot of things work in a self-explanatory way. So easy, as if Volkswagen had invented the smartphone.
Multifunctional and customisable home screen
I have already mentioned that the Innovision Cockpit can be adjusted to fully meet the needs of the driver. The home screen in the Touareg is also designed to be multifunctional and at the same time highly customisable. The digital layout of the home screen comprises a controllable and personalisable status bar in the upper region of the screen, the controllable air conditioning block for Climatronic and seat functions, function tiles (a large central tile and two smaller, freely assignable tiles), freely assignable favourite buttons (to the left of the screen), selectable clock designs as well as a 3D model representation of the vehicle and the seats.
The all-wheel drive and the soon to be available plug-in hybrid drive can also be visualised. The menu navigation is intuitively laid out here as well. That is to say, you don’t really need operating instructions. So for example, you can use the home button, a virtual button at the bottom edge of the display, just as in smartphones, to return from to the home screen from any menu. That always helps when you're in doubt.
NightVision as an outstanding innovation from Volkswagen
Driving at night isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. For older people and those who wear glasses, driving at dusk or in darkness can often give rise to some anxiety. The reason for this is simple: the pupil of the eye dilates in darkness so that more light can be let in. When this happens the field of clear vision unfortunately become narrower. The consequence of this is that your vision is not as clear. Volkswagen can’t give us clearer vision but with the new NightVision function, the car takes on the drivers discomfort and provides him with additional safety.
The new Touareg is the first Volkswagen to come with NightVision. When NightVision detects a danger on the road, it actively warns the driver via an alert in the Digital Cockpit and in the (optional) head-up display. How does it work? A thermal imaging (infrared) camera registers the infrared rays given off by people and animals. They are marked on a black and white image as either yellow or red according to the risk they pose.
The image is transmitted to the Digital Cockpit behind the steering wheel. At the same time, the system puts the brakes and the brake assist system into standby mode, so that they can provide an optimal braking performance if required. The people in a potential danger area are also flashed using a the also new, interactive LED matrix headlights in order to make them more visible to the driver and to warn them.
This spotlight is only available when bought with NightVision. Danger situations can be recognised and avoided much more quickly with the combination of NightVision and I.Q. Light LED matrix headlights. Hats off to the Volkswagen engineers. They’ve done a great job! Their innovation will definitely help in reducing the occurrence of accidents involving harm to people and will save lives.
Fantastic to experience such innovations, concludes the car tester, who is particularly with his dream job today.
