I have a 2021 First Edition. A few weeks ago, the car began showing a yellow warning about unspecified electrical problems (high voltage system malfunction -- take vehicle to workshop). The car was driveable but I made an appointment for service asap.
While driving to the dealer (2 hours each way), the display began to show "Take over steering immediately." This alert went right to the red version, skipping the less histrionic white and yellow warnings that occur when your hands are off the wheel. The alerts were momentary, but they occurred about five times. When these alerts occurred, I had both hands firmly on the wheel and was not wearing gloves or anything that could defeat the sensor (which I understand is capacitive). At the dealer, I added this anomaly to the service order.
The high voltage battery issue turned out to be a bad cell (module J993). They dropped the battery and replace that cell, apparently solving the problem. As for the steering wheel, they found that "touch intensity sensor 3" was not operating up to spec, so they replaced the steering wheel.
I picked up the car on Friday. On the long drive home, the red "Take over steering immediately" warning flashed a few more times. This time, however, I observed a pattern: the alert only occurred while Travel Assist was engaged and, as best I could tell, it occurred when Travel Assist may have been confused about my position in the lane. During one event, I noticed that the lane lines were missing on a short section of the road (probably because of a turn lane). On some other alerts, I noticed that the alert showed when I was not within the lane lines and had not signaled a turn. After that, I looked for opportunities (when the road was empty) to flagrantly cross the double yellow line to see if that generated an alert. It did so once or twice, but I think there are more conditions that are involved in the spurious warnings. With Travel Assist off, I could not make the alerts happen.
I wonder if this is not a sensor issue but a software issue. Travel Assist (which can only be engaged while adaptive cruise is on) seeks to keep me centered in the lane. If I am consciously leaving my lane and use the turn signal, Travel Assist relaxes. If I appear to be out of my lane but have not used a turn signal, that poses a dilemma. I doubt that VW would program the software to scream an alert every time someone turns without signalling. There are too many oblivious consumers who would not tolerate a vehicle that insulted their driving so constantly. But maybe there is some other set of conditions that led VW to program the software to sound the "take over steering" alert when the vehicle "thinks" it might be going off the road. One of those conditions could be the engagement of Travel Assist, if VW assumes that there is a greater probability that a person using Travel Assist isn't paying full attention to driving.
On the other hand, maybe the touch intensity sensors are just error-prone. I dunno.
While driving to the dealer (2 hours each way), the display began to show "Take over steering immediately." This alert went right to the red version, skipping the less histrionic white and yellow warnings that occur when your hands are off the wheel. The alerts were momentary, but they occurred about five times. When these alerts occurred, I had both hands firmly on the wheel and was not wearing gloves or anything that could defeat the sensor (which I understand is capacitive). At the dealer, I added this anomaly to the service order.
The high voltage battery issue turned out to be a bad cell (module J993). They dropped the battery and replace that cell, apparently solving the problem. As for the steering wheel, they found that "touch intensity sensor 3" was not operating up to spec, so they replaced the steering wheel.
I picked up the car on Friday. On the long drive home, the red "Take over steering immediately" warning flashed a few more times. This time, however, I observed a pattern: the alert only occurred while Travel Assist was engaged and, as best I could tell, it occurred when Travel Assist may have been confused about my position in the lane. During one event, I noticed that the lane lines were missing on a short section of the road (probably because of a turn lane). On some other alerts, I noticed that the alert showed when I was not within the lane lines and had not signaled a turn. After that, I looked for opportunities (when the road was empty) to flagrantly cross the double yellow line to see if that generated an alert. It did so once or twice, but I think there are more conditions that are involved in the spurious warnings. With Travel Assist off, I could not make the alerts happen.
I wonder if this is not a sensor issue but a software issue. Travel Assist (which can only be engaged while adaptive cruise is on) seeks to keep me centered in the lane. If I am consciously leaving my lane and use the turn signal, Travel Assist relaxes. If I appear to be out of my lane but have not used a turn signal, that poses a dilemma. I doubt that VW would program the software to scream an alert every time someone turns without signalling. There are too many oblivious consumers who would not tolerate a vehicle that insulted their driving so constantly. But maybe there is some other set of conditions that led VW to program the software to sound the "take over steering" alert when the vehicle "thinks" it might be going off the road. One of those conditions could be the engagement of Travel Assist, if VW assumes that there is a greater probability that a person using Travel Assist isn't paying full attention to driving.
On the other hand, maybe the touch intensity sensors are just error-prone. I dunno.
