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Climate and volume sliders not illuminated? [No, but workarounds]

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#22 ·
I've had my ID.4 for two weeks now and that my biggest issue at first - climate and volume not lit up. However, I never use the volume under the screen, always on the steering wheel. I keep climate control in auto and it took me about a week to build the muscle memory of knowing where to tap. Still, no excuse for this oversight, but I've gotten used to it.
 
#23 ·
jstwannaknow said:
I've had my ID.4 for two weeks now and that my biggest issue at first - climate and volume not lit up. However, I never use the volume under the screen, always on the steering wheel. I keep climate control in auto and it took me about a week to build the muscle memory of knowing where to tap. Still, no excuse for this oversight, but I've gotten used to it.
Click to expand...
Is it lit up on the steering wheel?

Dave
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
Having owned the car for almost a year now I can confirm this design oversight on the volume/climate controls has been consistently annoying. What’s just as frustrating is that reviews of the Buzz show the exact same setup. Are VW engineers living in a bubble where they get no feedback from drivers?
 
#26 ·
LittleJoe said:
Having owned the car for almost a year now I can confirm this design oversight on the volume/climate controls has been consistently annoying. What’s just as frustrating is that reviews of the Buzz show the exact same setup. Are VW engineers living in a bubble where they get no feedback from drivers?
Click to expand...
I'm puzzled by this. There are at least two workarounds, if I understand correctly:

1. Use the lighted haptic buttons on the steering wheel
2. Push the lighted "Clima" (sic) button to bring up the on screen controls and simply make the changes on screen.

Am I missing something? (and I might be, since I don't have my ID.4 yet).

Dave
 
#27 · (Edited)
wildpitcher said:
I'm puzzled by this. There are at least two workarounds, if I understand correctly:

1. Use the lighted haptic buttons on the steering wheel
2. Push the lighted "Clima" (sic) button to bring up the on screen controls and simply make the changes on screen.

Am I missing something? (and I might be, since I don't have my ID.4 yet).

Dave
Click to expand...
The third workaround is to learn by feel where the control surfaces are so that in the dark your fingers know when you reach over what to do. There’s a small vertical ridge separating the temperature slider from the volume control slider, so that helps. You either tap or briefly slide to make an adjustment, and I honestly haven’t found it to be a hassle once I’d done it a few times. Now I just reach over and adjust without even looking.

Is the lack of backlighting an optimal experience? No. Does it ruin my experience of the car? No. Do I think the numerous complaints about the design are a bit hyberbolic? Yes. No car is perfect, and I’m willing to go with the flow and live with my workaround. Different people will have different tolerance levels for things like this, but to me it’s a minor quirk. At least we get a rear wiper, unlike the Ioniq 5, which doesn’t have one. Now that omission, for me, living in New England, would be a dealbreaker because there’s no workaround at all.
 
#28 ·
I agree, it’s a stupid omission especially considering these aren’t really “buttons”. You can’t even feel your way through It.

however, even during the day time, I find it easier to touch the bottom left of the screen which takes me to the climate controls. It’s easier to see and touch. For volume, I have never once used those ”buttons”, I always use the steering wheel controls.
 
#29 ·
LittleJoe said:
Having owned the car for almost a year now I can confirm this design oversight on the volume/climate controls has been consistently annoying. What’s just as frustrating is that reviews of the Buzz show the exact same setup. Are VW engineers living in a bubble where they get no feedback from drivers?
Click to expand...
Really?

This shows how much those O/H LED lights illuminate on either side of the HVAC control at night. No fumbling around in the dark.
Image
 
#30 · (Edited)
Manybees said:
At least we get a rear wiper, unlike the Ioniq 5, which doesn’t have one. Now that omission, for me, living in New England, would be a dealbreaker because there’s no workaround at all.
Click to expand...
Is in the WIP, all-weather testing, waiting for engineering design & manufacturing approval and sign-off from all levels for late 2022 production ;)

Image
 
#33 ·
I plan to model a 3d printed accessory once I get my ID.4 (within a month) to partially solve this problem.

Some sort of cover that sits over the volume/temperature panel, and has inserts that fit glow in the dark pieces of filament. Not sure how much it glows or how long the glow lasts since I've never used it.

Alternatively, I could probably do a small little glow in the dark "disk" with an icon on it that gets double-sided tape'd to the icons embedded in the sliders, something to feel for and glow?

I've thought about a design with an embedded LED and light sensor to shine on the panel. I'd need to get power to it. A rechargeable AAA battery maybe? Maybe a tiny solar panel + battery + LED like you'd see in a solar garden lamp.
 
#34 ·
Trunkenbold said:
That picture potentially has an important clue: if you look in the volume slider you can see Infrared LEDs built into the slider, they appear as little purple dots and are probably only visible in pictures. But they may have something to do with the gesture controls, or perhaps even the reliability of the sliders themselves. I really don't know, and am guessing, but it seems likely to me that they perhaps used to illuminate the controls, but that interfered with whatever those IR LEDs are doing, so they made the decision to get rid of the backlight to preserve that other function. There are certainly more possible answers to this missing feature than just cost cutting or an oversight by the designers.
Click to expand...
Interesting speculation.i wonder if VW technician can help us. Is there an option to remove the panel and mount an led and connect it to another panel light?
 
#36 ·
7S POWER said:
Is in the WIP, all-weather testing, waiting for engineering design & manufacturing approval and sign-off from all levels for late 2022 production ;)

View attachment 10697
Click to expand...
Looking at the image the wiper blade is shorter than the cleaned out half moon. Also it is clean below as well. And finally it is just too clean in general. Sorry I do not believe this picture to be a true update to the car. :cool:
 
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