Is there a way or is there truly no way to have the car connect to home Wi-Fi network?

My experience with in-car WiFi, at least thus far, is that it's not designed to be a "client", it's designed to be a "router" that lets you deliver Internet connectivity to wireless devices inside the car. But I don't have specific information about the ID.BUZZ or other VW vehicles.

If nobody here can give you a more definitive answer, you might try reposting your question in one of the ID.4 forums, since from what I've gathered the software is very similar.

 

I was just looking to connect to home WiFi so it can stay up to date and connect to the VW app while at home. Nothing more advances than that. I'll see what others say in the ID.4 forums.

 

There is no point in the car connecting to your home WiFi. It won’t do anything with the connection.

To stop the phone from grabbing the car Wi-Fi instead of the Starlink’s:

Go to the iPhone Settings -> WiFi and make sure it is On. At the bottom, set Auto-Join Hotspot to Never. Set Ask to Join Networks to Off. If the car hotspot is in Other Networks with your neighbors’ WiFi, that’s where it should be. If the car hotspot is below the On/Off switch or is in My Networks (where your configured home, Starlink, and maybe work networks can be), you MUST click the blue i with the circle around it and click on Forget This Network. Confirm if necessary. It doesn’t hurt to power cycle the iPhone and make sure the settings held.

 

What do you mean there is no point? Why wouldn't it do anything with the connection? Would it not communicate with VW mothership? At least the VW app? Update the software?

Thanks, for the walk through on the changes in the settings. Did these. However, I get a notification that Apple Car Play will no longer work without turning back on WiFi - The car needs to join WiFi hotspot to work properly.

 

What do you mean there is no point? Why wouldn't it do anything with the connection? Would it not communicate with VW mothership? At least the VW app? Update the software?

No, no, no, no. The car only uses cellular for those things, Verizon as the default, T-Mobile if you have VW change it.

Thanks, for the walk through on the changes in the settings. Did these. However, I get a notification that Apple Car Play will no longer work without turning back on WiFi -

I didn’t tell you to turn WI-Fi on the car off—just to set the iPhone up to ignore it.

The car needs to join WiFi hotspot to work properly.

Wrong. CarPlay doesn’t use a configured connection. Its Bluetooth kickstart makes a peer to peer Wi-Fi connection.

 

No, no, no, no. The car only uses cellular for those things, Verizon as the default, T-Mobile if you have VW change it.



I didn’t tell you to turn WI-Fi on the car off—just to set the iPhone up to ignore it.



Wrong. CarPlay doesn’t use a configured connection. Its Bluetooth kickstart makes a peer to peer Wi-Fi connection.

Seems short-sighted to only use a cellular connection to communicate with no fall-back to a WiFi connection like my Tesla does. Particularly for us rural dwellers.

I did not turn off WiFi in the car. I touched settings in the phone only, I did not touch anything in the car itself. The notifications came from the car when I tried to access Apple Car Play, telling me to turn on WiFi on the phone. Only the settings I had changed were based on your instructions, plus reboot. I just gave up and went back inside. I'll try again later. I appreciate your help though.

 

Sorry to tell you that it’s not possible to connect the car to a WIFi access point for any purpose, and even if you could, there would be no point to it. All the car’s wireless communications with the mother ship—telematics, OTA updates, receiving app commands, etc—can only be done via connection to a private encrypted IoT cellular network that’s not directly accessible from the public Internet. So you’re out of luck until you can somehow get cell coverage where you are.

The internal WiFi in the car is a hotspot meant to give passenger devices Internet access via a cellular connection. If your phone keeps connecting to that hotspot and you haven‘t activated the hotspot service, your phone won’t have any network connectivity. So in that case, it’d be best to have your phone “forget” the hotspot’s WiFi access point in the car.

 

All the car’s wireless communications with the mother ship—telematics, OTA updates, receiving app commands, etc—can only be done via connection to a private encrypted IoT cellular network that’s not directly accessible from the public Internet. So you’re out of luck until you can somehow get cell coverage where you are.

This is correct, but it doesn't have to be that way. There is no reason that VW couldn't connect via a VPN over the public Internet, using your home wifi connection.

They just want total control, so they go through the IoT cellular, which is still only a 'virtual' private connection. They probably use a custom APN.

My Ford Mach-e will use my home WiFi to get software updates. Don't know why the ID.4 won't.

 

Don’t the cell companies, ie Verizon sell devices that connect to your home internet and essentially add a low power cell tower at your house? If so that would be the easiest way to get this done

edit: here is one.

Verizon LTE Network Extender, Up To 16 Users | Shop Now

The Verizon LTE Network Extender enhances existing LTE coverage in your home or office and supports up to 16 users. Get it today at Verizon.

www.verizon.com

From the webpage: “The Verizon LTE Network Extender is like having your own mini cell tower for your home or office.”

 

My Ford Mach-e will use my home WiFi to get software updates. Don't know why the ID.4 won't.

Heck, my 2019 Subaru did that after I bought it.

Don’t the cell companies, ie Verizon sell devices that connect to your home internet and essentially add a low power cell tower at your house? If so that would be the easiest way to get this done

Yes. Since the OP’s cellphone service is from T-Mobile, they might even do that free. The car could be reconfigured to use T-Mobile. However, I’m not 100% sure that would work for the VW comms.

 

The hotspot
Heck, my 2019 Subaru did that after I bought it.


Yes. Since the OP’s cellphone service is from T-Mobile, they might even do that free. The car could be reconfigured to use T-Mobile. However, I’m not 100% sure that would work for the VW comms.

as far as I can tell as long as you leave it in open access mode, whatever is connected can’t tell the difference between it and a regular cell tower. I don’t know why it wouldn’t work

 

It probably won't help, but I'll weigh in. VW are control freaks. If they let you use WiFi to transmit software updates then you might use some common network tools to intercept and download the software updates yourself. Then there would be all kinds of chaos such as individuals fixingt their software with unauthorized software patches. That strikes at the heart of the German Kontrol.

 

I agree with you and hate not being able to work on your own property, but the entire point of a VPN (or even just TLS over the open Internet) is that it is encrypted, and should not be able to be intercepted or snooped.

 

Sure, it would work… but it would require them to do something somewhat complex… and it’s far easier for them to just say “cellular only” and move on to something more interesting… like not developing preconditionin for our v3.x cars…