Photo: Volkswagen
Having been enforced almost unnoticed because of the ongoing health crisis that has paralyzed the auto industry, the stop of deliveries for the new Volkswagen Golf 8 was lifted this week, announced the German carmaker.
Since the beginning of May, Volkswagen froze deliveries of the new Golf on account of a potential issue with the eCall/Emergency Assist system of the car. Now that a software update has been created, new Golfs will get back on the road, heading for their eager customers.
eCall is so far a European-only deal. Implemented by the European Union on April 1st, 2018, it is basically a feature that automatically dials Europe's single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious road accident.
eCall is made up of a series of in-vehicle sensors and processors, linked with a communications device and a GPS tracker, all running on a SIM card. When a car goes through a severe crash, eCall automatically kicks in and calls the Europe-wide emergency number 112. GPS is used to identify both the location of the car and the appropriate emergency call center to be notified.
It is something all new cars produced on the continent must be fitted with.
In the case of the Golf, it was found that in some vehicles “the software in the online connectivity unit (OCU3) control unit may not reliably transfer data.” This basically meant a properly-working eCall could not be guaranteed by Volkswagen.
The Germans announced their stopping deliveries on May 17, and have been working ever since on finding a solution. It appears all it took was a software update that would be installed in vehicles that have already rolled off production lines.
In the case of the Golf 8s that have already been delivered to customers (around 15,000 in Germany), these will have to be taken in to dealers to install the update. For the rest, “the precautionary, self-imposed, preventive delivery stop will now be lifted with the availability of the software update.”
eCall is so far a European-only deal. Implemented by the European Union on April 1st, 2018, it is basically a feature that automatically dials Europe's single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious road accident.
eCall is made up of a series of in-vehicle sensors and processors, linked with a communications device and a GPS tracker, all running on a SIM card. When a car goes through a severe crash, eCall automatically kicks in and calls the Europe-wide emergency number 112. GPS is used to identify both the location of the car and the appropriate emergency call center to be notified.
It is something all new cars produced on the continent must be fitted with.
In the case of the Golf, it was found that in some vehicles “the software in the online connectivity unit (OCU3) control unit may not reliably transfer data.” This basically meant a properly-working eCall could not be guaranteed by Volkswagen.
The Germans announced their stopping deliveries on May 17, and have been working ever since on finding a solution. It appears all it took was a software update that would be installed in vehicles that have already rolled off production lines.
In the case of the Golf 8s that have already been delivered to customers (around 15,000 in Germany), these will have to be taken in to dealers to install the update. For the rest, “the precautionary, self-imposed, preventive delivery stop will now be lifted with the availability of the software update.”
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