Volkswagen has added voice control to climate functions in the Golf, enabling the car to respond interactively to driver and passenger wishes.
The three-zone automatic air conditioner, known as Air Care Climatronic, has a Smart Climate menu that can activate specific individual functions such as ‘Warm feet’ or ‘Clear view’ using voice control. The temperature of air conditioning can be adjusted using a touchscreen or voice input.
The driver and passenger can access the menu control of the Air Care Climatronic via the infotainment system’s screen or the touch field below with direct access buttons.
The screen features the new Smart Climate menu, with Volkswagen saying it is no longer necessary to spend time adjusting different parameters of the air conditioning system, as preconfigured scenarios can be activated with one touch or voice control.
Volkswagen has identified five frequently used scenarios and transferred them to the Smart Climate menu.
The functions are ‘clear view’ to demist windows; ‘warm feet’ to warm the footwell; ‘warm hands’ for warmer air via the vents; ‘cool feet’ for colder air in the footwell; and ‘fresh air; for a cool breeze in the interior.
The Smart Climate functions are only activated temporarily, briefly enhancing well-being before reverting to the previously activated settings of automatic air conditioning.
Digital microphones recognize whether the driver or passenger is speaking, so the Air Care Climatronic will change the temperature for the correct side.
Volkswagen has released a video demonstrating the new feature.
