Volkswagen of America has announced that it will provide Volkswagen Car-Net Safe & Secure connected vehicle emergency services for free, for five years to most 2020 and newer Volkswagen models, effective June 1, 2023. The service is available to all owners who create a myVW account and accept the Terms of Service. The coverage will remain active for five years after the sale date or June 1, whichever is later.
Gas-powered vehicles equipped with Car-Net hardware will receive automatic crash notifications, emergency assistance, stolen vehicle locator, and anti-theft alerts. Meanwhile, ID.4 EV models will receive automatic crash notifications and emergency assistance.
This move comes after a recent carjacking incident in the Chicago area where a child was in a stolen Volkswagen Atlas. According to the release, the police's vehicle tracking was delayed due to a process failure that involved a request for a subscription payment prior to obtaining vehicle locator information. Rachael Zaluzec, SVP, Customer Experience & Brand Marketing for Volkswagen of America, expressed her regret and stated that Volkswagen will do better for everyone that trusts the brand and for the law enforcement officials tasked with protecting them.
"Volkswagen must and will do better for everyone that trusts our brand and for the law enforcement officials tasked with protecting us. In addition to a full investigation of what went wrong and actions taken to address the failure, we want to make it right for the future. Today, we are setting a new standard for customer peace of mind," Zaluzec said.
Volkswagen's Car-Net Safe & Secure service allows owners to access emergency assistance through the SOS button in the vehicle. The driver can also contact the Car-Net service center, which can direct emergency responders to the vehicle's location and notify the user's emergency contacts. The automatic crash notification feature can help notify an operator who can quickly contact first responders in the event of a collision.
Source: Volkswagen