Volkswagen has been accused of ruining crops planted near one of its factories in Mexico by using technology to alter the weather. Local groups have accused the German automaker of causing a dry spell with hail cannons that shoot sonic booms into the air to prevent the formation of hail. The devices are used to protect cars parked outside the factory from dents caused by hailstones. Following the complaints, Volkswagen has promised to reduce its use of the cannons at its Puebla factory. The automaker said it now plans to install "anti-hail nets" over more than 150 acres to protect its cars. It said it would continue to use the cannons if needed. The automaker has around 15,000 workers at the Puebla factory, which manufactures models including the Jetta, Beetle, Tiguan and Golf. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles are produced at the plant each year. Local activists said the cannons had damaged crops in the region. Mike Eggers, the owner of a hail cannon manufacturer in New Zealand, said the technology is often incorrectly blamed for stopping rain.
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The user interface design isn't very exciting, as it's mostly white on black with a bit of accent color here and there, but that's partly due to the simple functions it offers. On higher-level trims with the Composition or Discover Media system, the general look is the same but you'll see a bit more color in appropriate places like channel logos on the preset buttons in SiriusXM. The screen has a matte finish that does a decent job of minimizing glare and fingerprints, although the hardware buttons surrounding the screen tend to pick up a bit of visible oils from your fingers. Speaking of those hardware buttons, they represent a straightforward set of options that eliminates the need for any sort of home screen on the system. Radio and Media buttons at the top left let you jump straight to the radio controls or change audio sources, while a Car button at the bottom left shows you some vehicle data like fuel and power efficiency. At the top right, you'll find a Phone button for accessing a Bluetooth-paired phone and an App button to take you into CarPlay or Android Auto.
Finally, a Setup button at the bottom right gets you into various settings. A power/volume knob on the left and a tune/scroll knob on the right complete the lineup of hardware controls. The Jetta offers nearly a full set of hardware climate control knobs and buttons, which is great for making adjustments by feel rather than having to hunt around on a touchscreen. There are also touchscreen controls if you prefer to use them, although it took me a little while to even discover them. The climate control screen on the infotainment system is activated by hitting a Menu button on the center fan control knob. Locating it so far from the screen is a little odd, but I guess it makes sense to have it with the physical controls and once you learn it's there, you're unlikely to forget it. The touchscreen pretty much duplicates what the hardware controls can do, although the digital screen lets you see more information such as exactly where air flows from on different fan settings and quickly switch between them.
The Jetta SE does include a digital driver's display with several different views to help you see some data like audio track information, but it's monochrome and pretty low resolution, so it could stand to see some improvement. It's not until you get up to the SEL and SEL Premium trims that you get a full digital cockpit, including the ability to display full-screen navigation on the SEL Premium's Discover Media system. To augment the Composition Color, VW supports CarPlay and Android Auto standard on all trims, and here you'll get the usual CarPlay experience with full, vivid color on the screen. At only 6.5 inches, things can get a little cramped, particularly in Apple Maps or Google Maps where you have informational overlays obscuring portions of the map view. The combination of CarPlay and the Composition Color system on the lower-level Jetta trims really lets you see how you can get away with a barebones infotainment system. The built-in infotainment system really doesn't need to support much more than terrestrial radio, as even basic phone connectivity like Bluetooth call and media support are unnecessary once you activate CarPlay.
