Fin Antenna Elements

[TheyVanish]

Hello all, I'm posting to add a piece of data to the knowledge bank. I'm sure someone with a schematic could figure this out, but here goes:
2016 E-golf SE US spec. (no navigation)

Bottom line up front: Blue connector on rooftop fin antenna is GPS signal to set time.

I've seen discussion regarding the telemetry and tracking VW does. None of it sat well with me so I disconnected all elements from the fin antenna and left them off. My bluetooth and AM/FM reception were unchanged. What did change was the clock could no longer be adjusted because I had left it in GPS mode. Your options are to leave the blue connector plugged in, change the clock to manual time set before disconnecting, or just have a clock that is wrong the next time you disconnect your 12v battery. Having an incorrect clock wouldn't be too terrible unless you use your e-manager to set departure time charging and climate control. Interestingly, plugging my phone into Android auto via USB had the stereo display the correct time... until I unplugged my phone.

If you know what the green and brown connectors do, please add to the discussion.

 

[f1geek]

Google is tracking everything you do on your phone as well as sites you visit using chrome. Google never promised privacy. At least Apple says it cares about privacy. Look at software problems VW is having and you might feel better about VW’s ability to do anything with data it’s collected. Google is very good with data.

 

[f1geek]

And many VW cars (2017 and earlier - not sure how late) have 3G connectivity which is now defunct, so VW won’t be collecting any data anymore for a large swatch of vehicles.

 

[TheyVanish]

Google is tracking everything you do on your phone as well as sites you visit using chrome. Google never promised privacy. At least Apple says it cares about privacy. Look at software problems VW is having and you might feel better about VW’s ability to do anything with data it’s collected. Google is very good with data.

Those software problems are the reason I disconnected; I'm afraid they'll push a poorly designed update and brick the car. At the time of my original post, Verizon still operated a 3g network.

 

[f1geek]

Your worries are unfounded. VW confirmed many years ago there would never be OTA updates for the e-Golf. I called VW customer service several times shortly after I got my car and was told repeatedly there would not be any software updates offered by dealers, either. Luckily, the software is pretty good.