Have we seen the end of built-in Traffic information?

[philc43]

For the last 6 months or so the traffic information via the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) has not been available in my 2017 Passat. This is because Trafficmaster no longer make the data available over FM radio and as far as I know VW have not made any effort to modify their systems to use the alternative provider (INRIX).

The only work around is to use a mobile phone either as a stand alone device or integrated via CarPlay or Android Auto and this seems to be what VW assume we will do.

I'm looking out for any workarounds that can modify the units, I've seen evidence that earlier versions of the VW maps (Ver12.7) can be re-coded to work with the INRIX data but this only works for some units and of course the maps are now out of date. Newer maps work in a different way. My unit is manufactured by Delphi and apparently cannot be modified. It's a surprisingly complex problem which is perhaps why there is not much information available on it.

The TMC was not that effective so I don't think it's a big loss but it has made a number of people more interested in activating the CarPlay and Android Auto options.