Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport lands user experience award
Volkswagen’s Chattanooga-made 2020 Atlas Cross Sport SUV has been named one of Wards 10 best vehicles for user experience due to easy-to-use and functional technology, according to the automaker.
User experience, or how the driver and passengers interact with a vehicle, includes voice controls, touchscreens, connectivity, infotainment, intuitive controls, and driver-assistance technologies, the company said Friday.
VW said that judging consisted of a thorough review of 18 vehicles available in the U.S. with all-new or re-engineered user experience, or UX, features.
“Atlas Cross Sport has taken much of the functionality of the Atlas and put it into a sleeker design with the latest technology. Clearly, it’s a winning combination,” said Duncan Movassaghi, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Volkswagen of America, in a statement.
The five-seat Cross Sport became part of VW’s SUV offensive in America early this year, joining the seven-seat Atlas, which also is
built in Chattanooga.
Tom Murphy, Wards Auto managing editor, said the user experience has become a vital focus for automakers trying to integrate rapidly evolving technologies in nextgeneration vehicles so that consumers can use these technologies behind the wheel and without distraction.
“The Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport checks all our boxes as we score vehicles for connectivity, infotainment, displays, intuitive controls and on-board driver-assistance technologies that are taking us toward the era of autonomous vehicles,” he said. “We noted wireless phone charging and a whopping five USB ports in our test vehicle — one for each seat — and voice commands are acted on quickly.” The Cross Sport, which has two rows of seats instead of the three inside the Atlas SUV on which it’s based, isn’t seen by VW officials as a niche vehicle but rather a key volume seller.
“The name of the game is SUVs,” said Scott Keogh, Volkswagen Group of America’s chief executive, late last year in Chattanooga as one of the first new Atlas Cross Sports rolled off the assembly line inside the factory amid clapping by workers.
The Chattanooga plant, which employs about 3,800 people, also assembles the Passat sedan.