Former VW Owner Discovered Digital Access to her Car Months after it was Sold

Last December, Ashley Sehatti sold her 2015 Jetta back to a local Volkswagen dealership in California. So when the calendar turned over, she didn’t understand why she was still getting sent monthly reports about the car’s health. After another one came in April, she finally logged on to VW’s online portal for Car-Net, the telematics system that runs in many of the company’s modern cars.

To her surprise, Sehatti saw the location of her old Jetta on a map, up-to-date mileage, and the status of the car’s locks and lights. It had been resold, and yet she still had access to some of the car’s systems. “There was nothing in place to stop me from accessing the full UI,” she says over email.

VOLKSWAGEN DOESN’T WIPE CAR-NET ACCOUNTS EVEN IF THE CAR IS RESOLD THROUGH A DEALER

What Sehatti hadn’t realized is that Volkswagen puts the burden of disabling access to Car-Net squarely on the customer in its terms of service agreement when they decide to sell or exchange a car — even if the car is going back to a VW dealer. If a VW owner sells their car without disabling Car-Net, and the vehicle’s next owner doesn’t immediately sign up for the service, there’s a chance that the previous owner could still have access to compromising information about that car.

With the advent of services like CarPlay and Android Auto and forward-thinking automakers like Tesla entering the industry, the pressure to add more technology to cars has never been higher. But oftentimes, this means legacy automakers are working with technology and speeds that they might not be used to, which has led to some bumps in the road for both companies and customers.