What's The Deal With Infotainment?

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54)
06/19/2015 at 19:32 • Filed to: infotainment

Everybody seems to want an infotainment system. Having access to your music, phone, and navigation right on your dashboard is a wonderful thing, unless it doesn’t work so well - and most don’t.

According to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :

The top two problems reported by owners in the study are Bluetooth pairing and connectivity, and built-in voice recognition systems misinterpreting the driver’s commands. These were the same two problems most frequently reported by owners in last year’s Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS).

Admittedly, our esteemed Editor-In-Chief considers J.D. Power ratings to be “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ,” so take this with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! full of salt.

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I, on the other hand, am so amazingly primitive that I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. My only experience with infotainment systems is in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , whose Starlink system is considered one of the less bad ones out there. My salesman sat in the car with me and helped me pair Bluetooth with my phone, but his help wasn’t necessary. It worked on the first try, and has connected automatically every time since then. But considering all the general complaints about Bluetooth, it was very smart of him to make sure my car didn’t even roll off the lot until he was certain it was set up properly. Are other dealers this diligent?

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Voice recognition, however, is pretty lousy. I can make phone calls okay, but forget trying to give the navigation system a destination. Even worse, it locks out most touchscreen functions if you’re in motion, so you can’t enter a destination while driving. Even your passenger can’t. You have to either fight the voice commands or stop to enter a destination. I’ve found it faster and easier to just pull over and punch it in. It’s inconvenient, but better than fighting the lousy voice command interface.

The navigation itself could be better, too. For starters, despite my car being a 2014 model, it came with maps from 2011. You can buy updated maps from Subaru, and I’ve read on the Toyobaru forums that a complaint to customer service will get you a free update without difficulty. I haven’t bothered. Most of the time the navigation itself works fairly well. Sometimes it doesn’t choose the optimum route, yet it usually gets you there eventually. If I have time, I tend to double check its route against Google Maps, especially if I’m heading somewhere far away or I’m on a tight schedule.

But when it screws up, it screws up big. A few times it’s taken me all the way to the opposite side of a city from where I actually needed to be. Also, it doesn’t take traffic into consideration, which can be a huge issue in areas with heavy traffic. Yes, I can subscribe to XM NavTraffic, which my car supports, but during my three month free trial when I first got the car I found the traffic information provided to not be useful, and have no effect on what route it chooses. It just plotted the same route and told me, “Oh, bee tee dubs, you’re going to be late.” So I’ve given up using it for navigation, and use Waze on my phone instead. It works far more reliably and has many features that no infotainment system has.

So it’s no wonder that many manufacturers are turning to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! There’s no need to reinvent the wheel as auto manufacturers have been doing up until now. People are already familiar with the Apple and Android user interfaces, so these should be much easier to use, and hopefully overcome the major issues that current infotainment systems have. In fact, some people already mount a tablet in front of their stock system, or replace it entirely.

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It makes perfect sense. This is what Apple and Google do. They’ve done far more research and development on smartphone and tablet user interfaces than the auto manufacturers and their subcontractors. Expecting automakers to design a great infotainment system is like expecting software manufacturers to build a great car. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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But when it comes to infotainment systems, I, for one, welcome our mobile OS overlords. It seems the best and quickest way to make vast improvements over what we struggle with now.

(Photo credits: Justin Hughes, ft86club.com )

DISCUSSION (14)

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 20:49

My job is literally addressing those complaints. I work for a Lexus dealer teaching people how to use their cars.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 20:49

I would have to say Chrysler’s uConnect is probably one of the best on the market. Looks fancy but is surprisingly simple to use and I haven’t run into any issues with the one in my Dart yet. The Nav is done by Garmin, which, IMO is fairly reliable. I would much rather have Google maps instead but I’m fine without all the Android/Apple bullshit in my car.

Justin Hughes > jvirgs drives a Subaru
06/19/2015 at 20:57

I’ve read that Chrysler’s is one of the better ones out there, so I believe you. I’ve also read people complain endlessly about MyFordTouch, and BMW’s iDrive back when it first came out. But iDrive got much better over the years, so maybe the others will follow.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 21:02

If you want a terrible infotainment system, use Honda’s HondaLink. That is a terrible system.

Tohru > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 21:37

... And what’s the deal with airline food?

Justin Hughes > Tohru
06/19/2015 at 21:47

I’ve got nothing.

Tohru > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 21:55

Jerrrrry!

KirkyV > Justin Hughes
06/19/2015 at 22:55

I do like the sound of getting some Android Auto in my life, but most of the headunits around at the mo cost about as much as my car is worth...

Viggen9er3 > Justin Hughes
06/20/2015 at 06:14

As long as a car has blutooh that works properly, which most cars do, that’s all you need at the moment. Worst case, you can buy a blutooh adaptor for an audio input port.

Let your phone do all the work. Google maps, really good voice recognition, free updates, music, streaming services and apps etc. Why would you want to use an in car setup, when your phone can do it all. Bonus, if you like phones and upgrade often, its an upgrade for your car.

Justin Hughes > Viggen9er3
06/20/2015 at 08:25

That’s pretty much what I’m doing. The problem is with more and more legal bans on using handheld devices while driving. If it’s in the dashboard it’s ok. I put mine in a RAM mount on my dashboard, but it’s not clear cut in the law whether that’s considered ok or if my phone is considered a handheld device even if I'm not holding it in my hand.

BrainForest > Justin Hughes
06/22/2015 at 13:37

Yes, thank you, I would like my infotainment screen to look like the KITT interface. Yes.

Justin Hughes > BrainForest
06/22/2015 at 13:47

So far that’s just my startup screen. I’m thinking I should replace it with something like this.

Kinja'd!!!

Gonemad > Justin Hughes
06/22/2015 at 15:33

Kinja'd!!!

KITT? Really?

Gonemad > jvirgs drives a Subaru
06/23/2015 at 05:46

My dad had a portable garmin gps even before gps devices were popular (this still had serial interface). The gps accuracy was less than a yard (pretty outstanding back then), but the user interface was never good. At least you didn’t have to fix the watch, it would read the time from those big honking satellites.... because I have seen systems that need you to tell them what time it is when the battery goes down, not just the time zone. Even being the gps a... clock... in space....

And that Ford’s voice recognition software on Fusion... nope. Not yet. Almost there.