A friend recently shelled out $105,000 for a Mercedes GLS 550. We took it on a proving run through the rugged terrain for which it was designed (i.e., to the Natick Mall).
There are some dedicated buttons on the dashboard, e.g., for climate control and audio volume. Then there is what looks like an Android tablet stuck on top of the dash. This is where most of the car’s functions, including navigation, are controlled. If you’ve ever used a smartphone you’ll be completely confused by this tablet because it isn’t a touchscreen. A trackpad/trackball-like controller is down by the driver’s right hand.
The navigation database in this brand-new car didn’t know about the Total Wine, which opened more than a year ago. We used Google Maps on our phones to get the address. It took my friend three tries to get the address into the Mercedes via the voice interface.
One inherently confusing thing about the system is that most things, but not everything, are controlled from the big screen. Everything having to do with climate control is on dedicated buttons. Only some stuff related to audio, however, is on dedicated buttons.
Given the importance of navigation to the typical driver, an actual Android tablet or iPad stuck on the top portion of the dashboard would have been much more useful. Maybe Mercedes would want to tweak the software a little to enable control of the seat massage feature, etc. And maybe they’d have to redo the mechanical adapter every two or three years to adapt to new Android/iOS tablets. But it would be cheaper and better for everyone, I think.
Auto makers’ infotainment software departments are a good illustration of Dunning-Kruger syndrome. Their UIs stink, yet they keep resisting implementing iOS CarPlay or Android Auto where the screen mirrors your phone and you leave the UI and app design to people with a clue.
CarPlay is available as an option on that model, though, not sure if your friend has it:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/01/one-week-with-apples-carplay/
Too bad your friend didn’t just get a RAM mount, a USB power outlet, and a Simple Bluetooth head unit to mount, charge, and pair with a smart phone.
I have a Hyundai Genesis (aka Genesis G80) which does have a touch screen but that doesn’t mean that the thing is not a complete muddle. It does have Android Auto and Car Play so the thing is schizophrenic – the behavior changes completely depending on whether the phone is connected or not. On Android Auto, Google constantly updates its maps for free. On the built in head unit, map updates are by SD card and are $200 a pop (never mind that for $200 you could get a nice stand alone GPS and not just a minor map update). Google maps and the built in NAV software have completelty different look and feel. The music app is completely different under Android Auto and not. You can talk to Google or you can talk to the head unit using completely different voice recognition programs and command sets (the built in one doesn’t work very well – maybe I need to brush up on my Korean). The head unit can access the internet over wifi but they don’t have it set up to get map updates that way (in fact it’s not clear what the wifi access is for – they were supposed to develop “apps” that you could download to the head unit but there is exactly 1 app available (some kind of software for tracking your kid/valet)). Sirius XM also has certain satellite data capabilities (weather, stocks, sports) and the head unit can also send and receive data over the cellular system via the Hyundai Blue Link system – Hyundai’s answer to OnStar (which can be controlled from a phone app – e.g. I can remote start the car) and when Android Auto is on the head unit receives cellular and wifi data from the phone. And even though it has the hardware to talk on the cellular network, there is no way to subscribe to a data plan so you could create a hotspot in the car or have the thing act as a phone – the Bluelink subscription only gets you enough data to do the OnStar type stuff. So the unit has at least 3 or 4 ways of receiving and displaying data and at least 2 different programs for communicating between your phone and your car but they are not at all integrated with each other or seamless – each is off in its own little world and crippled in some way. The car’s basic functions can be controlled with knobs and buttons but certain settings are buried 3 or 4 levels deep in touchscreen menus. It cries out for someone like Apple to clean up the interface.
Fazal, I’m not sure Dunning -Kruger is the right explanation. Head units are rarely made completely by the automakers themselves – they are almost always subbed out to audio specialists (Alpine, Pioneer, Bosch) etc. even if the actual maker’s name does not appear on the unit. They don’t know about sound systems and navigation any more than they know about UIs and they know that they don’t know. The problem is partly one of integration because the screen is now not just a radio and not just a nav but also runs much of the car. They are not eager to turn control of their car over to google or apple. Mercedes is in a position to tell Bosch what to do but not Google.
At this point, a car should be thought of as a computer which commands a whole bunch of servos and sensors – steering, braking, heating, cooling, engine control, transmission shifting, door locking, air bags, traction control, etc. but the approach is exactly backward for historical reasons and instead you have a whole bunch of separate computers instead which hardly talk to each other. Or else they talk to each other too much because the security has not been thought thru, so that hackers might take control of your steering from the radio. Your car at this point probably has more electronics in it than an Apollo capsule and it’s all kludged together up to and included the screen that is supposed to control it all.
We need to go back to the good-old-days when cars had _real_ buttons and _real_ sliders that you can touch and _feel_ them and when you push a button, the other pops out so you know what’s selected. Why? You need to keep your eye on the road not look away to to make sure you fingers is over the right controller and navigate through dozens of menus to find the one you are looking for.
We have laws making it illegal to use cell phone while driving, how is using the touch screen dashboard any different?
An ideal car should have an all push button design: on the dashboard and on the steering wheel.
I have a 1 year old C350e, which is a brilliant car in many respects. The Garmin navigation system however is complete garbage, far worse than my 10 year old TomTom. Here in Europe there is an option for the google based command online system, which is priced at 3570 euro’s. This must be the highest profit margin component for this car.