Legal Bill

Rob's post about his Si reminded me that I wanted to start a discussion on this subject. Between my 2016 BMW and Barbara's 2017 Lexus I've had some recent experience with new car electronics. The BMW was ordered with only the electronics that come standard. i did not get the technology package. Barbara's car has the the full technology compliment of equipment.

I find the BMW's electronics fairly easy to use. The dial and screen that accompany the base system is pretty easy to figure out. The menus are also pretty easy to remember and subjects are logically arranged. Using the dial and a push button, you can get where you want to go pretty quickly. The car has no lane departure warning, proximity warning, or any other "look out, you are going to crash" features. The car is missing two things that I wish it had. A back-up camera (really should be standard and I guess it is now, due to mandates) and voice command. I miss voice command for making phone calls. The dial and push button work ok, but spelling out names is a bit too distraction for my liking. I do not have in-car GPS. My iPhone takes care of that...EXCEPT because the phone is bluetoothed to the car, the step by step voice commands do not function!!! ARRRGH.

My wife's Lexus is another matter. To summarize, most of the things the car does without owner/user interface work just fine. Back-up camera, proximity sensors, lane departure warning, etc all work well. Things that the user controls are another story. The radio is a nightmare. I can;t believe that a car manufacturer would design a radio system that makes the old push button radios from the 1960's look good. I can't imagine what went into the decisions to make this aspect of the car so complicated. My wife really can't figure it out. We pretty much use voice command not to change the channels which means I have to remember the call numbers of our favorite stations. The GPS is an improvement over her old Lexus, but still no bargain. I wish we didn't even have it. The back door does not open every time you push the button. sometimes I have to walk away and come back to get it to work. The menus on the touch screen are difficult to understand and take you to places that don't make much sense and are difficult to return from.

Based on my experience, I think that in-car technology is pretty much beyond what I need or want. I know I'm comparing apples and oranges, but i think the base BMW technology is plenty and the Lexus "all-in" package is just a red hot mess. I think most people would be better off saving their money and just skipping these packages. So how do the rest of you feel about your new in-car technology?

Conedodger

I'm with you. Too much technology in cars these days. More distractions. More to go wrong. I hate the automatic climate controls. AC is always running and it never seems to be coming out of the vents I want it to. I'm glad we bought the 2010 Accord instead of the 2014 we originally were negotiating on. Far fewer nannies and confusion for my wife.

Chuck S

Hard to sell cars these days so none of the automakers do. They sell styling and gimmicks. Nothing that new as I swear half the owners manual of my S2000 is how to work the radio!

Drove my wife's car this summer and none of the dash vents worked. She had them all closed because the climate control in her Subaru would run the fan and AC at Mach 1 on a hot day. I have no idea where the air was going and the car wasn't cooling down with the vents closed.

Many things are now controlled via the car's computer rather than relays and wiring. There is a way to hack the new Ford's ECU with software called Forscan, a ODB2 interface, and PC. My new Expedition lacked DRLs but I was able to activate them by changing a line of code with recourse to the dealer. Same with extinguishing annoying dashboard icons like a giant green fog light icon. I also activated the engine hour meter. I'm sure other cars function in much the same manner if you can find how it's done.

-- Chuck

Morris

Bill, our 2015 Lexus has the same technology and we have yet to figure out how to change the radio station. If you don't program them in (36 stations on six different views) you are stuck. And how do you change the station when you are supposed to watch the road?
love the car and wife likes the seats more than my E350, but jeez you're right about the tech design.

Lainey

I have a back up camera, no navigation, but the on screen for radio. I don't have any issues with the radio and programming stations. I push a button on the wheel. and tell the bluetooth who I want to call I can use that voice command for the radio as well, but don't bother with it. Occasionally when making a phone call, my command is not understood and I will get asked to repeat, tell the person in the dash what number I want dialed, etc. I have a screen in the dash that I control from the steering wheel. I can chose what I want displayed, i.e. trip meter, vehicle info, tire pressure, etc. It's not too difficult to figure out. I use the Garmin for GPS, on occasion the iphone...sometimes the commands are heard on the iphone, sometimes not.

Overall, I'm OK with the electronics in the car. The P car is a bit more of a PIA. It's a 2012 and the electronics are not the latest and greatest and can be confusing. Rick has played around with them as he's driven it more than I. The GPS isn't bad and can be controlled from a stalk on the steering column or from buttons below the screen. Satellite radio and stereo can also be controlled that was as well.

I think many of the in car electronics will someday bite us in the A$$.............but damn, I love my heated steering wheel.

boltonblue

I had a charger as a rental car a few weeks ago.
The climate controls were integrated into the touch panel display. ( it turns out there were buttons underneath but hey were hard to see at first)
but to adjust it with the display was this delicate little touch on the display trying to move an eighth of an inch for two degrees change.
phenomenally stupid design.radio controls were the same.
It was though someone set out to explicitly make you take your eyes off of the road.

But I will bet you every automaker exec loves 'em and for one simple reason.
Oh you don't have the latest Bluetooth pairing? time for a new car.
you want weather radar on your display? time for a new car
you want the latest pedestrian detection system? time for a new car.

cost of upgrades? a few lines of code.


and Lainey, that bite will come sooner than you think.
do you think you be able to buy a new touch-LCD dash assembly 9 years from now?
hah good ruck charlie.

dlq04

I certainly agree the process to use something as simple as the car radio has been so over-engineered it's nuts. We never figured out how the station selection process worked in the Audi in the 10 years we owned it. Just about the time we thought we had it figured out something would happen to remind us we did not.

As if that is not scary enought we now have reached this stage: Waymo announced Tuesday that it has been running Level 4 autonomous cars, with no human behind the wheel, in Arizona since mid-October!!

Yet at the same time the 2017 Honda CR-V had people reporting the safety system 'slammed on the brakes' (their words in the complaints filed with the gov't) because they approached a construction site that had metal construction plates in the road to drive over (4 complaints) and things like road tar strips causing lane departure warnings, etc., etc. And the CR-V got the highest SUV safety rating out there. I know the SUV got my attention on the test drive when the steering wheel starting going ape shit. I had no idea that cutting across the yellow lines would do that and up to that point had no idea how lane departure warnings work. Thankfully it can be turned off.

boltonblue

The lane departure stuff is an annoying nanny.
and to think folks pay an extra $1500 for it.

I do like the parking proximity sensors in the bumpers though.
The back up camera are indispensable.
I had a loaner GL that some how created an overhead surround view around the vehicle.
Now that was pretty cool. You could see the vehicle beside you as well as your own fenders as you squeaked by.

UnkieTrunkie

I have my S. . . and a 2005 Element. So, no clue on modern anything, really.
Fast forward to my trip to Scotland this year, and the rental company lent me a Peugeot 3008. Best/worst rental I've ever had.
Worst: A-pillar from hell, turbo on the turbo diesel had so much lag, it'll hit peak revs by 2019
Best: Interior, great gas mileage (at a cost to one's sanity), AND (AND!) a pretty-darn-good Electronics package.

Apple Car Play was solid. Recognized the phone, played my music, and played well between the phone and the in-car choices.
Touch Screen was responsive, and worked pretty intuitively for climate control, NAV (when we weren't using the phone)
The dashboard/driver's screen showed the basics. . . but could have been fully customizable.
What really did it for me though, was the design: it showed me what I *needed* both on the center screen and driver's screen. Were there nerd knobs? Yes. I found them. . . but the default settings were great. The default settings for every sub screen were also pretty straightforward as well.

I think half of the designers want to appeal to some Mythical Tech Whiz Kid, and the other half realize the car is a tool; show the driver what the driver needs to see in order to drive, and obfuscate what the driver may need, but doesn't need to see (Auto Stop? Lane Nanny?).

Scooterboy

Just too much garbage on todays cars. To much to distract the driver. Too much to go wrong. Too much to fix. You can't even fart in todays cars without the voice command ask what you said.

Do I sound like the old curmudgeon that I am?