[samdarshi.pali]

On July 20th, the Verge published an interesting piece for JD Power's Car Infotainment Customer Satisfaction Survey.

https://www.theverge.com/23801545/ca...urvey-jd-power

The article opens by analyzing car owners' growing unhappiness with their infotainment systems. The remainder of the article goes into greater depth regarding the JD Power study's findings, such as the drop in overall happiness, the increased use of smartphone-mirroring devices, and the growing popularity of electric vehicles. The article finishes by summarizing the study's primary findings and offering some predictions for the future of automotive entertainment systems.


This survey was performed in the United States, but I believe the findings mirror the opinions of Indian car owners as well. What are your thoughts?

Samdarshi

[Raghu M]

Count me in on that survey. There are so many features on that huge screen that no one even cares to look at them. Now the manufacturers have an easy way of going the subscription route. It's high time the screen sizes are defined and distractions kept aside. The real pleasure of driving has been diluted IMO. With such growing tech, I don't think it is necessary to incorporate it into every aspect of life. Somethings are best left to the humans!

[Mystic]

This reminds of the company I was working where the business strategy was changed to “Run Simple”. This is exactly what we need now in the present world of high tech in automobiles. Now a days, cars are becoming like flight cock pits with too much information at our disposal. I will give a realistic example in my experience, before I start my car, I connect my I phone to apple car play, start my Apple Maps for directions. The directions prompts come to my apple watch and also in the display screen. I check TPMS pressure for all tyres and make sure that the recording of the car dash camera is working. If it is night, check the ambient lights in car and change colours.

Now the question is why all this? Is it really required. I am from old school and make sure that I keep car keys in my pocket always just in case if I get down for any reason as it is push button start.

[IshaanIan]

If this were true half the hyundais on our roads would not exist. I believe a good infotainment system is one of the top deciding factors these days. Even though I place a car's mechanical prowess higher, many do not seem to care and would rather have a touchscreen that works well and pairs with their phone seamlessly

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by samdarshi.pali

The article opens by analyzing car owners' growing unhappiness with their infotainment systems.
This survey was performed in the United States, but I believe the findings mirror the opinions of Indian car owners as well. What are your thoughts?

Samdarshi

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Count me in on that survey. There are so many features on that huge screen that no one even cares to look at them. Now the manufacturers have an easy way of going the subscription route. It's high time the screen sizes are defined and distractions kept aside.

Couldn’t agree more.
1. Many of these so called features are not value adds (IMHO) and confuse the driver with all their notifications and options.
2. The proliferation of large touchscreens and reduction or elimination of physical buttons can be an actual safety hazard, as it takes attention away from the road to find the option, tap/swipe and what not.
3. The implementations are often buggy, and become an irritant rather than an aid.

My ₹16

[Rocketscience]

Till 5 years ago, despite being an audiophile and having good sound systems at my home, I couldn't care less about infotainment systems in cars because the main focus was driving and other things, but today I don't mind smaller touchscreens (lets say 8 inches or so but bigger won't hurt) but with Apple car play (or android auto) which shows the music cover art and all in a beautiful UI consistent with the design language of my phone and something as polished which can never be replicated by any car/infotainment company, and more importantly shows google maps as well for the driver to see and hear clearly, before this I used to rely on audio instructions from google maps and that worked very well for me, but this is a nice to have add on, but no, not an absolute necessity either.

Also with that, using the reverse camera for the first time but I still find that feature useless and still reverse by either looking behind or using the side mirrors and the IRVM, couldn't gather the confidence to just look at the camera feed and make my judgements.

[2000rpm]

Not surprised at all.

I hate all the dual touchscreen dashboards to the core.

The VAG group, has also unfortunately moved away from the RCD series of systems which in my view were the most elegant infotainment systems EVER! Enough but not excessive!

also, I dont know how long do touchscreens last. The sensitivity and LED Burn are real problems.

With scratches, I am surprised that we dont have a tempered glass market for this so far!

[Kosfactor]

I'm positive about tech, it all works when done correctly.

In the garage there is a vehicle with 1 computer in it from the factory, perhaps just the ECU and another with probably 100 of them.

Coming from the IT world where Technology is an enabler of great many things - there is a cost to high quality music, voice commands , navigation, remote capabilities etc, when done properly it's very expensive, will add to the running cost of the vehicle as well as upfront purchase cost.

The more complex vehicle is noticeably faster especially in inclement weather, more comfortable of course and I love listening to music during the drive as much as I could at home.

So what about when I switch to the old fellow? Nothing happens, used to winding down the window, used to pushing down the clutch pedal, reaching out to adjust the mirror, looking over the shoulder to see where I'm going in reverse etc , our brain is smart enough to adjust to it.

So what about music, navigation? I miss it. Turbo is the only entertainment.

[VWAllstar]

Not just the infotainment, the entire car tech is diluting the old school fun of driving. With increase in the infotainment sizes there is an increase in risks too. What do you guys use the infotainment screen for other than music, reverse camera & maps?

[sudhirjaipur]

I remember 25 /30 years back when cars did not even have music systems, ACs what to talk of ADAS etc, there were no expressways, no mobile phones, no google maps, driving was a different experience, occupants used to sing and talk to each other, children used to watch the changing countryside, open the quarter glass and there was fresh air hitting your face, stopping at the dhabas for chai and meals, easing in the bushes, what fun and family time. Now the fun is a different kind!!! Times change!!!

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Count me in on that survey. There are so many features on that huge screen that no one even cares to look at them. Now the manufacturers have an easy way of going the subscription route. It's high time the screen sizes are defined and distractions kept aside. The real pleasure of driving has been diluted IMO. With such growing tech, I don't think it is necessary to incorporate it into every aspect of life. Somethings are best left to the humans!

Out of curiosity, how is "really driving pleasure" affected by an infotainment system? The engines, gear boxes etc will remain the same no matter what the infotainment system is or am I missing something here?

Also @sudhirajipur, as someone who has been on long drives from the time I turned 5 (1985ish), ye old days also,

1) took extensive time - a drive from Chennai to Pondicherry used to take 5-6 hours minimum as it was a single lane NH, BLR 10 hrs and you were considered lucky

2) Driver stress - I started driving in the late 90's and even then single laned no median highways were extremely stressful esp at night. If you think high beams are a problem now, imagine a lorry blasting you and you share the same lane with a bullock cart in front of you, maybe the odd trees in a badly placed curve etc

3) Road / Car safety - Adas? Forget that, even seatbelts weren't a thing even minor crashes had the potential to be fatal

4) Roadside conveniences? Forget it, clean toilets were non existent (mother nature was your better bet) and even high traffic roads like Chennai Madurai had dodgy, rubbish resturants where it was a gamble, 50/50 that you got food poisoning or not.

Let's not romanticise the past, ye Olde days were not fun from most aspects of the word fun.

[invidious]

While I am not distracted by the systems in place, I think they are an overkill and by and large quite useless to most owners. The utility of Google Maps and voice activated music apart, the rest is all mostly gimmicky. How many people change the mood color? Or consistently use the plethora of information that the system churns out? I test drove a car with a Headsup display and honestly it was more of a distraction. But then again, who knows - 25+ years ago someone may have been saying this about CD players in cars and powered windows. At some point we are all resistant to change because a certain comfort factor has set in.

[harishpr]

I hate the touch screen system in the car and unfortunately almost every car has this. While i agree that smart systems can load a lot of features, it’s simply not user friendly to operate while driving. Manual buttons are much easier to navigate though they offer limited functions.
Anyways, I hope the manufacturers take cognisance of what customer wants and doesn’t want.

[Oldschool guy]

The issues with the infotainment systems is that it doesn't matter how good system it is it will be soon or later outdated and have lag. You will rarely find most of the systems are using Android OS and the nature of the OS will make it slow after some usage, you need to upgrade system like you do for your phone.
I see only two things of help in infotainment system one is map and other is reverse camera and both are not big deal breakers as for maps you could mount your phone on dashboard and for reverse camera it could be integrated in your rear view mirror like old days so you don't need any complex touch interface.
They are just marketing gimmick and few of new age manufacturers are focusing on infotainment system rather than mentioning how car drives and its engine and gearbox. Other manufacturers are also copying them.

[prsnck]

It’s not the steering mounted controls. It’s not the ventilated seats. It’s not the touch screen infotainment. I’m just an old school running my OHC where the only “Connect” i have is with my 100 bhp legendary state of the art Old Honda City 1493 cc B15 engine.

We communicate so much during each drive and she responds so well that I smoke many a Cedia, Civic and Innovas.

I hate tech in cars and distract my pure petrol head drive. one reason I still use my antique machine. Pure enthusiast by birth. Maybe folks using M800, Zen’s, Balenos and old city’s will understand. The latest car in our garage is 12 Years old Innova and oldest is 27 years 1996 model M800. Will share those pics later. Don’t want to go off topic and irk the admin and readers.

I love my Old Honda City. Old is Gold.

Still have the Honda Cassette player my only so-called infotainment. Lol ��

Hail 91.9 in Bangalore.