Ok... What car brand has the least bad UI these days?
I have been putting off getting a new car for about a year.
I have been putting off getting a new car for about a year.
It boots to CarPlay pretty quickly. Its native controls are pretty utilitarian when they are needed (e.g. to switch to native SiriusXM when cell signal is spotty). I even prefer the look of its maps although I don't use them. Nothing in the car is a touchscreen.
And, get a load of this: they still have actual and intuitive physical buttons for climate controls, defrosters, and driving modes.
Oh, and the car itself is decent as well if you forgive the meh fuel-economy.
I think CarPlay and Auto are too much. Outside of navigation and music, what overlap do we have in a car and phone? Just enable bluetooth sending of locations or full-on directions. Bluetooth music already works great.
Eventually we'll have voice agent integration so that stuff nearby (e.g., bluetooth range) gets integrated into the available status/command set of one primary one.
Leave all the fast-moving, upgradable stuff on the phone. Make the car platform stable and you've got the best of both worlds.
Volkswagen was a standout for absolutely awful experience across the board with unituitive layouts, horrible capacitive buttons and gimmicky lag galore.
They currently have a bad rep for lack of engine immobilizers in non-current vehicles, but they've nailed the UI with a combination of software and hardware buttons.