Technology

My prior car had no fancy features, the nicest thing it could do was read MP3's burned on to a CD, and hold 6 CDs in the player. I traded it in and got newer car, and I think it's level of fanciness is just right for me. It has a screen, I ignore it most of the time, unless I plug my phone in to listen to music. Then I use the screen to get into Youtube Music and that's it. Or the same situation as before, but I need to navigate with Google Maps.

So by and large I can 100% ignore the screen, unless I plug in the phone. But all control of Next Track/Back, volume up/down is controlled by buttons on the steering wheel.

The largest nightmare for me is tough sensitive controls FOR EVERYTHING! I've read that it's becoming more and more common in new expensive cars, and I have not interested in that bullshit.

The only tech I want in my car is satellite navigation, Bluetooth audio and Bluetooth calling support. Anything else is fluff.

I used to be a techie, but my Nissan leaf of 2018 does not seem to work with Android auto for more than 20 seconds.

And then there is the native system. It's ugly, it's slow. And it does not even update.

This is my last Nissan...

useful technology has been neglected for years. simple thing like autostart and remote warm up/cool down have been outsourced instead of built in. some brands are light years ahead with apps/monitoring and people are figuring that out.

The problem is that backup camera's are mandated safety equipment, and that means a screen. And if you have to put in a screen and all that infrastructure anyway, it's only a few more dollars to add a proper infotainment system.

I have a 2023 Tuscon and I love it. The car drives incredibly smoothly, the handling is amazing, I spend about $30 a month on gas total (hybrid), it practically drives itself on the highway, and its a super comfortable and spacious interior. That being said, I do wish it had more physical buttons on the console, I think they are going back to that in the future, but I can easily live with how it is now, I just dont really fiddle with things while I am driving.

I wish my car’s interface was more minimal.

I don’t mean removing knobs, knobs are good. Hiding things in 5 level deep touchscreen menus is not minimal.

I mean.. removing visual noise. Removing unnecessary lights. Streamlining controls. Taking away indicators that aren’t important.

My dashboard dials are now a screen, why can’t I have an option just to display the speed and nothing else? Why do I need to see 4 dials, two driving modes, and some other crap all the time?

There’s a separate screen for the satnav, why does it need to have permanent menus displayed on it? Or visible buttons? Road names? Status indicators for various settings? I want an oled with a black pixels-off background, roads in gray, and my route in white. Nothing else. Not using the satnav, turn the screen off.

Why do I need a perpetually scrolling display showing the name of the current song? Like sure I want an interface to choose music, but I don’t need to see it all the damn time.

CarPlay is better than most native infotainment systems but it’s far from perfect in this regard.

The only app I need is Android auto or a decent equivalent. Heck I don't even need on board GPS. Just let me plug in my smartphone and have it display everything on the car's screen.

I've never ever had the chance of experiencing it. My car is over 23 years old by memory, still runs great as Toyota's do but damn I'd love to have something more then a broken CD player and strip black and white interface.

Perhaps I'd be one to appreciate all this 'useless' tech.

I don't see why my vehicle has to tell me what song is playing through my IPod, on the screen where the wheel is, that displays more important information like tire PSI and speed. The bigger screen is more than sufficient.

Yeah my 2013 Honda has Hondalink, whatever the heck that is and an outdated GPS system which I refuse to pay to upgrade. I typically buy a five or six year old honda which I don't look forward to next go round, bc I'm sure the tech will be woefully outdated.