MinisterofDOOM wrote:Man, I strongly disagree, Jesda (not something I'm used to saying!). I think the 200's interior is crap. I think it's contrived and chaotic with terrible ergonomics. I think the IP is the biggest disaster I've ever seen. And I think Uconnect is trash. Maybe less trash than the rest, but it's still unfathomable garbage, which is baffling to me. This is the era of iPhones and ease-of-use and yet in-car infotainment systems seem to be designed according to the rules of 1993 software design. It's a sea of obtuse, opaque menu-diving. We know better than this. Software anywhere else is decades ahead of this kind of design. It's not acceptable and it's not good.
I'm not sure what you mean.
UConnect is quick, clean, and functional. There's a reason why it's good enough for six-figure exotics. It's faster and more intuitive than iDrive, MMI, COMAND, MFT/LFT, and CUE (not that any of those are that great).
You touch the object. It does its thing. There honestly isn't much difference between the Settings menus of an iOS/Android device or the settings of the 8.4 UConnect system. It's quick because it's built on top of a QNX core. If you remember back in the 90s, QNX was the only full-featured multitasking OS with a GUI and graphical browser (and web server!) that could be booted and run off a floppy. It was possible because instead of one fat OS gorging itself on resources all at once regardless of whether the system was idle, it was designed to run as a set of servers that were deployed individually as needed, on demand, in real time.
No lag. Instant response. Some of the lower-end UC systems can be a bit cryptic, like requiring JPGs on USB devices to be at the root level of the drive in order for the system to detect them for use as background images, but that's not an issue for the full-featured systems.
It's never going to be as easy to use as the Alpine stereo in your Lincoln or the two-knob AM/FM radio in my Miata, but it does a really spectacular job of blending a mountain of useful features into a cohesive UI. And the menus and buttons are all large enough to see and use without being
too distracted. I think your gripes are with infotainment systems and configurable IPs in the car in general, but they're no more challenging to use than a modern smartphone.
You'll find that the instrument panels in the S-class, Chrysler 200, Chevy Volt, and Cadillac CTS follow most of the same design principles, for better or worse. Most importantly, once you decide on what kind of information you prefer to see (I like to keep an eye on coolant temp and fuel range), you never have to touch it again. It's not something you have to fiddle with unless you want -more- than the information normally available from a traditional set of analog gauges.
The same functions were available in Cadillacs from 1986-2005 but rather than a colorful display with directional menus, GM had them buried in a single-line electrofluorescent computer display that you had to scroll through or reset. It was way ahead of everyone in the industry when it debuted but it was like programming a clock radio. You could also view and clear codes without plugging in a scanner or having to count through cryptic flashing lights.
The only concern is whether these modern displays will retain their brightness after ten years. After just three years the LCD on the factory navigation in my Lincoln Navigator started to look dim on cold days. LCD technology has come a long way in a decade but it's impossible to know how long they'll last until they start failing. Toyota's gray/beige backlit segmented displays and GM's EF displays have, thus far, lasted nearly three decades.
Ford is going in the same direction, ditching Microsoft for RIM's QNX.
Personally, all I need is a volume knob.