Keep it simple: Designing cars for smartphones
- Good systems: Fiat Chrysler, GM, Hyundai-Kia, Ford,
- Easy pairing, big type and intuitive controls please owners
- Easy phone pairing is important
As we become more reliant on our smartphones, car companies that do a good job integrating them into vehicles’ communication, audio and navigation systems have a huge advantage.
“If you’re buying a new car, you expect it to connect with your smartphone,” said Tom Mutchler, Consumer Reports magazine manager of vehicle interface. “The phone and the car are both essential to your life. People demand they work well together.”
It shouldn’t be asking too much to get into a car, turn the radio on and tune to a station without reading the owner’s manual, but frequently it is.
“Controls need to make sense, and a lot of these don’t,” said Renee Stephens, vice president of U.S. auto quality for J.D. Power, which conducts influential surveys of vehicle quality and dependability.
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Problems using phones and other new controls in cars have been No. 1, 2 and 3 in recent J.D. Power studies.
“People expect to be able to make calls, access their music and get directions in a way that minimizes distraction,” Mutchler said. “A lot of people don’t care about zero-to-60 times or steering feel, but they expect to be able to use their phone and listen to their music.
“A system that makes it hard to do that creates a bad, unpleasant impression of the whole vehicle.”
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The reliability of hardware like engines, tires and suspensions has been improving for years, but poorly designed or malfunctioning systems for phone, music and navigation — “infotainment” in industry lingo — have driven reliability scores for the whole auto industry down. Not to mention reducing countless drivers to gibbering wrecks, pounding the dashboard and cursing when a smartphone connected to a smart car can’t execute a simple command like “Call home” or “Where’s the closest coffee shop?”
Smart phone integration has become a key feature for new vehicles. Automakers that excel at it are likely to have happier owners and better reviews.
“You couldn’t sell a car without one of these systems today,” said Mark Boyadjis, IHS Automotive principal analyst.
“Customers expect their connected lifestyle to follow them into the car, and customer satisfaction comes down to usability.”
The Fisher-Price approach
Even the worst systems often look good in a dealer’s showroom, but using spoken commands or a touch screen to make phone calls, play songs and podcasts or set a destination for navigation is entirely different at 65 m.p.h. in heavy traffic.
“We talk about the Fisher-Price approach: simple design, really big buttons and really large type,” said Gary Jablonski, product development manager for Ford’s Sync system. Sync drew raves when it debuted as the auto industry’s first voice recognition system in 2007. Ford’s quality ratings plummeted when it added a slow and balky touch screen for the system called My Ford Touch. An improved version dubbed Sync 3 began rolling out into Ford and Lincoln vehicles last year.
The overriding goal was to simplify the system, Jablonski said. Ford ditched seldom-used features so it could make the buttons for popular functions easier to see and touch.
Despite My Ford Touch’s widely publicized problems, owners of vehicles were happier than people whose cars lacked it, according to Ford research. Even a bad connectivity system may be better than none at all, but not much.
Experts praise Fiat Chrysler’s Uconnnect system for its simplicity. The touch screen has big, clear icons for frequently used features like phone, audio and navigation. Pairing a phone — a leading cause of complaints for many brands — couldn’t be simpler. When you enter the vehicle with a new phone, touch the phone icon and a message on the screen asks, “Would you like to pair a phone?”
By contrast, many brands — particularly German ones — require multiple steps and do little or nothing to lead owners through the process. That’s an example of what Consumer Reports’ Mutchler calls the “secret handshake,” when automakers add counter-intuitive steps and needless complexity.
“We spend a lot of time on this,” FCA global head of connected services Tricia Hecker said. “Little things matter a lot when you’re trying to create an intuitive process.”
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan.
Best and worst infotainment systems
Best
- Fiat Chrysler – Extremely intuitive. Easy to learn and use with big, clear icons.
- GM (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC) – Good voice recognition and simple, clear icons, switches and dials. Excludes the flat-panel controls for audio and climate in some Cadillacs
- Hyundai/Kia – High end models like the Genesis sedan offer redundant controls and good voice recognition
- Ford – Vehicles with Sync 3. That includes the 2016 Fiesta, Focus, Mustang, C-MAX, Escape, Flex, Expedition, F-150 and Transit. Sync3 will be available in all 2017 models sold in North America.
Worst
- Mercedes-Benz – “They’ve grown increasingly complex and frustrating.”
- Honda/Acura – “They were leaders a few years ago, but now they’re not intuitive at all.”
Source: Free Press research
Characteristics of good infotainment systems
- Voice recognition understands natural speech, not just specific commands
- Fast, easy phone pairing
- Icons make it easy to recognize key functions like audio, phone and navigation
- Touch screens respond quickly and have large icons
- Legible type on display screens
- Dials or switches for key functions like volume, tuning, temperature and fan speed
- Redundant controls and displays to suit different drivers’ tastes
Source: Free Press research
Characteristics of bad infotainment systems
- Small type
- Flat-panel or touch screen controls that do not react quickly or consistently to touch
- Slow response to spoken command or touch
- Voice recognition misunderstands words
- Navigation systems don’t choose the best route
Source: Free Press research