Gadgetory

it's 2018 and we are in a bit of an instrument cluster fuck we're at the Detroit Auto Show and everywhere we look we see screens that are in work-in-progress we're talking about the infotainment system the auto industry's approach to UX one car that we tested out was the seventh generation Volkswagen Jetta it debuted here in Detroit and it has an option for a new digital cockpit this cockpit reminds us of course of the virtual cockpit the Audi debuted a couple years back it marks a real switch for Volkswagen which is now using the MQB platform for the jet up which is also used on their Atlas and the golf you can use your screen to turn on from the beep sound system that's in the Jetta or one of our favorite fun features is to manually alter the mood lighting so one thing we like to see more of is the future like the ambient lighting which allows you to alter the color that appears in your car and a thin strip that runs around the periphery of the interior of the car but we'd like to see more features like that that actually allow you to drastically change the car oh you can change it from verge pink to something else much of the technology that we saw it's yes was nowhere to be found in Detroit in Las Vegas we tested out the MBU act system which made by mercedes-benz it's the first system that they've actually developed themselves one of the lead features of the MDX system is its voice assistant which Mercedes developed in-house they're the first company car company to do this which is interesting because they're trying to keep peace with tech companies like Amazon and Google we know that automakers are now offering Amazon Alexa and Google assistant but if you looked around the Detroit Auto Show you would never know it we asked five different automakers if they had Alexa systems that they could show us but there was no visible representation of Amazon or Google on the stand so what you're kind of buying is still more a home myth one company that broke the mold in Detroit was Nissan which displayed the cross motion SUV a new autonomous concept car the Nissan concept car has seven screens and then there's an additional screen where you stow your sunglasses or your garage door opener in traditional car but in that place Nissan has this thing called the digital room here and that shows cars in your rear-view approaching rather than using the traditional side which is kind of cool we're told this system is operated by using thumb prints a retina of your eye to control the function which then activates a koi fish that swims across your screen and acts as your personal assistant only thing is that we couldn't actually test it out so instead we just watched this video looping of this mesmerizing koi fish unfortunately at Detroit there are a lot of ideas but little chance to actually play around with the execution some automakers took screens to another level the new Ram 1500 extended its massive proportions into a massive 12 inch touchscreen we found the system to be a bit leggy to use showing that maybe bigger isn't always better the reality is is that all the automakers at the Detroit Auto Show and Beyond such as Tesla and other companies that we don't see here today are all chasing the idea of how to make the perfect infotainment system whether or not our car works like our phone has nothing to do with the real issue which is how to keep us safe on the road the best safety system is the best infotainment system which shares the commonality of being easy and simple and clear to use until we get to that point where we are not driving our cars and we can sit back and watch the koifish in our screens we're waiting