Re: Why differences?

Posted by HH56 On 2014/3/26 15:25:54

I'm afraid touch screens are going to be around for the foreseeable future so we might as well learn to co-exist with them. Even the so called cheapo cars more often than not have them now and doing without is not an option there either. I looked at a low end Dodge Dart and it even had one -- but on that you could get a basic "simple" version without all the features of the more expensive package.

Manufactures like them because for the price of a touch screen and a few chips on a circuit board to drive it, many functions can be integrated into one of the already existing but underused car processors. That way mfgs can eliminate the design, stocking and cost of all those variations of knobs, hardware and multitudes of wiring. The second thing they like is because it is all software driven, it is a very simple matter to make it look Ford, Lincoln, Cadillac or whatever and to refine a function if it doesn't work as intended or change, add to or eliminate it completely for next years model.

Ask Ford about that last little feature. By most accounts many of Fords recent complaints and quality problems have been due to the implementation and lack of reliability of the MyTouch system as designed by a large computer company based in Washington state. That alone has probably given black eyes to other cars and touchscreens. There have been at least two large publicized recall episodes where Ford had to bring cars in to redo that software -- who knows how many unofficial redos when a car came in for something else.

Believe I just read where Ford is dumping the current software implementation after only a few years and now going with the QNX operating system as the "new" underlayment. QNX has been around and used extensively in many cars for several years so hopefully Ford will benefit and their touchscreen issues will be behind them. The vendor who provides the software on touch screens probably has more to do with the success or failure and how hard they are to use.

Some cars (and more to come) with touchscreens have voice activated functions for a lot of the things you would normally need to touch the screen to do. Simple functions now but much more complex ones are just being finalized and should be introduced soon.