Why your car disables destination entry when driving
Cars
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Hey folks, Cooley here.
Got another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving.
This one comes in from Jarrod M in DC.
He says, how come my passenger cannot enter or change the GPS destination in my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
The car's computer knows when there is a passenger in the seat because the seatbelt warning sounds when they aren't wearing it.
I get this one alert Gerard, it's frustration that car makers have to lock out the whole screen while you're driving because they don't know who might be using it, shouldn't be the driver of course but There's a passenger right there.
Why can they be the navigator.
So here's some thoughts on this and why it may not get a lot better whole lot sooner.
First of all, there is no federal rule, that I know of, that says carmakers even have to lock out the screen.
The nearest thing to such a rule are proposed federal guidelines for the depth of in car interaction.
Those came out in 2012 but remain just that.
Proposed, voluntary guidelines.
Up until a few years ago, some of them didn't or they left certain features available that were kind of distracting.
Now, it's fairly consistent that when you're going, lots of things, especially destination entry are locked out of the touch screen.
Now, of course what they want you to do is, use their lovely voice system, which is like a trip through hell.
After the beep, say a command.
[SOUND] Set as destination.
After the beep, say a command.
The other option that came up a few years ago that we thought might be the salvation were dual angle, dual view screens.
Mercedes, Range Rover, a couple of other high-end cars dabbled in these.
The driver would see one thing, like a very simple display, from their angle, and the passenger might see something different.
More distracting, more interactive, maybe even a movie.
From their angle.
The technology never really take off.
You'll find it on a few high-end cars but it's not being adopted much, partly because of expense I'm sure, but partly also because of a tricky interface deal.
You've gotta somehow give each of them a different interface.
For interactivity not just the different display or a kind of become to waste of time.
The other idea going on here is that we're also seeing a big shift by car makers to say.
Let's go to a system that does do [UNKNOWN].
The [UNKNOWN] that really works.
Nissan Renault and Mitsubishi recently announced that in 2021 they're gonna clear out there's centerstaging vetement.
And give that space to Google in the form of Android services.
Google Navigation.
Google Maps, Google Media Streaming, all kinds of Google Calendar things.
It's like Android Auto, but it's completely rooted into the car as opposed to being another optional sort of a shell you can switch to today.
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And Amazon has just rolled out their first Echo device meant to be used on the dashboard.
Now it doesn't have deep roots into vehicle functions the way other systems might.
Like a built-in car maker system and maybe even not as much as Android Auto or Apple Car play but I',m sure they're gonna go down that road.
And the key to this is that automakers do not like the idea of unlocking the screen for the passenger because by doing so let's face it you've unlocked it for the driver as well.
They don't like the optics of that at all.
It's a risk averse business.
So look for them to go further and farther down the route of voice command while you're moving.
Luckily, the mobile guys are getting more involved.
And that'll save us from that being a trip to voice through voice activated Hell.
Keep those emails coming.
I'm here to answer your questions about high-tech cars and modern driving.
It's cooley@theroadshow.com.
