Without reading all the responses, don’t blame the touch screen. I had touch screens in my 86 and 89 Rivieras and they were not bad at all. In fact they were so simple that when the screen failed and went blank, I could still touch the screen to get the various controls. What is wrong is the design for/by kids that grew up playing video games and don’t know what a radio control is. Too many worthless options and choices to make. Just because they can design it doesn’t mean they should. Gee at least give me a rotary knob to flip between pages.
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“Too many worthless options and choices. Just because they can design it doesn’t mean they should.” Amen to that!
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I find the touch screen on my Chrysler intuitive and easy to use. yes there are tons of functions, but once I had my preferences setup I find that I do not have to use the touch screen that much. In addition to the touch screen, I can still use a couple of buttons to adjust the temperature, radio and most other options.
I seldom use the voice command, but when I do it is pretty reliable. What I do not like at all is the poor design of the paddle shifters. It’s really easy to inadvertently hit them and shift gears. There are controls on top of the steering wheel and below, making it too easy to hit the paddles by accident.
Now, when it comes to my so-called phone…that’s a completely different story.
I have the same issue with the paddle shifters on the Subaru steering wheel … too easy to accidentally hit.
When ever I read about someone complaining about the features on a vehicle they purchased I only have one reaction. Those were there when you looked at the thing and should have taken a test drive.
Example: We looked at one that was really close to our list of things we wanted but the lifting of things from the trunk was not going to be easy for my wife’s back problems. Therefore on we went to look at other vehicles.
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prior-generation Ford F-150 my boss has nailed it IMHO: it has all these AC/audio settings both in touch-screen and SOME of them are on dedicated buttons/knobs, and they are quite different in shape to navigate without looking
I have to admit that I avoided using Google Voice Recognition for…a long time…but when I finally decided to try it a few weeks ago, I was astounded to see that it understood what I said 100% of the time. Those 5 or 6 instances may well have been flukes, so I will try to keep an open mind on the issue until I have used it consistently for a few months. However, I have to say that, at this point, I am very impressed with the quality/accuracy of Google’s Voice Recognition.
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The Subaru Outbacks that I see on the manufactures web site have radio knobs and HVAC controls outside of the touch screen;
Cars have controls to do so many things, there’s no way they could all be controlled by buttons and knobs. A radio is easy, but the audio system has the ability to pick up content from AM, FM, bluetooth, pandora, sirius, plug in ipod, etc. Navigation, multiple mode climate controls, seat heaters, apps. The bigger question is are you buying a car or an audio system, and when exactly are you planning to pay attention to driving?
The picture above is accurate. There are redundant controls for the A/C and radio. However, you still can’t turn off the radio when in reverse. You can turn the volume down, though & if it’s bothering you, do that. I write it off to the litany of quirks about my Subaru. Like when you turn off the car in the dark, every control on the door is lit up except the unlock button (guess I’m supposed to roll down the window & climb out). Or like the fact that the doors don’t automatically lock when you start moving, or unlock when you put the car in park. I’ve never had a car with power locks that didn’t do that! But it’s all a small price to pay for a car that handles & rides well, will go anywhere in any weather, has very high resale value and will likely last 200,000 miles, if previous Outbacks are any indicator. My wife & I love our Subaru & if it were stolen, we’d buy another one tomorrow. But we didn’t say it isn’t quirky!
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I sympathize with your general point, and respect the post, but I have to disagree with the OP’s specific example. The 2018 Outback, and the 2015 shown in the post above, use manually-operated heating and cooling buttons below the touch screen menus. They have nothing to do with the infotainment system at all (nor the touch-screen). To turn on the AC you touch the button with the name AC (see arrow). When it is on, it will illuminate an indicator light shown on the display. You can see it in the image next to the “64f”
The fan must run to provide air, so you need to have the fan (shown directly next to the big button labeled AC) on any setting except zero. You can also hit Auto if you prefer and then just spin the temp knob to have the temp stay at that interior setting. I respectfully suggest that you have the dealer walk you through the operation of the system again in person. There are indeed some tricky things to try to figure out without a manual or without having been shown, but the AC operation on an Outback is button-operated and it’s a shame you have not used it in the first year of ownership.
The last several times we have purchased a new car or truck either the salesman or service manager gave a very good explanation of the vehicle controls. I feel that many times attitude will block out the listening portion of a persons brain and don’t think age is always a factor.
John, if the radio in Subaru’s can’t be turned off when in reverse isn’t there a mute button on the steering wheel.
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I saw this comment by Volvo_V70 while I was out in the driveway with my 2016 Subaru Forester 2.5i Premium (second cheapest trim) experimenting on this. I do not doubt the OP’s comment that the vehicle mentioned (16 Outback) will not allow audio control while in reverse, BUT… In my 2016 Suby when I turn the key after the car has been sitting a while the infotainment takes a moment to wake up. Unlike in older cars, the audio is muted at that instant. So if your kid or spouse was blasting tunes when they shut the car off you don’t have to have it blast you when you restart it the next morning. However, the car then did start playing audio and for a moment, maybe a good “two Mississippis” the audio volume does not respond to commands. Up or down. Regardless of gear. Once it wakes up, it does, and it does definitely work while in reverse (in my car) after its wake up moment. I then drove to a local place and re-tested. I went in and came out in about 5 min. This time, the infotainment again needed an instant, but it was only like one single second, then it came on and I could adjust the volume up or down immediately, and then I tested reverse quickly and it also worked.
- I have noticed this slight delay in almost all the cars I test now, regardless of brand. Some are bad (Jaguar/Land Rover) requiring considerable time to “wake up”, and some I don’t notice the delay much at all. The OP’s Suby may behave a little differently. - One cool thing Subies do when on the XM audio, is they change the channel if you shut the vehicle off on one of the stations that has frequent profanity (Howard Stern’s 100 and 101 being the best examples.) That way, you don’t return to the car with a child and turn the car on to profanity, or at least it is very unlikely. At first I didn’t think this was a cool feature, but when I showed off the Dodge Challenger GT to my neighbor and his small children 6 and 3, I did, in fact, restart the car with them in it, and the volume up loud, and indeed Howard Stern was using profane language coupled with a racial/religious insult (to his own race/religion in jest). So I now get the point and retapping the preset seems worth it. Ideally, it would be a setting one could opt in or out of, but like the post above shows, many folks don’t want a lot of choices in the infotainment screens. They want simple. Based on my testing the two simplest systems, and also the very best, are Subaru and Jeep/Dodge/Chrysler. The very worst for complexity and difficulty of use are Mercedes and Acura. Oddly, Honda is not as bad, depending upon model.
Actually, once power is supplied to the ECM and entertainment center (or whatever it is called in your car), a boot process takes place similar to what your laptop,or phone is doing when you first power it up. Today’s cars have between 80-100 million lines of software code, not all are in the EC. The few seconds you wait for the “wake up” (boot process) to take place is an example of how quickly it goes.
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It’s a good thing I don’t listen to Stern or the profane comedy channels. All I have to worry about is that someone is bored by the talk channels or put off by my music choices.
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My little gps unit has voice commands for brightness, volume plus about 10 other things. Are there any car makers using voice commands for controlling things?
My Mazda6 (2014) has voice recognition that has been better than 95% accurate. You push the button on the steering wheel and speak. Highway noise and other conversations don’t generally confuse it unless other people are talking very loudly. Most of my touch screen functions, outside of navigation, can be handled by buttons on the steering wheel. I rarely have to look away from the road.
Hard to say what everyone’s complaining about. We have a 16 Outback just like you show - easy as pie. Touchscreen or not, you still have to take your eyes off the road to adjust the climate control. The audio controls couldn’t be simpler between a real knob and steering wheel controls.
Why all the complaints? Consumer Reports said Subaru has the easiest controls for seniors. You want to complain, complain about the touchscreen angled up to catch reflections, complain about Subaru’s compulsive nannyism where you can’t enter an address into the navigation system unless you’re in park, complain about no warning beeper when you back up too close to something, there’s no warning beeper for blind spot monitoring so you have to look at the mirror to see a flashing light.
Yikes! Auto door lock and unlock functions! I hate those! It’s like some gremlin is in control of MY car making decisions for me. If I want a nanny, I’ll hire a nanny, I don’t need one built-in that I don’t want. There are millions of Americans like me who live in rural areas where we need an auto lock feature like we need a concealed carry permit. In our county people don’t even take the key out of the car when they shop. Is it a stretch to say that if you want to lock your doors you could hit the switch?
OK Lee, you might live in a place that is free of crime or kids that have the self control to not get in someone’s vehicle. But the majority of us don’t. Apparently you have never heard of ( Car Hopping ) where people go around looking for unlocked vehicles to steal stuff left in them.
As for auto lock it is proven that in accidents the chance of locked doors not flying open are much higher. That improves your chance of survival.
The inability of navigation while moving is not because of Subaru nannies.
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