Hoovey689

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spwolf

Interesting piece I found out about new Lexus infotainment - apparently new office in Ann Harbor that was setup last year is the one doing all-new infotainment (or/and digital gauge) system for Lexus (and I assume Toyota or vice versa) thats coming in 2020.

This is different to their new LCD gauge cluster in current LS, F-Sport models and upcoming Rav4/Corolla... not sure what will be the difference, but in one of the interviews, engineer was excited to show it to the world in 2020.

BippuLexus

Weird... Are you sure the office in Ann Harbor is researching for the Lexus infotainment system? Because majority of the tech in the Lexus tends to be developed in Japan - IE: the self-driving tech. Toyota/Lexus is only testing this tech in Tokyo before releasing it.

If indeed the office is working on Lexus infotainment, gauges and etc..., I highly doubt it will include gauges. The Lexus LS just released this year and its holding the most recent updated LFA-inspired gauges. If they were to introduce something "better" than the current Lexus LS gauges or infotainment system - it'll likely damage sales. Unless when they introduce it in 2020 being a concept and it'll make its way during the next generation.

evident

This is one thing Americans do much better than Japanese in general is UI for software. glad it's being done in the US.

Toys4RJill

LexBob2

If Nissan, or any other brand, released their focus group results I'm sure we'd get a positive spin on them. It wouldn't benefit them any to release much negative feedback on a system that they've decided to rollout. Which is why they probably have no incentive to widely share this information. When it comes to modern infotainment systems my experience has been that you have to live with them for a period to understand their capabilities and shortcomings.

Toys4RJill

I disagree. The focus groups results would have the information of what people like and what people do not like. That is more valuable that what the media reports as all media has some sort of bias.

With a public company, they are held to legal responsibility in that they would not be able to "fake" their data results.


And it would not benefit a publication like CR to release their data either so that people could make educated inferences regarding their data. Yet CR makes wild claims with no data backing anything up.

Toys4RJill

I would agree with you on this.

LexBob2

My point was, that we probably won't see focus group data from a manufacturer. Not that it's necessarily good or bad. It's not in their best interests. If CR or JDP releases their info/data that's different than the manufacturer's.

Toys4RJill

A bit relevant to this thread. Infiniti boss says the media is to blame, so we can then infer that perhaps Infiniti customers feel otherwise, both have drawbacks.

At the end of the day, when I read things (especially on the Internet) I want to know what drawbacks or caveats could be found with any of the reported data or how the data was collected. For example, a lot of people mention that the media is wined and dined by the manufactures when the media is all invited to a test drive launch. In contrast, CR waits months after the review embargo's and claims they purchase their test drive vehicles. Neither nor are right or wrong, however, both have drawbacks at that is want to hear or know when a publication is presented. CR has valuable reliability data that is trusted by consumers, however it would more valuable if they allowed their data to be analyzed.

Sulu

I assume that you mean Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the Toyota Technical Center, where Toyota's North American R&D is headquartered. Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, and smack dab in the middle of North America's automotive heartland, is a natural home to automotive engineering companies.

From the Autoblog article quoted by Hoovey:
I am not surprised that many of the complaints about Infiniti's infotainment system come from the media. In a number of ways, the automotive media's expectations of visible technology such as infotainment systems, I believe, do not match the general public's expectations.

It has been my experience that the general public is really only concerned that the technology "works", and if it does not "work" and when given the opportunity to do so, will complain in such surveys as those that JD Power conducts. But getting this technology to work may just involve spending some time learning how to use it and once that learning curve has been surmounted, complaints are few and far between.

Complaints are likely only to come, I believe, if a driver very often switches vehicles that have very different infotainment systems (like members of the automotive media or frequent travellers who are constantly in different rental vehicles). But then, these drivers are probably not going to be fiddling with infotainment systems in each different car they drive, every time they get in one.

Additionally, unlike normal controls like the steering wheel, and accelerator and brake pedals, using the infotainment system is not a constant, continual interaction; any time interaction with that central screen is constant would be with a navigation (if installed) and using the backup camera (which is not installed in all new vehicles in Canada). Intermittent use is not likely to generate complaints, in my opinion, and in my experience.

That data is more than likely to be considered to be proprietary (company secret) engineering data, not to be shared with anyone outside of Nissan / Infiniti. It would only be shared if legally requested in a court case but otherwise it remains behind locked doors.

spwolf

world is moving on, today's LS will not be latest thing in the next 7 years, it is simply not possible.

And yeah, it was specifically in the new US office and quite interesting.

New Rav4 and Auris (Corolla worldwide) have already shown digital gauges, LS will not be the only model with it... world moves on. Screen is screen too, there is no reason for Toyota digital gauge to be uglier than Lexus's, or competitors.

ST430

This is BS! As a present owner of a new 18' Q50, whoever designed the atrocious In touch needs to be fired. This is a common sentiment with more than a majority of the owners. The system is that useless.

BippuLexus

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say... No one said about 7 years... I'm talking about at least the next few years. Its simply not business savvy to release a complete redesign tech (gauges) that is better than a 100K Lexus LS 3 years later and introduce it on the 40K Lexus. It'll undermine the Lexus LS for being the latest and greatest thing even before its refresh.
Note: Notice how the S-Class held on to the dual screen virtual cockpit for awhile before it trickle down to the A-Class and everything else. That's just how it works. New stuff is always top-down in terms of release date.

Yes - there is a reason for Toyota's digital gauges to be uglier than Lexus' gauges - its called capitalism. Why should a "non-luxury" car brand have similar-looking gauges or better looking gauges than its own "luxury" brand? Companies differentiate them in order to make their luxury brand look like a "luxury" brand. We will never see similar or as good gauges on a Toyota compared to a Lexus.

Aron9000

Few weeks ago, a co-worker leased a new Infiniti Q70(I think that's what its called now, its the G35 coupe in my brain). 2 door, just a drop dead goregous car on the outside, sort of a sea-foam green/blue sort of color. Interior was mostly black dash/carpets with pale tan, almost white leather seats/accents. Stunning looking car, but man was the dashboard a total dissapointment. I really didn't like the dual screen layout, IMO it looked almost like the old previous gen G35 dash layout, but where they had buttons before, it was that lower touch screen. Lexus, even with their stupid mouse, is miles ahead in interior design. Benz and Audi(especially Audi) are just in a whole different league when it comes to interior design on something costing $40-60k.