INFOTAINMENT: incredible or irritating?

Modern infotainment is deeply impressive — but try each different system when you’re shopping for a car

When you buy a new car, it usually comes with its own “infotainment” system — a screen that provides information and entertainment while you drive. Vehicle manufacturers are borrowing technology from the world of consumer electronics, bringing cars ever more closely into alignment with phones and tablets.

These infotainment systems bring with them some excellent benefits for drivers, but also a few potential pitfalls.

Infotainment advantages

Essentially, infotainment systems give you access to vastly more functions and features.

● They provide feedback from the car’s exterior cameras; once you get used to reversing and parking cameras, it’s hard to go back to driving without them.

● They allow you to use on-screen maps to navigate.

● You can connect your phone to the system and use it handsfree, so you can make calls and receive text messages without illegally touching the phone.

● By connecting Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, there is access to everyday apps like Waze, Google Maps and Spotify.

● You may be able to use voice commands to control functions in the car that would otherwise require you to push a button.

In the future, infotainment systems will also improve safety. Since 2018, new cars in the European Union have been required to connect to emergency services in the event of an accident. That means they must have sim cards and be connected to the internet, providing extra advantages like live traffic reports, weather forecasts and Wi-Fi hotspotting.

Infotainment disadvantages

There are problems that can crop up with infotainment systems which you’d never encounter with old-fashioned knobs and dials.

● They can be highly distracting. US research conducted in 2017 found that drivers using infotainment systems were very distracted — worse than using a phone or even texting while driving. However, it’s worth noting that systems have evolved considerably over the past five years, so improvements have been made.

● Not all systems are easy to use. A survey of 73,000 drivers in the US found that drivers disliked their systems if they had one of the following issues: a touchpad/ mouse controller, everyday items requiring too many steps to find, overcomplicated menus, slow responses, or poor speech recognition leading to misunderstood commands.

● Even with a reasonably good user interface, too-small symbols or text can be a struggle for long-sighted users.

Choose wisely

Shop around. Try out the infotainment systems on every car you’re thinking of buying. Ask yourself some key questions.

● That huge infotainment screen in the centre of the dashboard might look impressive, but will it be distracting and prove to be a safety hazard?

● Can you easily read the screen without looking away from the road for too long?

● Is the user interface intuitive — can you quickly find the function you want or is it buried under various menus?

● Is it simple to use, or overly complicated?

● Does the system respond quickly to your taps and commands?

If you drive an older vehicle and you’re used to classic knobs and dials, you’re accustomed to simplicity, instant responses and haptic feedback (you can feel the dial “clicking” around, so you know how far you’ve turned it). You may find modern infotainment systems frustrating.

Some still have dials, although this is becoming rare. However, manufacturers do recognise these challenges and newer infotainment setups are being developed that include haptic feedback on touchscreens. In general, newer systems are more user-friendly, because manufacturers are combining feedback and experience to keep improving the technology.

Take your time, make the most of those test drives, and don’t be shy about asking plenty of questions and trialling each infotainment system to its fullest.