Acura’s True Touchpad infotainment system is a sizzling matter at Autoblog HQ. A few of us completely detest its performance. Others, myself included, will plead its case as a worthy various to regular infotainment methods. “It’s not that unhealthy,” I’ll say again and again. I needed to eat my phrases to a sure extent when our long run 2021 Acura TLX’s infotainment system broke lately as a result of unhealthy wire connectors, however now that it’s up and working once more, it’s time to present it a correct shake.
The display on this TLX is a high-resolution, 10.2-inch monitor that sits removed from the driving force on the automobile’s sprint high. It’s oriented horizontally in a widescreen format. The controversial bit I discussed at the start is all to do with the way you navigate the person interface utilizing Acura’s distinctive touchpad. It makes use of one thing Acura calls absolute positioning expertise, that means that the place your finger is on the touchpad corresponds to the identical spot on the display, permitting you to pick no matter is in that location. Press down on the highest proper nook of the touchpad, and the sq. situated within the high proper nook of the display is chosen — no have to “swipe” over to it.
This takes a substantial period of time to adapt to. I didn’t grasp it or get used to it in a single day. In actual fact, it’s actually reasonably irritating out of the gate. Nearly all touchpads in vehicles earlier than this one are extra intuitive at first. Simply swipe across the pad, and your “cursor” swipes round with you. After a pair street journeys, loads of takeout runs and the whole lot in between, I’ve grow to be a believer in Acura’s expertise, although, with one main caveat I’ll deal with in a while.
Upon getting sufficient time and follow to grow to be fluent with Acura’s manner of doing issues (one thing our long-term Acura TLX has allowed us the uncommon alternative to do), absolutely the positioning technique begins to make extra sense. You may choose an app like FM radio or Apple CarPlay instantly — quicker than any common touchpad or scroll wheel will permit. It’s no wild pace demon, however you may navigate the primary menu construction quicker right here than you may in most vehicles.
Acura’s person interface is tailor-made to suit its operation with huge squares which can be simply findable in your touchpad to press. It will get somewhat more durable when you get into an app like Navigation or Sirius XM, because it requires extra exact positioning of your finger to get to the appropriate spot. So long as you perceive how the interface works, you’re going to have a adequate time. The pace at which the system works is suspect at instances — navigation takes a couple of seconds to tug up on the primary load after a start-up, identical with the radio. However that sluggish loading time goes away when you’ve opened the app as soon as.
Not like many of the German manufacturers, Acura retains its unique visualizers and additional options to a minimal. There’s a reasonably deep settings menu to wade by way of, however you gained’t discover any “revitalizing” or “rest” packages inside Acuras. The quirkiest a part of the system comes with Acura’s ambient lighting tech. As a substitute of straightforward colour names, Acura names the colour combos after well-known racetracks, roads and areas that you simply may affiliate with these colours world wide. Just a few examples embrace Route 66, Bourbon Road and Manhattan.
Now, concerning the one caveat. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto fairly frankly suck to make use of with this interface. The touchpad loses its absolute positioning performance in each CarPlay and Android Auto, leaving you to swipe round on the display like you need to with Lexus Distant Contact (by no means comparability). Nonetheless, the place you swipe and the place your cursor goes doesn’t at all times make a lot sense. It’s not tuned or dialed in in addition to most touchpads. Plus, neither Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto have been designed to work with touchpads — they’re touchscreen-first interfaces. That makes utilizing these apps super-frustrating generally, because it takes abnormally lengthy to execute most duties that might be finished in much less time on superior methods. Acura’s widescreen format does come in useful right here, although, because it permits you to preserve a sq. to the appropriate of CarPlay/Android Auto open for different use. Meaning you may preserve Waze or Google Maps open in full display mode and have your present media exhibited to the appropriate of it. Fortunately, this cuts down on the quantity of display switching obligatory.
That’s all I see on the subject of the actually unhealthy a part of this infotainment system. It’s positively not all people’s favourite possibility, however I’d suggest spending extra time with it to anyone who comes away disgusted after the primary check drive. Making such a difficult-to-learn interface isn’t sensible for impressing within the dealership, however Acura is clearly angling for long-term, simplistic happiness over the preliminary flash and bang you may get in a Mercedes-Benz or Audi. I feel it’s largely a hit, and will probably be completely satisfied to settle into it once more when it’s my flip to have one other go in our long-term TLX.
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