Infotainment glitches prove exasperating; Consumer Reports pans
new Honda Civic
By Christina Rogers
Traditional auto makers racing against Silicon Valley firms to
develop self-driving cars and electric vehicles face more immediate
technological challenges with a longstanding mainstay: the
dashboard screen.
Customer frustrations are mounting with infotainment systems
that fail to seamlessly connect smartphones and suffer a range of
glitches including crashing electronic displays and imperfect
voice-recognition features, according to dealers and automobile
reviewers.
The dissatisfaction come despite significant leaps auto makers
have made creating systems that function more like popular
hand-held electronics.
Consumer Reports magazine on Monday yanked its recommendation
for Honda Motor Co.'s popular Civic compact car, in part due to
owners complaining about the vehicle's in-car electronics, and its
dashboard console needing replacement.
Problems with the touch screen and climate controls on the Volvo
Car Corp.'s new XC90 sport-utility vehicle also plunged the Swedish
luxury car maker into the bottom third of Consumer Reports'
reliability rankings this year.
The influential product-review magazine has in recent years
spotlighted growing problems with dashboard technology as a
significant friction point for car shoppers.
When it comes to technological advances in the car cabin, car
companies are "getting better and they're getting worse," said Jake
Fisher, Consumer Reports' head of automotive testing. J.D. Power,
another prominent car researcher, in February highlighted software
for audio, navigation and voice recognition as "the most
problematic area on most vehicles," adding the issues drag down
dependability scores.
"We see across the board as auto makers introduce complex
electronic systems, they're having more problems," Mr. Fisher
said.
Honda said it continues "working diligently to enhance the
usability and functionality of these in-demand technologies in our
unrelenting effort to create new value for our customers."
Volvo said the XC90 has won numerous accolades from other
third-party reviewers, in part because of its infotainment system,
and the touch screen interface is popular with consumers, who once
acclimated to it, give it high marks.
Ford Motor Co. has struggled over the years with bugs in Sync
and MyFord Touch Telematics systems, with one engineer in 2011
calling software for the systems a "polished turd," according to
court documents filed in a 2013 consumer lawsuit against the
Dearborn, Mich., auto maker that a judge recently granted
class-action status.
At one point, Chairman Bill Ford was forced to pull over to
reboot the system after it crashed, and separately an engineer
received a photo of broken touch screen used by Chief Executive
Mark Fields, with a note saying the executive "may have been a
little aggravated" with it, according to internal emails and
employee interviews filed in the lawsuit.
In a statement, Ford said MyFord Touch was "revolutionary" when
it launched and like "all new and complex software, continuously
evolved and improved after its initial release." Customers got free
software upgrades as engineers improved performance, the company
said.
The challenges come as traditional car makers like Ford, General
Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. race to hire more software
developers and programmers in an effort to keep pace in a
technological arms race with Silicon Valley companies such as Tesla
Motors Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.
Tesla this month said it had installed hardware on coming
vehicles that will allow them to fully drive themselves despite
scrutiny stemming from a fatal crash in May involving a vehicle
using its semiautonomous Autopilot system. Google continues to test
fully autonomous vehicles but has been relatively tight-lipped
about future plans.
On the dashboard, car shoppers are increasingly looking for
rival systems from Alphabet and Apple Inc. that pair smartphones
and allow motorists to view and interact with the familiar home
screens in their vehicles.
Car companies are straining to keep pace with the volume and
speed with which tech firms update their smartphone software, a lag
that can at times confuse the car's infotainment system and cause
it to crash, say analysts and service technicians.
Traditional auto makers struggle to incorporate new technology
quickly, given vehicle development cycles that can take up to three
years. Ford is rolling out the third iteration of its Sync system
that made its debut in 2007, while Apple is on the seventh
generation of its iPhone that first hit the market the same
year.
What is more, customers often have to endure the hassle of
visiting a dealership for software upgrades instead of over-the-air
updates they have become accustomed to on smartphones.
Some car makers are starting to debut wireless connections that
make updates easier. Ford said its latest version of Sync can fix
software bugs, modify on-screen graphics and add new phone-pairing
features such as Apple's CarPlay and Alphabet's Android Auto
through Wi-Fi hot spots.
"You push the button on the iPhone and it updates in a couple
minutes," said Bill Graf, a service manager for Waikem Ford in
Massillon, Ohio. "They need to do that with cars. You wouldn't see
half of these people in here."
Rick Kearney, a master diagnostic technician at Earl Stewart
Toyota in Lake Park, Fla., said one frequent problem is phone
makers update text-message capabilities, adding emojis or video
that current infotainment systems don't recognize, crashing the
software. Then, a customer has to bring the car into the dealership
to remedy it.
"It seems as though the phones have 2020 technology and the cars
are stuck in 2005," Mr. Kearney said.
Chris Rovik, Toyota's general manager for electronic systems,
said the company isn't aware of such text messaging problems but it
has staff in Silicon Valley that works closely with Apple and
Alphabet's Android to get ahead of any major mobile-phone
updates.
Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024