hey folks, considering there're two weeks of Tesla interface criticism on here, I had to laugh when I just read this review on the [Volkswagen] ID4 interface. This is brutal, maybe makes you feel slightly better about V11??.....here're just the key points:
Touchscreens are complex, yet ubiquitous experiences with a wide range of interpretations and executions in 2021. It’s not smart to relegate all touchscreen-based automotive interactions to a fiery Gehenna. I, do not subscribe to the typical auto journo “touchscreen bad, button good”, the overwhelming majority of cell phones are complete touch screens with no buttons, and yet, most work really well. The Polestar 2’s infotainment and HVAC controls are completely touchscreen-based, yet I found them generally easy to navigate and use on the move.
Where the Polestar 2 was iPhone-like, The ID.4 was more akin to my brother’s old Blackberry Storm, from 2009. Remember that phone? It was an early attempt at touchscreen cellphones, but the whole screen depressed like a button. On the surface, that sounds cool, until you learn that each button press can only register one keystroke, rendering speed typing or multitasking on the Blackberry Storm, a deliberate, and slow process. And that’s how the ID.4’s infotainment, steering wheel controls, window switches, and HVAC controls are; VW’s unwisely made every keypress a dim-witted touch capacitive button, that are both not sensitive and hypersensitive. Steering wheel volume and cruise control presses sometimes don’t register, or maybe they register too much. It’s really the luck of the draw.
The infotainment screen was prone to freezing, and the menus themselves weren’t easy to parse out on the move. Each menu looked different, but not different enough to quickly disseminate what the hell you were looking at while driving. Luckily, the ID.4 has Apple Carplay, which covers a lot of sins with respect to the radio, but the HVAC controls are also touch-capacitive. Navigating away from Apple CarPlay, and into the HVAC and charging menus was a buggy, slow, mess, filled with unnecessary (and slow) animations of a moving ID.4. Oh, and for some reason, Volkswagen didn’t feel like illuminating the HVAC hotkeys at night. Good luck.
Other driver ancillary functions weren’t easy to parse out on the move, either. The touchpad for the lights is cryptic. The window switches require a press on the “rear” button to operate. Like the infotainment screen, that little “rear” button might not register your button press. Generally, I don’t like lane-keep assist, but the option to turn it off, is buried in a cryptic menu, and the car refuses to remember your selection after you turn the vehicle off. Each time I wanted to drive the ID.4 and not be annoyed, it would take me a solid thirty seconds on the side of the road, scrolling around menus in a shitty system, searching for “turn off lane keep assist” switch. The user experience is so bad, I completely understand why a potential buyer would about-face, and run out of the Volkswagen dealership, screaming.
Touchscreens are complex, yet ubiquitous experiences with a wide range of interpretations and executions in 2021. It’s not smart to relegate all touchscreen-based automotive interactions to a fiery Gehenna. I, do not subscribe to the typical auto journo “touchscreen bad, button good”, the overwhelming majority of cell phones are complete touch screens with no buttons, and yet, most work really well. The Polestar 2’s infotainment and HVAC controls are completely touchscreen-based, yet I found them generally easy to navigate and use on the move.
Where the Polestar 2 was iPhone-like, The ID.4 was more akin to my brother’s old Blackberry Storm, from 2009. Remember that phone? It was an early attempt at touchscreen cellphones, but the whole screen depressed like a button. On the surface, that sounds cool, until you learn that each button press can only register one keystroke, rendering speed typing or multitasking on the Blackberry Storm, a deliberate, and slow process. And that’s how the ID.4’s infotainment, steering wheel controls, window switches, and HVAC controls are; VW’s unwisely made every keypress a dim-witted touch capacitive button, that are both not sensitive and hypersensitive. Steering wheel volume and cruise control presses sometimes don’t register, or maybe they register too much. It’s really the luck of the draw.
The infotainment screen was prone to freezing, and the menus themselves weren’t easy to parse out on the move. Each menu looked different, but not different enough to quickly disseminate what the hell you were looking at while driving. Luckily, the ID.4 has Apple Carplay, which covers a lot of sins with respect to the radio, but the HVAC controls are also touch-capacitive. Navigating away from Apple CarPlay, and into the HVAC and charging menus was a buggy, slow, mess, filled with unnecessary (and slow) animations of a moving ID.4. Oh, and for some reason, Volkswagen didn’t feel like illuminating the HVAC hotkeys at night. Good luck.
Other driver ancillary functions weren’t easy to parse out on the move, either. The touchpad for the lights is cryptic. The window switches require a press on the “rear” button to operate. Like the infotainment screen, that little “rear” button might not register your button press. Generally, I don’t like lane-keep assist, but the option to turn it off, is buried in a cryptic menu, and the car refuses to remember your selection after you turn the vehicle off. Each time I wanted to drive the ID.4 and not be annoyed, it would take me a solid thirty seconds on the side of the road, scrolling around menus in a shitty system, searching for “turn off lane keep assist” switch. The user experience is so bad, I completely understand why a potential buyer would about-face, and run out of the Volkswagen dealership, screaming.
Last edited by a moderator:
