I copied this from a post I made on another thread for member option:

I believe the infotainment system in the XK is based on old technology like the navigation system. It's definitely not state of the art. However, it works fine and communicates with other electronic modules on the car just fine. Jaguar, don't keep kicking the can down the road, build a better car:

The old electronic systems being manufactured in most cars today are not state-of-the-art and must be expensive to develop, maintain and manufacture. I'd like to see an iphone or android device used as your key, infotainment front end to access radio, air conditioning, etc., Also could be used for engine control gauges etc. The application is limitless and the manufacture would only need to develop an app and manufacture a touch screen or include a tablet in the dash. This would eliminate a lot of problems and make the front-end interface scalable and standardized for all manufactures. The applications are limitless. Instead of manufactures building there own proprietary systems for the front-end interface a tablet/smart phone would be most efficient and effective IMO. What's the cost of an iphone or tablet compared to the manufacture's upcharge for navigation etc. Car manufacture's infotainment systems are far from state-of-the-art for a reason. Car manufactures can not do everything the best.

With such an interface road side assistance could be diagnosed remotely, maintenance would be simple and more effective. The over all cost would dramatically decrease. When motor cars were first build in America car manufactures built everything themselves. Today, car manufactures, for the most part, outsource components. I think it's time to start outsourcing the front-end infotainment system to apple or google. Can you imagine, Jaguar implementing stating-of-art electronics in their cars leap frogging the industry. Wow, that would definitely shake off any electrical/electronic stigma associated with Jaguar. All Jaguar's would come with an iphone/tablet and cost less, and be more reliable and serviceable than any other car on the market.

 

No thanks. IOS and Android have had major functional and security bugs in every recent release.

There is already an open system bus initiative afoot amongst auto manufacturers. Let Apple and Google adapt rather than the other way around.

Of course even then, they would have to be firewalled very carefully since a vehicle system targetted virus/trojan wouldn't be far behind on those devices.

In fact, I would like to see all cell services other than 911 disabled once a vehicle is in motion.

 

My 2 cents here revolve around wanting to have buttons back for everything. My one ergonomic gripe with my Jag is that a lot of functions require me to look at the touch screen to do them. Older cars I just flip the buttons by feel and location. I want to go back to that -- my eyes should stay on the road. I want dials and toggle or rocker switches please!

 

Agreed! The problem is even worse on verts. When you're driving with the top down the screen is almost impossible to see.

Mike

 

You know why Microsoft don't build cars, don't you ??

Because the Airbag would ask "are you sure ??" before deploying !!

Joking aside, automotive software is far more conservatively designed, and reliable, than that of phone or tablet systems.
I think we've only had one posting of a 'fatal error/blue screen of death' type crash in the last year ?

As an ex-geek, I'm convinced the software quality bar has been lowered as the competition increased and features are added. I must get 4 or 5 software updates a week for my Android phone....

 

Here-here .For us older drivers It takes two to drive these new cars .I also agree how can it be safe to look at the screen and the road at the same time its an accident waiting to happen. the only other way is voice activated . BL

 

A little extreme don't you think?

 

Jag should just license something from Toyota (or the like) and go with that instead.

 

Couldn't security holes be avoided by locking down the OS? Make it a permanent part of the vehicle (as opposed to an app on one's smartphone) and limit it's capabilities. A $40 tablet from China is surely easier to incorporate into a vehicle than an in-house engineered system, right?

 

agreed. My 2008 Lexus touchscreen was far superior to any other OEM one that i've seen. I really don't like the Mercedes-Benz COMAND or my Jag's infotainment center. We need intuitive, responsive, functional, pretty, & a very informative system.

Also, I hate that when I switch to NAV I have to agree to be safe while using it. So annoying. Locking out features while driving makes me angry as well. Have they never heard of passengers?!

As others have said safety and reliability exceeds everything else in auto requirements. I LOVE tech in cars and I would LOVE to have everything under the sun available to me and my passengers but there are struggling interests in that department that are more difficult to sort out than the tech itself.

 

Easy to make it secure by not having it connect to internet or any wireless protocol. Only hardwired connector access with ignition on.