C3 Report -- Infotainment systems, long a selling-point in consumer advertising by automakers, have reached a point beyond which basic information and entertainment can be easily accessed and operated. Consumers are now faced with a confusing array of features, touch-surfaces, “button-farms” and menu hierarchies that have added operational complexity beyond the comprehension of many people.

The source of this complexity? According to a discussion panel at the recent SAE World Congress titled “The In-Car Experience — What Does the Consumer Really Want,” automakers have become obsessed with technology to the degree that they have sacrificed intuitiveness and are alienating their customer base with unnecessary features that might not ever be used.

“Vehicles on the road today are overladen with tools,” said David Lyon, a former General Motors interiors designer who also claims that car companies need a “features intervention” that will allow them to better understand how people operate their vehicles. This will, in turn, identify features that are not likely to be used by drivers and provide guidance to automakers on which features to remove.

Fierce competition between automakers has spawned a “culture of incrementalism,” according to Andrew Hart of consultancy company SBD. “Technology is moving so fast that carmakers often design new systems before they understand what works and doesn’t work with their current systems.”

Consumers have spoken up loudly of their bewilderment with today’s infotainment systems and have cited these systems as a primary area of criticism. In response, automakers such as Honda have been collaborating much more closely with developers in the design and functionality of their next-generation infotainment systems. Still others have made the strategic decision to outsource basic infotainment system design to Apple and Google, albeit at an incredibly slow pace.

The SAE panel made an interesting, if not practical, observation as to why more automakers are leaving infotainment system development to the experts. “It’s surprising how many people at OEMs don’t know how their [infotainment] systems work,” SBD’s Hart noted. “That’s in sharp contrast to companies such as Apple and Google, where employees are the best advertisements for their products.”

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