How Much Does It Bug You That You Can't Use The Touchscreen While Driving?

How Much Does It Bug You That You Can't Use The Touchscreen While Driving?

  • Bugs Me A Lot

    Votes: 14 25.9%
  • Not At All

    Votes: 40 74.1%

  • Total voters
    54
Not at all. I don't like smudges on my screen. Commander knob is fine for navigating.
 
Oddly enough, the only time I've ever actually touched the screen was to clean it before applying a glass protector to it (not that it would ever need it, but it was an impulse buy, lol).
 
Not as much as an infotainment post being put in the lounge (direct)
 
Not as much as an infotainment post being put in the lounge (direct)

Sorry Chris. Just was seeing a lot of comments about the touchscreen in the lounge and thought it's more of a general features/ease of use issue than specifically an infotainment one.
 
Seems like the only people who don't like the knob are reviewers who aren't used to it, don't really understand it. Most people like what they're most used to.
I haven't heard/read of anyone who actually lives with it who doesn't love it.
AA/ACP might make the touch screen more useful. Interested in hearing from people who have it.
 
3 owner here but I don't think I've ever actually touched my touchscreen.

100% knob and steering wheel controls.
 
Seems like the only people who don't like the knob are reviewers who aren't used to it, don't really understand it. Most people like what they're most used to.
I haven't heard/read of anyone who actually lives with it who doesn't love it.
AA/ACP might make the touch screen more useful. Interested in hearing from people who have it.

I'm really surprised at the initial responses since it seemed like a 50-50 split on other threads. We're coming out of a BMW with iDrive so the Commander Knob is almost second nature. We just took delivery so I can't comment about CarPlay yet but initially, don't see any issues using Commander Knob especially since the touchscreen will still be locked down while driving. Now if I was younger and went parking with a date (do they still do that?), the touchscreen would come into play....
 
I use the commander knob even when I'm sitting still and the touch screen is enabled.
I used the touch screen to enter a destination in the sat nav when we were on a long trip, but other than that, I don't touch the screen.
 
Sorry Chris. Just was seeing a lot of comments about the touchscreen in the lounge and thought it's more of a general features/ease of use issue than specifically an infotainment one.
just bustin your balls, no problem


very annoying as the voice command is garbage on the pre android headunit* Also I think my latest tomtom update broke the already dodgy voice command. The button on the wheel no longer works.
 
I use the commander knob even when I'm sitting still and the touch screen is enabled.
I used the touch screen to enter a destination in the sat nav when we were on a long trip, but other than that, I don't touch the screen.

Me, too, exactly.
 
I love the knob. Ya I said it.

As a seasoned Android Auto user (aftermarket HU in my old 2010 3 and OEM in our Pacifica) I am absolutely STOKED to have it in my CX-5.

I don't consider the knob a limitation. I consider it accurate. You know damn well what you're going to hit and once you learn the navigation techniques you can easily get to where you need to go.

I was actually worried with the touch screen in our Pacifica when we got it. There's a lot of screen-touching requirements there and with how accustomed I had become to the commander I was actually uncomfortable with the Chrysler UConnect for the first few weeks. I'm ok with it now, but side by side I still prefer the Mazda HMI over the touch screen even though I've only had Android auto (in the Mazda) for a few days and have had the van for a year now.

I only have a couple of qualms with the HMI and non-touch screen:
- I wish there were hard buttons for radio presets. Going into the favorites menu, while entirely possible, could be better served by a few direct-input buttons. This goes back to day 1 for me. It would make station selection and favorite saving much easier.
- I wish I could access the audio settings when using android auto at the music source.
- I wish that if you had android auto open and were listening to radio, that the radio station would momentarily pop up in the top of the screen when cycling through your favorites via the steering wheel button like the volume does when you adjust it.

I do a lot of panning and zooming from time-to-time using maps for traffic and re-routing determinations. This was the hardest to get used to with the commander in Android auto vs direct on the cell phone. But once I learned that I could zoom out, pan, then zoom in to cover more panning "ground" with each directional button as I hunted for the traffic bottlenecks this is becoming less and less of an issue for me. Simply back out of the panning screen and push the knob on the target to recenter the nav in maps.

What I think Mazda did VERY well with Android Auto and the HMI:
---I love how the HMI shortcuts revert to Android Auto functions when they're in use.
---Using google maps for Nav? Hit the Nav button, you'll go to Maps and not the OEM Nav.
---Using Mazda radio while Maps for Nav with Maps displayed? Need to see the radio? Hit the audio shortcut and you go to the radio. Nav shortcut returns you to google maps.
---Using an android auto app for audio? The audio shortcut key takes you there from any other menu.
---Pushing the home key returns you to the home menu for the system you're in (either car or android auto, depending where you are when you push it). Holding the home key switches between Mazda infotainment and android auto. The is the next-best thing to having a dedicated android auto button on the console.
---When in an android auto screen, the right direction on the knob is a shortcut to the google assistant. The left direction on the knob opens that apps menu (this took me a while to find). The down direction takes the selector to the android auto menu bar.
---When in an app its a simple turn and click of the knob to highlight the "button" you want and select it. Super simple once you learn how your apps work with the knob.
---Google assistant works quite well for me as voice input for android auto systems: "navigate to (say address)", "call (say person's name, home / mobile etc", "Play this podcast", "What's the weather tomorrow", "What was the score in the (insert favorite team's name here" game, etc, etc

IMO the screen placement is too far to reach for touch input unless parked anyways. But I have been accused of having short T-Rex arms before.

It may not be the most intuitive to someone who's never used it before, but once you learn and embrace it it's fantastic.

The only time I've used the touch screen was when I tried to program the factory Nav while parked. I quickly gave up on factory nav after that LOL
 
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Studum, thanks for the detailed report.

Does google assistant respond well to other voice inquiries [unrelated to the car]?
 
I touched my screen just to make sure it was a touch. The knob and the surrounding buttons are so much easier to reach and they work good. I don't have navigation, maybe typing in addresses for that will be easier using the touch screen.
 
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