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Asked one Volvo co-driver: "Why can't it just say a simple `Where do you want to go?' Instead, you have to crawl inside the mind of the guy who designed the system and figure out how his tortured psyche would word the question, `Where do you want to go?'"
The Mercedes system was generally regarded as the most user-unfriendly in this respect. It came with a 68-page COMAND center instruction tome, which was of no use at all in the heat of such a serious competition. buy cars on line The COMAND center will let you program several hours of music on a dozen CDs, operate the cell phone, adjust the temperature controls or manage the navigation system functions using one of several keypads and one video screen. It might impress other electronics engineers, but habitually confounds civilians. One up side: Upon arriving at Vassar's Aroma's Coffee Shoppe (only to find it closed indefinitely) the Mercedes' screen proudly displayed a checkered flag. Nobody else's nav system is that cool.
The Acura TL won the ease-of-use award on this leg, and overall. Its touchscreen and mouse-button interface is best organized, leading its user logically from screen to screen. The only problem with the Acura system's interface was that the semi-glossy screen of our '99 model got covered in greasy fingerprints and would occasionally be washed out by the sun. Those minor downfalls have been remedied for 2000 with a matte screen.
Easy as it is to use, the TL system gives no warning that you've magically selected "avoid freeways" as a default, so the Acura team followed the long way around a couple of times.
A special award goes to Volvo for having the most dramatic device. buy cars on line The video screen rises out of the top of the dashboard like the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately, all of its controls are located on the backside of the steering wheel spokes.
In the Volvo, our navigator/passenger was useful for little more than companionship. Exposed as it was, reading the Volvo's screen demanded that we create a sophisticated visor out of a sheet of paper. It gave the right-seat guy something to do, anyway.
The Audi system was the only one among our group without a big video screen capable of showing a scrolling map. Instead, it gives directions only when necessary with graphic arrows and with voice prompts. The driver information center slotted between the gauges also displays the distance to your next turn (in your choice of English or metric units, if you can figure it out) in both numerals and by a bar graph. We give credit to Audi for trying to keep drivers' eyes on the road instead of a video screen. buy cars on line However, unlike a map, which gives you a general idea of where you are and where you're going, the Audi requires faith in the system's accuracy. Drivers are along for the ride. The Audi would betray that faith before the end of the day.
Leg 4: Aroma's Coffee Shoppe to St. Clair Inn, St. Clair, Michigan.
As our group of intrepid travelers gathered to trade road tales in a hospitality suite at the St. Clair Inn, quenching thirst and awaiting dinner, the ugly realization dawned: One team was MIA.
Faith in the Audi's navigation system had the team stuck, tired, thirsty and angry 80 miles (as the crow flies) away in Sebewaing, Michigan, in the no-man's land of Michigan's "thumb" region. The Audi urged them to head north out of Vassar when it was clear to everybody but the Audi that St. Clair is to the southeast. Since it was guiding the team around the perimeter of the thumb, following the shoreline all the way down to St. Clair, the only logical explanation was that it had a limited amount of detail on its map of this region. buy cars on line Therefore, the only way to get from Vassar to St. Clair was to follow the only road it knew that connected the two. The Mercedes suggested the same route, but since the team could see on the system's map that the route was ludicrous, they disregarded it. The Mercedes team explained that people cannot be slaves to the tool; the tool should be the servant. Further, when servants get bossy, they get kicked out of the big house.
Despite their misgivings, the ever-honest Audi team decided it would be "a good test" to follow the system's instructions. Even after the pair of drivers admitted defeat, broke open the emergency pack and decided just to cut across the thumb and join the group, the Audi tried desperately to get them to make a U-turn to its original scenic route. Then, even on the expressway of the team's own choosing-the one with the most direct route to St. Clair-the nav system urged the driver to take each and every exit that passed. A trying bit of ignorance mixed with arrogance, the Audi system was shunned until the team arrived at the Inn, two hours late.