I just bought a Mazda MX5. I love the car but utterly loathe the "entertainment system". When it isn't hanging/crashing (which it does about once a week) it prevents using any of the screen controls while the car is moving. Instead you need to take your eyes off the road longer to use a physical dial to scroll to the control you want to press. Oh and this weekend I kept getting warnings about high-wind conditions 200 miles away from me that I could not close at all while the car was moving, meanwhile no music and no GPS.
I just don't understand how whoever approves this thinks it's a good idea. It seems to be this way across almost all Mazda models. There used to be a way to turn that off but Mazda removed that. So there are indeed people actively making this moronic behavior a thing.
Hard disagree. My MX5 is my favorite car I had in the last 10 years.
My only gripe with it: Car Play crashes sporadically, while Android Auto works just fine, also why Wi-Fi isn't working for AA?
Not once have I used it as a touch screen or taken my eyes off the road to use a physical dial. You know where I did have to do it? In my Jeep that is only touch screen and buttons don't remember what I'm currently using unlike MX5. Also, those high wind warnings are far more annoying in Jeep than in Miata.
: If I'm using car's radio and Car Play's Google Maps - pressing the nav button will bring Google Maps and pressing the media button will bring the car's radio. While in some cars, it will always bring the car's version of utility or always Car Play/AA version.
Before carplay and android auto, at least on my 2015 Mazda3, the UI was designed with the knob in mind, and you could quickly navigate through the menus without looking once you became familiar with the most often used functions. Of course, now that you have interfaces that were not designed with a knob in mind, we suffer trying to spin the knob and highlight the appropriate touch point.
The knob is a UI/UX disaster itself. A digital system that literally requires you to look at the screen instead of the road to access nested after nested menu items.
My last car was a previous version. I was able to disable the change lane warning and other annoyances and didn't use any "infotainment" except connecting the phone or plugging a USB stick with MP3s. No GPS either.
The change lane warning was terrible. In a busy city it was totally wrong: approaching the line in anticipation of changing lanes is unavoidable. It also triggered when another vehicle behind was approaching still very far away. I tried to come to terms with the system, but I had to disable it all eventually.
I'm afraid of buying a new one. If all that crap is impossible to disable, I refuse to pay for it.
The warning triggers when you approach the line, not when you cross the line. That seems logical, but it was calibrated in a way that it started even if I moved a little to the left so I could use the rear-view mirror, as usual when I have a truck behind me.
Other times it started even driving totally centered in the lane, why? Irregularities in the road surface or temporary lines that someone painted during works and nobody deleted properly.
The alerts were dangerous because, if I'm already paying attention, I now get the idea that there's some danger elsewhere so I just start to nervously look in all directions, before reaching the conclusion that the system is incorrectly second guessing me.
Step daughter had an accident where the issue was a collision mid intersection, assumption of one party running a red light. No cameras, no witnesses except her and the other party, and both were adamant they had a green.
The car she was driving absolutely has telemetry that could have shown "was she at a complete stop, and for how long", immediately before the collision, i.e. showing being stopped at a red light before going (still some discussion on timing if jumping the gun, sure).
Insurance wasn't even remotely interested. It's not worth it to get that information unless, like I (and they) said, it's a very serious accident with a lot of money on the line and no other ways to determine fault.
How does that help? If you use a turn signal when changing lanes, it should only be done after you've departed your lane, as an indicator that it was intentional. :p
I have a 2021 MX-5. The dealer had to do a software update recently which fixed most of the hanging/crashing bugs in the infotainment system. It also fixed a very weird issue where Google Maps would be 5-20 seconds behind on CarPlay (meaning I frequently missed my turn!).
The weather alert thing is super annoying, but it can be disabled. I had to re-disable it after the infotainment update, presumably because they disconnected the battery. I wish I remembered which random place I had to go in the UI to disable it... IIRC it was hidden in the settings for traffic or something?!?
Edit: It's buried in Sirius settings. I don't subscribe to Sirius, so I wouldn't have thought to go there, except I had exhausted all other options.
So consider yourself lucky to even have the option!
I personally think Mazda has the least annoying tech of any mainstream car - you can generally turn off annoying beeps (unless legally required), they've kept physical controls for everything, and they've managed to maintain some semblance of steering feedback.
I just don't understand how whoever approves this thinks it's a good idea. It seems to be this way across almost all Mazda models. There used to be a way to turn that off but Mazda removed that. So there are indeed people actively making this moronic behavior a thing.