Toyota Sienna
A few weeks ago a few of us at my office managed to visit the DC car show. Looking at the cars was nice, but we were more focused on the dashboards… and the maybe the collector cars on the top floor. There were three floors of cars with pretty much every manufacturer represented. I compiled the data we collected and here is what we learned.
There were 26 automakers and we looked at some cars from each. We collectively reviewed 57 models. If I had to guess, I’d say there were close to 200 models shown. Most of the manufacturers used either the same dashboard head-unit (entertainment system) in each model, or had a basic and premium version split among all their models. One exception was Toyota. The rep I happened to speak to at the Toyota booth noted that each factory made independent decisions about which head-unit to deploy. As a result, the Toyota models were all over the map in terms of dashboard implementations from model to model.
Voice Command
Every model of every maker had voice command. They tended to be activated by a button on the steering wheel.
Physical Radio Selection Button
About 35% of the cars actually had a button separate from the touch screen that actually had the word ‘radio’ written on it. Pushing the button automatically brought up the radio controls on the touchscreen and switched audio to whatever station was tuned in. Almost all of the cars had physical buttons outside of the touch screen to control the radio such as power, volume and tuning. Many of the cars (we didn’t count these, but I’d guess it to be around half) had a physical button that said either ‘audio’ or ‘media’. These would bring up a menu on the touch screen for all audio sources including radio.
There were 26 automakers and we looked at some cars from each. We collectively reviewed 57 models. If I had to guess, I’d say there were close to 200 models shown. Most of the manufacturers used either the same dashboard head-unit (entertainment system) in each model, or had a basic and premium version split among all their models. One exception was Toyota. The rep I happened to speak to at the Toyota booth noted that each factory made independent decisions about which head-unit to deploy. As a result, the Toyota models were all over the map in terms of dashboard implementations from model to model.
Voice Command
Every model of every maker had voice command. They tended to be activated by a button on the steering wheel.
Physical Radio Selection Button
About 35% of the cars actually had a button separate from the touch screen that actually had the word ‘radio’ written on it. Pushing the button automatically brought up the radio controls on the touchscreen and switched audio to whatever station was tuned in. Almost all of the cars had physical buttons outside of the touch screen to control the radio such as power, volume and tuning. Many of the cars (we didn’t count these, but I’d guess it to be around half) had a physical button that said either ‘audio’ or ‘media’. These would bring up a menu on the touch screen for all audio sources including radio.
Dodge Ram
Radio Icon on the Top Tier
By this we mean when you select the primary button to orient the system, usually called ‘Home’, we were looking to see if the radio system was listed as an option. Like the physical button version, about 35% did this. Pretty much all the rest had an icon that said something like ‘audio’ or ‘media’ in which the radio was then one of a number of audio sources available. We would refer to this as second tier, but at least in those cases radio was on equal footing with all other audio sources.
Carplay/Auto Exclude Radio
This refers to an experience we had at the 2018 CES when there was one model with this approach. In that case when you plugged your phone into the car either Apple Carplay or Android Auto would come up, and all other audio options were grayed out and not available unless you unplugged the phone. Luckily, the car folks have seen how this might make their buyers unhappy. Not one car did that this time. About 50% of the cars would mute radio and switch away to Carplay or Auto, but you could navigate back to the radio source with no problem. The other 50% brought up the apps, but kept playing the radio until you selected to use the app instead.
By this we mean when you select the primary button to orient the system, usually called ‘Home’, we were looking to see if the radio system was listed as an option. Like the physical button version, about 35% did this. Pretty much all the rest had an icon that said something like ‘audio’ or ‘media’ in which the radio was then one of a number of audio sources available. We would refer to this as second tier, but at least in those cases radio was on equal footing with all other audio sources.
Carplay/Auto Exclude Radio
This refers to an experience we had at the 2018 CES when there was one model with this approach. In that case when you plugged your phone into the car either Apple Carplay or Android Auto would come up, and all other audio options were grayed out and not available unless you unplugged the phone. Luckily, the car folks have seen how this might make their buyers unhappy. Not one car did that this time. About 50% of the cars would mute radio and switch away to Carplay or Auto, but you could navigate back to the radio source with no problem. The other 50% brought up the apps, but kept playing the radio until you selected to use the app instead.
GMC Denali
Both AM and FM
This question was also a holdover from the earlier CES when we saw a fairly large percentage of the electric cars that did not have an AM tuner in them. This year that was less true. A full 96% of the models we looked at included tuners for both bands. The concern for AM in electric cars is the interference generated by the electric motor, but it’s clear they are willing to spend the small amount it costs to shield the AM radio. Perhaps they got some negative feedback from car buyers.
HD Radio
We looked to see how many offered this option. Of the cars we looked at, 86% had the capability. This bodes well for applications such as Metapub. It’s not clear how many of these systems included HD Radio as a standard vs an option, but it was so prevalent that it’s likely it was standard.
It was difficult to tell in some cases how metadata was handled. If a car had HD Radio in all cases it at least displayed RDS text and HD text. What was more difficult to confirm was the presence or non-presence of Artist Experience, meaning graphics in HD Radio. In order to confirm it we had to tune to stations we knew were transmitting graphics, then wait to see if the broadcast signal was strong enough to receive it. This was more of a challenge in the basement than on the main floor, but was still a bit of a science project either way. There were only 6 models that seemed to have RDS only. One model (Acura RLX) didn’t have any sort of metadata. All the rest did display metadata both in RDS and HD modes, though with the caveats on graphics mentioned above.
This question was also a holdover from the earlier CES when we saw a fairly large percentage of the electric cars that did not have an AM tuner in them. This year that was less true. A full 96% of the models we looked at included tuners for both bands. The concern for AM in electric cars is the interference generated by the electric motor, but it’s clear they are willing to spend the small amount it costs to shield the AM radio. Perhaps they got some negative feedback from car buyers.
HD Radio
We looked to see how many offered this option. Of the cars we looked at, 86% had the capability. This bodes well for applications such as Metapub. It’s not clear how many of these systems included HD Radio as a standard vs an option, but it was so prevalent that it’s likely it was standard.
It was difficult to tell in some cases how metadata was handled. If a car had HD Radio in all cases it at least displayed RDS text and HD text. What was more difficult to confirm was the presence or non-presence of Artist Experience, meaning graphics in HD Radio. In order to confirm it we had to tune to stations we knew were transmitting graphics, then wait to see if the broadcast signal was strong enough to receive it. This was more of a challenge in the basement than on the main floor, but was still a bit of a science project either way. There were only 6 models that seemed to have RDS only. One model (Acura RLX) didn’t have any sort of metadata. All the rest did display metadata both in RDS and HD modes, though with the caveats on graphics mentioned above.
Volvo XC40
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