Vellum Venom Vignette: Less Is More With In Car Entertainment

I’ve been accused of Automotive Hipsterism for bragging about my bare bones Ford truck instead of aspiring to expensive vehicles. It used to be different, back when top-drawer dashboards were more Malevich and less Pollock in design. Because good design embraces Less is More, while poor design over thinks the solution.

While automakers don’t always receive public drubbings, In Car Entertainment (ICE) scope creep is an ergonomic nightmare. I reckon rising purchasing prices encourage a blank check for ICE overreach. People gladly buy the stuff, the technology is readily available, so why not include everything but the kitchen sink?

Because the added value is an ergonomic liability: we got problems when Audi’s handwriting recognition is an ICE-reality.

The folks at Car Design Research highlight In Car Entertainment’s problem and offer a solution: via contrasting the new S63 AMG and two entry-level vehicles outside of America’s reach. Make note of the quote:

“Spend time in the cheapest cars available today, and what you realise is that much of the complexity and feature set added into expensive cars actually provides little functional or emotional benefit. It’s a five-percent ‘nice to have’ or ‘wow’ style feature, that looks impressive in the showroom but then you never use out on the road.”

The “bottom up” notion that Car Design Research suggests is fine example of Less is More. Why spend hundreds for navigation thousands for a technology package that uploads Google directions when the FREE Google Maps App does more with less?

Not to mention every other smartphone app maker that’s years ahead of automaker’s tech, but let’s dig deeper into Google Maps:

• turn by turn navigation
• real-time traffic re-routing
• points of interest
• store contact information
• hours of operation
• customer reviews
• a “see inside” virtual tour, finding the most romantic table before you pick up your date

Let’s also note that Google’s app is regularly updated for free, sans dealership visit or hardware upgrade. In Car Entertainment needs a reboot, and the smartphone is the source: witness Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The dashboard is the secondary display. So what’s stopping this from becoming an ICE reality?

Privacy, durability, usability, API availability, crash testing, litigation threats or IP concerns?

You tell me, Best and Brightest: because Less is still More.

[Lead image: Shutterstock user My Life Graphic]