LA AUTO SHOW: The Wave Of the Future? Is Audi Showing Us The Way With Their Latest MMI Interface?

Blending functionality with ease of use is a difficult prospect at best. You only have to ask the engineers over at BMW with their overly complicated iDrive media interface. You would be hard pressed to find review out there that didn't criticize the design.

Now take a look at the Audi MMI interface in the new A7 and you see what I mean. If you didn't need it then you might never know is was there at all. But once you press the button, out slides a well hidden screen and you are off to adjust a myriad of functions.

Need to control that simply awesome Bang and Olfusen sound system? It is there at a touch. Need to see where the heck you are? Simply call up the NAV and you can find that out. Make a phone call? All just so simple.

All of the time the interface is so simple and intuitive you can keep you eyes on the road, not the screen. The wave of the future is ease of use not complexity.

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knowitall1985 - 11/17/2010 3:59:49 PM

+5 Boost

graphics look cheap......

CarCrazedinCali - 11/17/2010 4:24:51 PM

+2 Boost

idrive isn't that bad, seriously over done the reports

Steve - 11/17/2010 4:46:52 PM

+2 Boost

These MMI/iDrive interfaces are suboptimal for what they were designed to do: real-time control input. Designers in the know have been aware of this since the 1980s, when we started seeing menu/joy-stick/control-wheel driven inputs on music synthesizers. They were terrible because when a performer wants to accomplish a task, such as spontaneously raising a low-pass filter, he wants to reach out to a knob and turn it, or move a slider, not navigate a set of menus, select a parameter, and then adjust or enter the value. Ditto for real-time control of automotive functionality.

What they *DO* accomplish, is they reduce dashboard clutter, thereby making the car appear simpler, at the cost of concentrated complexity, reducing accessibility to real-time controls, and making simple tasks like turning up the bass on the radio seem like changing settings on a PC (Start menu -> Control Panel -> Sound...)

What makes one better than the other, is it sucks less.

thstone - 11/17/2010 6:36:43 PM

+1 Boost

The rule is simple: If its something that needs adjustment often, its a button/knob. If its something that is set once and mostly forgotten (or requires complex input), then its menu driven.

This looks like a near-perfect allocation of driver selections.

rxh8me9000 - 11/17/2010 9:04:14 PM

+1 Boost

Audi's MMI is a lot user friendly than Idrive. I played with one in an S5 today. I still dont understand why I have to toggle through menus to play with the radio but whatever.

IamEvilHomer - 11/18/2010 3:33:20 AM

+1 Boost

the MMI in the new A8 and A7 is much better then the S5
the s5 has a good system is good

LexSucks - 11/18/2010 11:06:10 AM

0 Boost

MMI and iDrive both suck. I'd rather have a cluttered dash with buttons. Case and point? If I wanted to have the Nav Display my current vehicle position on the map with my current vehicle, it takes one button press, and then press OK on the screen. With iDrive that same task will take about 9 or 10 pushes and turns. All while having to look at the screen. Were Buttons really that bad in the first place?