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I can't even use the android auto touchscreen in my miata because you can't make it disabled enough at speed so they just disabled the entire thing. Even the an

I can't even use the android auto touchscreen in my miata because you can't make it disabled enough at speed so they just disabled the entire thing. Even the android auto dongles that hack that kind of thing I haven't had success with. I would bet this is some overzealous safety executive somewhere.

giobox 3y ago
ND2 Miata owner here, exact same complaints. I believe there are several models in Mazda's range with the frankly staggeringly annoying behaviour of disabling the touch screen once the car is moving. In lieu of the touchscreen while cars wheels are rolling, Mazda expect you to use this odd rotary controller in the center console, on the assumption it will be safer. It's not safer at all though - you have to turn the rotary controller and watch CarPlay or android auto do the equivalent of a tab key in the browser until it highlights the correct field, then press it in to select. It genuinely takes my eyes off the road longer than just stabbing a touch screen with my finger, as you have to make sure you have got the rotary controller to highlight the right button etc - you can overshoot just like tab in a browser. What's even funnier to me is that Mazda have no qualms about putting a switch to disable stability and traction control instantly right next to the steering wheel on a light weight rear wheel drive sports car; burnouts and oversteer are apparently perfectly acceptable usecases for a Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys...
- izacus 3y ago
  Disabling the distracting touchscreens is one of the things that Mazda does right. Pecking at the screen while driving is stupidly dangerous. Pretty much everything you need can be done with at most a few steps of the commander interface which are easy to learn.
  - solardev 3y ago
    I just rented a Mazda with one of those terrible rotary dials. Something as simple as finding the nearest gas station, which takes like 2 touches on a touch screen, takes several pushes and inaccurate turns of the dial. It turns a 3-second affair into a 30 second nightmare requiring constant distractions and squinting to see which button or field is currently highlighted. It's the worst car UX I've ever experienced, even worse than a Tesla. I'll never buy a car with a system like this. It's suicide.
    - lost_tourist 3y ago
      just use your phone's integration with the dash and use siri or google ?
      - solardev 3y ago
        The Google Assistant works well sometimes, but not always. The touchscreen is more precise for simpler (1-3 click) operations.
    - izacus 3y ago
      What are you talking about? It's like push down to select search box, select gas station icon (first in like, one rotation), press again. If there's an active route, you rotate the dial twice quickly to select the search icon. That's on Android Auto on my Mazda. It's very similar in the built-in nav system. And in no case do you have to lean forward to peck for small touch boxes - the controls are naturally at your hand and each move has a tactile click. Touchscreens are "souicide" as more and more distracted driving research shows.
      - solardev 3y ago
        That entirely depends on what other interactions you've done recently. If you've moved the dial to any other control, you have to carefully scroll it back to the right place. The highlighting showing which control currently has focus isn't very obvious, especially once Android Auto starts showing two or three apps in split screen. If you want to mute the speech, change the compass heading, go to the Spotify section, etc, it all takes careful dialing. The dial itself also sucks. It has both a rotary spinner that's too easy to turn and a 4-way joystick that's too easy to nudge. If you happen to drive across a tiny bump (especially with the stock shocks, which are really stiff), you can entirely lose your place and have to hunt for the highlighted control before you can resume. I have to lean forward because my eyesight isn't that great compared to before. It's not bad enough to stop driving, but not good enough to see Android Auto on that tiny screen, of which Maps is only like 2/3, and each button is tiny. Touch screens don't really have that problem because there's not a control that has focus at any given time. You just poke whatever you want, regardless of current context. Touch screens (like on Teslas) are worse than traditional buttons. But the Mazda spinner is even worse than touch screens. It is far far more distracting, IMO, and a life-threatening dealbreaker for me. It's cool if you like them though... I just won't be buying a Mazda anymore, but that car (to my surprise) got pretty high reviews and nobody even mentioned the infotainment UX. Shrug. I'm just picky about these things.
- busterarm 3y ago
  > Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys... It's a Miata. You should be listening to the sound the car makes. Car speakers sound like shit with the top down at highway speeds anyway. The AC in my RX7 hasn't been charged in 20 years either and I live in the southeastern US. Driving these cars is a full experience...
buggeryorkshire 3y ago
The Miata is called an MX5 in the UK. I used to own another variant, the Abarth Spider - which is best known here as an MX5 in Italian clothing as it had a few improvements, but was based on an MX5. The headunit was trivially easy to hack iirc - was based on an old version of Android obviously without security fixes, think it was from a website called mazdahacks? From there I had full AA without restrictions. No idea if the site is still around but...
- pwillia7 3y ago
  That's a Fiata ;) Also, the Fiata is based on the ND1 and so still has the smaller engine, but I'd totally get a Fiata over an ND1. Mazda hacks is still around but looks like there's some more protection in it than there was a few years ago so it's harder to setup.
smugma 3y ago
The CX90 has two screen sizes. Bizarrely, only the larger screen is a touch screen, and even then, only when using CarPlay! For Mazda system settings, you need to use the dial. I imagine they are testing this out as a higher end/cost feature that isn’t fully implemented, and based on sales/feedback, they’ll roll it out to other models in a couple of years. Depending on my specific need, I may use the touchscreen or the wheel. My kids in the passenger seat strongly prefer the touchscreen.

giobox 3y ago

ND2 Miata owner here, exact same complaints. I believe there are several models in Mazda's range with the frankly staggeringly annoying behaviour of disabling the touch screen once the car is moving. In lieu of the touchscreen while cars wheels are rolling, Mazda expect you to use this odd rotary controller in the center console, on the assumption it will be safer. It's not safer at all though - you have to turn the rotary controller and watch CarPlay or android auto do the equivalent of a tab key in the browser until it highlights the correct field, then press it in to select. It genuinely takes my eyes off the road longer than just stabbing a touch screen with my finger, as you have to make sure you have got the rotary controller to highlight the right button etc - you can overshoot just like tab in a browser. What's even funnier to me is that Mazda have no qualms about putting a switch to disable stability and traction control instantly right next to the steering wheel on a light weight rear wheel drive sports car; burnouts and oversteer are apparently perfectly acceptable usecases for a Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys...

izacus 3y ago
Disabling the distracting touchscreens is one of the things that Mazda does right. Pecking at the screen while driving is stupidly dangerous. Pretty much everything you need can be done with at most a few steps of the commander interface which are easy to learn.
- solardev 3y ago
  I just rented a Mazda with one of those terrible rotary dials. Something as simple as finding the nearest gas station, which takes like 2 touches on a touch screen, takes several pushes and inaccurate turns of the dial. It turns a 3-second affair into a 30 second nightmare requiring constant distractions and squinting to see which button or field is currently highlighted. It's the worst car UX I've ever experienced, even worse than a Tesla. I'll never buy a car with a system like this. It's suicide.
  - lost_tourist 3y ago
    just use your phone's integration with the dash and use siri or google ?
    - solardev 3y ago
      The Google Assistant works well sometimes, but not always. The touchscreen is more precise for simpler (1-3 click) operations.
  - izacus 3y ago
    What are you talking about? It's like push down to select search box, select gas station icon (first in like, one rotation), press again. If there's an active route, you rotate the dial twice quickly to select the search icon. That's on Android Auto on my Mazda. It's very similar in the built-in nav system. And in no case do you have to lean forward to peck for small touch boxes - the controls are naturally at your hand and each move has a tactile click. Touchscreens are "souicide" as more and more distracted driving research shows.
    - solardev 3y ago
      That entirely depends on what other interactions you've done recently. If you've moved the dial to any other control, you have to carefully scroll it back to the right place. The highlighting showing which control currently has focus isn't very obvious, especially once Android Auto starts showing two or three apps in split screen. If you want to mute the speech, change the compass heading, go to the Spotify section, etc, it all takes careful dialing. The dial itself also sucks. It has both a rotary spinner that's too easy to turn and a 4-way joystick that's too easy to nudge. If you happen to drive across a tiny bump (especially with the stock shocks, which are really stiff), you can entirely lose your place and have to hunt for the highlighted control before you can resume. I have to lean forward because my eyesight isn't that great compared to before. It's not bad enough to stop driving, but not good enough to see Android Auto on that tiny screen, of which Maps is only like 2/3, and each button is tiny. Touch screens don't really have that problem because there's not a control that has focus at any given time. You just poke whatever you want, regardless of current context. Touch screens (like on Teslas) are worse than traditional buttons. But the Mazda spinner is even worse than touch screens. It is far far more distracting, IMO, and a life-threatening dealbreaker for me. It's cool if you like them though... I just won't be buying a Mazda anymore, but that car (to my surprise) got pretty high reviews and nobody even mentioned the infotainment UX. Shrug. I'm just picky about these things.
busterarm 3y ago
> Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys... It's a Miata. You should be listening to the sound the car makes. Car speakers sound like shit with the top down at highway speeds anyway. The AC in my RX7 hasn't been charged in 20 years either and I live in the southeastern US. Driving these cars is a full experience...

buggeryorkshire 3y ago

The Miata is called an MX5 in the UK. I used to own another variant, the Abarth Spider - which is best known here as an MX5 in Italian clothing as it had a few improvements, but was based on an MX5. The headunit was trivially easy to hack iirc - was based on an old version of Android obviously without security fixes, think it was from a website called mazdahacks? From there I had full AA without restrictions. No idea if the site is still around but...

pwillia7 3y ago
That's a Fiata ;) Also, the Fiata is based on the ND1 and so still has the smaller engine, but I'd totally get a Fiata over an ND1. Mazda hacks is still around but looks like there's some more protection in it than there was a few years ago so it's harder to setup.

smugma 3y ago

The CX90 has two screen sizes. Bizarrely, only the larger screen is a touch screen, and even then, only when using CarPlay! For Mazda system settings, you need to use the dial. I imagine they are testing this out as a higher end/cost feature that isn’t fully implemented, and based on sales/feedback, they’ll roll it out to other models in a couple of years. Depending on my specific need, I may use the touchscreen or the wheel. My kids in the passenger seat strongly prefer the touchscreen.