3 ms·

That navigation system shown in the video is just atrocious. It took a full 20 seconds just to render the map interface, and (as far as I can hear) gave no conf

• rdl 14y ago
  Very long product cycles is one thing. My 2006 Audi, and up to 2008 Audi A4 models, has a nav system (RNS-E) which was essentially unchanged since introduction in MY 2002 (so, developed around 1999-2000). Hence, 4GB SD card (no SDHC) limitation, DVD based, slow, etc. It's better than any smartphone or pda developed in 1999, as a navigation device, at least. Electronics should rev a whole lot faster than the rest of the car -- there are plenty of cars from the 1990s which are relatively modern in drivetrain technology, and certainly cars from ~2000 (Honda S2000, for instance).
  • wlesieutre 14y ago
    And honestly, in some ways it's in their best interests to keep the electronics from developing quickly. If car electronics were open to external access, we'd have third party software running on iPads in no time. The slow pace lets them make incremental improvements at whatever pace they think is appropriate to selling cars. I'm reminded of a story from The Daily WTF where someone made a tenfold increase in speed by rewriting something, and their boss had them add a deliberate delay so they could let the improvements out over several releases. To improve it too much would be admitting that their previous version was poor, and they'd rather milk more modest speed bumps over several years of releases.