bwm

Imagine if, before you could change from your radio to your CD you had to: open the glove box, wait three seconds, and then close the glove box. That's how irritatingly idiotic the Audi legal team has become in requiring you to 'acknowledge' the hazard of using the MMI - once each time you start the car (you have to flip up the MMI screen, wait three seconds, acknowledge the warning with a button press, and then flip it down to reattain proper ambiance - even if you don't need to use the screen for any operation you're trying to do).

Now imagine paying the price associated with a car like the A8 only to find it will poke a blunt stick in your eye every time you set out to drive it (that's about how much I like the car at the moment).

I checked with Audi USA; first they told me MMI acknowledgment was required by law - when I asked them to cite the law for me, they later acknowledged that there is no law - its simply [bad] legal advice from Audi lawyers.

Here's how to fix that and other minor irritations (pleeeease, may an Audi engineer implement this and send me the MMI software upgrade before I rip out the MMI screen and stomp on it!):

1) Activate all MMI hard and soft keys when the key is in the iginition. Require MMI 'operating hazard' acknowledgment ONLY when the MMI flip-up screen is activated.

2) If the MMI 'operating hazard' acknowledgment cannot be eliminated because Audi lawyers are not comfortable with its removal (note to Audi lawyers: I'll be looking for folks to sue Audi if they have an accident while being forced to perfrom the acknowledgment routine), then the following, in order of preference, would be more acceptable. a) I'll sign something when I purchase the vehicle stating that 'operating a vehicle or its subsystems may cause an accident', then disable this damned requirement. Better yet, get rid of the requirement altogether and [sensibly] rely on local driving laws to hold a driver responsible for the safe operation of their vehicle. b) have message appear in driver display and then go away when I press the brake pedal (as it did in 2001 A6). c) require MMI acknowledgment only if MMI screen is used, and then only once per driving session (preferably with 'driving session' defined once per scheduled maintenance service interval or some other approprately lengthy period of time).

Note: the fact that most simple MMI functions associated with radio/CD are so easily learned that the MMI screen is not needed is a tribute to the interface's design. Kudo's to Audi there.

3) When `memory list' is activated for the radio, enable the selection of memory entries from the mode / thumbwheel / driver console monitor. The `memory list' mode is actually much more utilized than is the `dynamic list' mode - particularly in urban areas where there are a lot of stations, or like places I drive in where the station I listen to never appears in the dynamic list - so if only one of these can use the mode / thumbwheel selection method, make it the memory list and not the dynamic list.

4) When `CD list' is activated, enable the selection of CDs from the mode / thumbwheel / console monitor.

5) Do not disable access to ANY of the MMI functions (e.g., car / settings) unless a feature is not available for technical reasons while the car is in motion. Having to stop while on the interstate in order to change cabin lighting preferences, as is currently required, is absurd.

6) Menu / sub-menu structures are inferior to analog interfaces such as a typical radio/button layout. But don't go back to the in-console radio/button style. Instead, if you really wanted to push the design envelope, you'd have a touch screen display with user customizable (location, size, function) buttons that allow a user to create an interface which is tuned to their specific needs / habits. See these guys who have done a good job with the concept for remote controls: OmniRemote from Pacific Neo-Tek, Inc. http://www.pacificneotek.com

Until Audi fixes the #&*!&#*! acknowledgment requirement, I'm going to see if I can find a kids toy that can jump up and down on the MMI button with sufficient force so as to provide a tempory fix to automate that MMI gadfly.

Any other Audi owners out there interested in starting an 'owner's petition' to get Audi to fix this? ;-)

- slightly off topic of MMI -

7) Permit MMI selection (or Audi service center selection) of maximum vehicle speed. If tires are rated to 160+, US owner should be able to remove the 130mph electronic limiter.

8) The On-Star `green light' needs to be made significantly dimmer/smaller. I've painted it over with paint matching the car interior so that I can see the road at night (slight exaggeration only).

9) Please put the rear folding seats of the A6 in the A8. I miss them and the extra storage space they afford on rare occasions.

6) If a feature is not available in the US, please don't install a button labeled for it. Specifically, if cars in the US won't ship with a TV, don't install a CD/TV button [better yet, make the feature available here too!].

greenie

Disclaimers are a fact of life. The whole procedure to "accept" takes maybe 3 seconds away from direct interface with the system which is less time than it takes to spread your favorite cheese on your favorite cracker and then to enjoy it! There are definetly issues with the radio functions and the like with the MMI but painting over your On-Star button because its too bright?? IMHO, this world never promised perfection. It only made "a few offers". Again, IMHO, keep your eye on the ball and save your strength for the "big ones" while certainly, at the same time, make helpful suggestions which might be a little less ascerbic. Good luck!!

Plano-4.2

I found that I very quickly ignored the disclaimer screen. Typically after I start the car, I put my seat belt on, by that time the screen is up and I can just hit the MMI button to clear the disclaimer. You'll find that you will ignore the screen very quickly and you'll get into a routine that should keep you from stressing over this. (Rant about the phone, I haven't seen one of those posts in weeks).

The scheme for storing radio stations sucks, especially when you can't remove a station, both on dynamic and memory. Probably most of us are waiting for an upgrade to the software.

About #9, if you look at the photos of the ASF, you'll see that there is a structural member behind the rear seats with just a hole for the ski sack. I miss the folding seats that my A6 had that would allow me to carry my bike in the trunk. To compensate for this on my A8, I got the bike carrier.

bwm

Disclaimers are a fact of life (and will be more so the more people accept them), but since Audi managed to omit them from the gas cap opener, trunk opener, head light control, trip odometer reset, environmental controls, cruise control, etc., they should extend that common sense to the MMI as well.

All I'm asking is that they not require the acknowledgment unless you need to use the MMI screen. When I get in my car, if I was listening to the radio and would now like to listen to the CD, it should be one button press, not acknowledgment process and then button press.

What really bugs me is that all it would require is a very trivial modification of the MMI code to eliminate the irritation. Its a small thing in the scheme of life, but its an even smaller thing to remedy it (with the appropriate tools and source code in hand).

Interfaces like this are new in deployment, but interface design is an old science. It should be obvious that if the interface take 4 steps and 4x the time of the system it is replacing, it isn't an improvement.

Overall I like the MMI approach, they just need to spend a bit of time researching actual use habits and then optimizing the interface to those habits (customization based on user preference should also be trivial - that's the power of using a computer/software that they aren't taking advantage of).

bwm

Ahhhh. That's the difference. I don't look at the MMI screen much so I keep it down to enjoy all that wood. I typically don't have to acknowledge until 10 minutes into the drive and want to switch from CD to radio. At that point in time, instead of just pushing the radio button that's right there, I have to pop up the MMI (sometimes twice since on occasion it comes up blank), hit acknowledge, then send it back home. THEN I can push the radio button. Its a small annoyance, but so is a pebble in your shoe. Audi, please remove the pebble ;-)

Paldi

then give the warning message each time a different drive uses the car but no warning if it senses it's the same driver who used it last?

Mr. Ricco

appreciate AOA's concern for my health. I have overcome this annoyance by producing on a 3X5 card (which I then duct taped to my sunvisor) additional warnings that I wish AOA would include in their MMI displayed program. While I await MMI's OK to proceed, I read my little card, which says:
RED LIGHT MEANS STOP
GREEN LIGHT MEANS GO
YELLOW LIGHT MEANS CAUTION
BLINKING GREEN LIGHT MEANS YOU HAVE EXACTLY ONE SECOND TO CLEAR THE INTERSECTION. LOL

bwm

I like that!

Ultimately, though, consumers should seek the removal of mandatory 'legal pre-flight' acknowledgments. They don't offer the manufacture protection from anything, and if the consumer doesn't realize that looking at the screen instead of the road is a hazard, Darwin's principles will take care of that. Besides, the Audi lawyers will only be truly happy if they can moderate risk by ceasing production of all Audi vehicles. Someone at corporate has to recognize that there is no benefit to installing the legal pre-flight annoyance, and then eliminate it.

Mr. Ricco

Or, it could sense the presence of CHEEZE which would deactive this action.

escapA8

Good points. You don't happen to be an Interaction Designer like me?