Q5 TDI

No to a touch screen - you can keep them - had one in the two previous cars - Honda and Lexus - and Audi's NO-touch screen is decades better. It's infinitely more comfortable to control everything on the screen from controls placed close to the driver, rather than needing physical access to the screen to be able to touch it

Kobi's Q

Not to mention the oily finger prints it leaves on the screen which is absolutely distasteful especially when the light is just right - that is what I heard on why Audi doesn't do the touch screen

sbarlas

There's a good reason my Audi will not do touch screen in the car as a user interface. In fact I saw a pretty lengthy video on YouTube from a guy who the Senior Manager for connected vehicles at Audi USA. He explains how they take user interface very seriously and how the touch screen will actually distract the driver from his natural driving position, with him having to reach forward from his natural driving position.

The touch wheel allows the driver to concentrate on the road while controlling the user interface, it's just like changing gear with your left hand and as you get used to it you will start being able to write without looking at what you're doing with your left or right hand.

Here's the link :

acadapter

You do know the current gen-Accord doesn't have a touch screen right? It is recessed for better viewing from the entire cabin, and is also controlled via navigation ****. This is also done for the exact reason as stated above; eliminating fingerprints and residue on the touch screen itself. Many automakers have flipped back and forth from touch/non-non touch as there are pros/cons to each.

The new BMW Nav is pretty darn amazing (it's in the newest X5) and is a super thin 7 inch display but they too have gone back and fourth on the design. Even Audi's pop-up nav for the A3 is actually old in terms of design, the pop-up nav was around years ago, in Infiniti and other luxury brands to conceal actually having the NAV in the first place, but issues arose with the motorized parts failing over time.

I can do with or without touch. What you should be looking forward to now is the dual-view monitor that shows the NAV to the driver but has an option for the passenger to see TV/Movies on the same screen based on viewing angles. That is where the innovation is at.

Eryeal

To my knowledge this isn't true - the 2014 Accord has touch screen audio controls, and the nav, while it does have the navigation ****, can also switch to touch screen (audio has to be off I believe - you can google it), bringing up a keyboard and everything - the keyboard is SO much easier to use than *****/dials.

On another note, on the Accord forums, the removal of the full, always-on nav touchscreen in favor of this "hybrid" you could say, gets a lot of negative reviews. Most prefer the full touchscreen that has been on prior models.

spijun

The answer is simple, the European premium brands Audi, BMW, MB do not make cars with touch screen
If you want a touch screen in the car, buy some of the Japanese or Korean cars

snagitseven

I have a similar touch pad in my A6 and frankly, I don't use it much. I find it kind of slow as she reads back each letter as it's entered. Also, since your attention is on driving, it's easy to "write" something incorrectly. I use voice control for just about everything on a daily basis. For example, Audi Connect/Google online destinations coupled with voice is well implemented.

idale

The keyboard entry on my Odyssey was absolutely terrible. I wish I could've had a **** to use instead, as entry was very imprecise and slow. By contrast using the MMI is pretty quick and I can do it without having to lean over/forward to reach the touchscreen. The only upside on the Honda side was I think voice input was probably better (supported voice entry where Audi doesn't or doesn't seem to), so you could sometimes get by with not having to use the stupid keyboard (if it was something the system would be able to figure out from pronunciation).

sbarlas

Well, if Apple Car Play was supported by Audi , that would solve a lot. Sadly
Audi is currently backing Google and an initiative called the Open Automotive Alliance launched in January 2014 at the CES trade show in Las Vegas.

The thing is, they've invested so heavily in their own UI and OS, that CarPlay will directly compete with that. I can't see what they can't do a hardware plug-in interface where the Airplay device hooks into the current screen and audio / voice recognition

snagitseven

I was at CES and have been following the info on both systems. While it would have been nice for Apple owners had Audi decided to support Car Play with Siri integration, I doubt they will remove the already existing Apple support via AMI which works fine with the current MMI tech. From what I can see, there will be very limited app support via Car Play and having Apple map data on the screen instead of the existing NavTeq maps is not necessarily a step up at this point.

In any event, the voice control that Audi provides is pretty decent and as I stated, I find I can control most functions hands free now w/o having to operate through a different voice system like Siri. And if I want to use Siri, I can do various functions now, i.e. speak and hear messages, I simply tap my Siri button on the iPhone through the MMI sound system. Not as elegantly integrated perhaps, but functional.