Originally Posted by markcincinnati

I invite anyone who gets this far in this thread to read today's Wall Street Journal:

"Your new car's best tech feature may be the system off button"

Front page.

BMW management must've cringed upon reading this.

The problem is, there is truth in the article.

For me the truth is that the new car owner needs hours of training to really get the most out of the systems (such as Driver Assist).

Here's what pisses me off: The car keeps "revealing" new capabilities and features -- and when I go to the owner's manual, I can't find (in the index) things like "Traffic Jam Assist" or what a series of graphical displays means. I assume the manual was translated from German to English and something was lost in the translation.

I keep finding myself going to YouTube for "hints" at what some of this tech means and how to get the most out of it.

I actually read the manual -- I use it as a reference, so far, DAILY. Yet, I am still unable to find EVERYTHING this wonderful technology is capable of doing or why or when it is most effective.

Let me give you an example: On Interstate 275 in northern Cincinnati, the lane keeping assist feature, will, at times, seem to want to crash the car into the guard rail on the right side of the 6 lane highway. Other times, on a curvy road, the car PERFECTLY steers through two sweeping curves, one right followed by one left.

I "assume" the car's cameras are having some difficulty in reading the "painted lines" on the Interstate (which, admittedly, are faded), while the lines on the curvy road are new and perfectly opaque.

But, finding out why this is so, FOR SURE, is elusive. Also, when the screen in front of me says Traffic Jam Assist now active, the car virtually drives itself perfectly. The Traffic Jam Assist happens on Interstate 275 on my commute home which is "a parking lot" unlike the traffic conditions on my way INTO work.

What does the graphic of three cars overlaying each other actually signify? If the car says, Traffic Jam . . . yet there is no analog in the owner's manual, where can you go to find the answers?

There are buttons on the end of the light switch and the cruise control that cause the automatic cruise control and lane keeping assist to turn on -- during my initial training when the car was delivered, these buttons and their function did not come up, and I would say the "delivery" of the car was a multiple hour event. The thing is, there are just so many features and functions it is perhaps too much for just ONE delivery.

Of course my dealer invited me back for additional training.

I had to look up how to turn on the automatic headlight dimming feature.

I do not have any problem looking this stuff up -- it would seem that the option should have a DVD class with chapters that discuss each feature alone and how they interact when used simultaneously.

Pre sense basic, pre sense rear, etc, etc. Where is there a CLEAR explanation of EACH of these "senses" followed by a demonstration of how these senses work interactively and in combination with audi side assist. In other words "here are the building blocs, here are these blocs combined and here is how all of this stuff CAN (and/or will) work in an integrated fashion to produce a synergistic effect that provides a "safety bubble" around the car. Where is this stuff all organized so that we can read, review, understand and internalize it?

Here is what I am finding: The available explanations afforded by the owner's manual are rather like a dictionary. All the words are there to write the next great novel -- but you have to assemble them yourself. It is accurate to say that "War and Peace" actually is in the dictionary -- if you know how to assemble the words.

Also, I've had to find videos, etc, NOT pertaining to the S4 (or even an A4), rather I've had to, again, cobble together YouTube presentations on Q7's, A8's, etc. to actually pull together a somewhat complete overview of all of the marvelous technology that comes with the car when equipped with the Driver Assistance Package.

Remember, between my wife and me, we've had about 30 Audis starting in 1977. I got my introduction to MMI in 2004 when I took delivery of my 2005 Audi A6 which was fully optioned, followed by a 2009 A4 Prestige also fully optioned including Audi Drive Select and the dynamic steering, etc. My P+2014 S4 with the MMI/Nav package, too, provided incremental additions of tech.

Yet the 2018 S4 has taken a technical and technological leap akin to going from a Motorola Flip Phone to a Blackberry with email to an Apple iPhone 6S all in one fell swoop.

There needs to be "classes" to help us maximize the benefits available with these transformative technologies.

When we bought my wife's X3 over 10-years ago, the BMW store gave us a schedule for evening classes (including food and drink) to help us maximize the value that the BMW tech offered owners. Ten years ago.

I can't even find why a command I have been using FOR YEARS no longer functions and what the analog is in the 2018. As I am driving along, I have been used to saying "Zoom in" or "Zoom out" and seeing the map screen increase or decrease the scale it was showing. When I say "Zoom in" now, the MMI attempts to make a phone call or initiates a hunt for "zoom" apparently. The Zoom map function has been a feature since 2004 -- what is the analog today, "Enlarge"? Beats the crap out of me.

I can't pull over every time I want to interact with the technology -- and I am one of those **** types who literally reads the damn manual, plus my entire career has been in technology and continues in the field today.

I figure if I'm a rapid study and I work at it and I'm having some difficulty (some, not a lot), others must be virtually oblivious and frustrated with all of the car's features.

A person I work with got a new Lexus for his wife -- got a subscription to Sirius XM, etc -- now, a year later, told me his wife has never even turned on sat radio because she can't figure out how to make it work. The nav system? Fughettaboudit.

This is not intended to suggest anything due to gender either. My wife has an MBA and a JD and is in many ways brilliant. She NEVER uses so many features in her 2014 Audi SQ5 Prestige, it is scary. Her favorite feature is the heated and cooled cup holder -- and, of course, the new 2018 SQ5 Prestige she ordered no longer comes with or offers this feature. She did get the heated steering wheel and I understand there is a button on the steering wheel that turns the heat on or off -- now that's easy to understand.

The point is, we are coming to a point that is more than a little bit like taking flying lessons (my wife got her pilot's license at age 15, before her driver's license); we need to be "licensed" to use the technology that is being pushed into virtually all classes of cars. The "avionics" in this new Audi are just the beginning, kind of like the Amazon Echo -- new features and capabilities are added EVERY Friday.

We should be required not only to get a driver's license but to be licensed to use the technology that has the potential to make driving safer and more pleasurable.

By the way, despite what you may think considering my obvious frustration (and concern) with this new technology, I am 100% in favor of it AND I love it!

If you get one of these cars, make TRAINING, part of your deal -- get it in writing.

Think of this like you're buying a new Gulfstream Jet -- you wouldn't expect the company to sell you the plane without showing you how the avionics work, same goes with this new technological leap, the 2018 S4 Prestige with Driver Assistance Package.

Originally Posted by markcincinnati

but in my experience folks simply don't use the owner's manual unless they absolutely have to.

Originally Posted by TPOP

did the addition of driver assist eliminate driving/fog lights? It appears the sensors are in the place of fog lights. I'd rather have lights and steer it myself. I enjoy driving my car.

Originally Posted by markcincinnati

Maybe y'all here on AudiWorld do what I do, but in my experience folks simply don't use the owner's manual unless they absolutely have to.

Ever seen an owners manual with a cracked spine? I haven't either.