The G Man

radman2020, for someone who is no longer writing any post directed at me, you sure sound angry. We are just having a healthy debate, thats all, no need to get personal. May I suggest your short temper is the reason why you hate Audi's control so much.
Who am I to say your points are not valid you ask. What I say is just one man's opinion, just like your opiniona. I think your points are invalid and you disagree.

hmn4858

I believe The G Man is a sparky and I'm an aero engineer. With any product you have concepts, development, life-cycles, etc. I don't know what G Man works on, but projects I've worked on have had multi year development so during the course of the project some things become outdated. I think a big part of your problem is you expect your 2012 Audi to have the most current handheld gizmos and gadgets. How long did it take for bluetooth to be come pretty standard in a vehicle? It sure wasn't oh here's bluetooth and then everyone had it. Audi isn't a radio company, or a nav company, it's a car company. They design a car (I don't know if even that is all in house) and build it (or integrate it) with components coming from multiple sources. Look at how fast new phones, laptops, ipads, mp3 players etc come out. You buy something and six months later the same company has something new. Car manufacturers don't move that fast. Look at how often a car has a major redesign. So it should be no surprise that yes your google phone is better than your audi nav. To have reverse expectations is always going to leave you feeling slighted for the extra money spent.

FischerWausau

Enough of this dialogue Please

The G Man

hmn4858, If you mean sparky as an EE, then yes, by education, by trade I am a control and automation engineer. I agree with you a 100%, there is no way Audi or any other car manufacturer can keep up with handheld devices as far as navi system is concerned. Just compare the number of cell phone sold each year to the amount of navi unit Audi sells each year, it’s much easier to implement new hardware and software in a cell phone than in a car based navi. The portable device doesn’t need to work with any other systems as it does in a car. I think just the fact that Audi have Google Earth and touch pads in their latest navi system is a tribute to the their willingness to invest in latest control technologies.

TybeeJim

For those desiring the latest tech in their cars, they only need to look at Ford and the mess they are in today. They dropped in the CR rankings simply because the My Touch/Sync systems are too complicated for all but the expert users of smart phones. Topping that is the fact that all that tech in Microsoft based and actually crashes, ala "blue screen of death". My MMI has never crashed yet. My son has an '08 BMW 550i and his iDrive also crashes frequently. Look, when you're behind the wheel, the main function is to drive the car. Climate controls are fine. All my recent cars (last 10 yrs) have had it. I simply set the temp and leave it alone unless there is a need for defrost or seat heat and that's done BEFORE I drive away. Access to the radio/media is easily accomplished using the instrument cluster display. If that's too difficult for you, you have more serious problems than can be dealt with here.

The G Man

Most of these high tech features in new cars are actually design a year or so ahead of the car's release date, so the engineers can design the support system for the high tech gadgets. The Q5 was introduce in the 2009, so the Navi probably dates back to 08. It kind of unfair to expect a car company to update their electronics every year like the cell phones and portable navi companies, the volume of sales in the car industry for navi is much smaller.

gat821

And similarly, Audi must have been working on the Google integration in the latest gen MMI probably when the current Q5 was just a year old, maybe even earlier. This is also around the same time navigation on phones started becoming as seamless as they are today. Yes, address entry on the MMI could be better, but that's only because processing power and software on today's smartphones has gotten so much better so fast, providing that easier alternative- it should not be an indictment on the car manufacturer.