BMW’s infotainment system is ‘least distracting’

This article was originally published on Fleet News.

A test of 20 in-car infotainment systems has found BMW’s latest Live Cockpit Professional system to be the easiest to use.

What Car performed six tasks that drivers frequently do while on the move, including changing the temperature, zooming out on a set sat-nav route and changing from one radio station to another, with each action timed.

The research found that systems with physical buttons are much less distracting to use on the move than those that can only be altered using a touchscreen.

It took twice as long to adjust heating controls on some cars with touchscreen controls rather than physical dials. And it took up to four times longer to zoom out of the sat-nav map to view a pre-programmed route using a touchscreen than it did using a rotary dial controller.

Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car, said: “Distracted drivers are a factor in a growing number of road accidents, so it’s important to choose a car with controls that are responsive and easy to use while you drive. The best systems provide physical buttons and voice control, while those that are most distracting have sluggish touchscreens and require too many steps to carry out commands.”

Distracted driving accounted for 15% of all road accidents in 2018, compared to 13% in 2016 and 14% in 2017, according to Department for Transport data. In fatal collisions, distracted driving was a contributory factor in 25% of incidents. Every second spent looking away can be dangerous, as a vehicle moving at 30mph will travel 13.5m every second.

Researchers concluded that the best systems let you use physical buttons, the touchscreen or voice control to do a wide range of commands.

Using a sophisticated voice control system is the least distracting way of doing many tasks. The systems in the Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz all recognise natural speech, so drivers can activate them by talking and then ask them to carry out a desired task.

However, not all voice control systems are as intuitive or fast to respond; What Car’s testers were looking away from the road for more than twice as long in cars with the worst systems.

The most and least distracting in-car control systems: