B​ATTLE OF THE INFOTAINMENT SYSTEMS

Most cars these days have smartphone mirroring built-in (Apple CarPlay, Android Auto). And at first, it seemed that all of the confusing submenus and 18-step music selection processes would be a thing of the past. But then it became clear that the only sort of people who would use such a thing were the kind that spent most of their day already glued to a phone screen, only this was the legal way to do it. Not to mention the fact that many people weren't all that happy about talking to a virtual assistant, who very consistently set the navigation to somewhere you'd already been to. Thankfully, these mirroring systems did have merit to them and the idea quickly cottoned on, leaving puzzled software engineers at Toyota and Mercedes wondering how to beat Apple at their own game. And for a couple of years, they couldn't figure it out. Now, however, the native infotainment system in modern cars has gotten so much better - look at Mercedes' MBUX system. Long gone are the days where icons on the screen were about the size of a pinhead and the voice control had extreme difficulty understanding anyone from, say, Wales. So it really is time to ask everyone who has a modern car with smartphone mirroring - do you use the Apple/Android software, or do you stick with the standard system?