GPS, Audi A8 MMI adds handwriting recognition to list of 2011 features
By Vlad Savov 
posted December 2nd 2009 5:04AM
posted December 2nd 2009 5:04AM
GPS, posted December 2nd 2009 5:04AM
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Holy crap on a stick.... I'm having to resist the urge to hump the monitor.
The asians can try all they want, but no way in hell will they ever come close to matching European luxury cars like the Audi.
@(Unverified) I definitely agree. I have an Audi A4 3.0 Quattro and there is nothing else like it. It handles like a dream.
" this could be a particular boon for gadget lovers of a more Eastern persuasion"
I lol'd at the "eastern persuasion" phrase!
@r3loaded
that make for a series awkward introductions like,"come into my car asian person, it knows your language"
who the hell writes letter 'G' this way?
this is not kanji...
@huski this is what a letter "G" looks like when you're speeding down the Autobahn trying to use an awkward touch screen interface to get directions.
so, we're not allowed to use hand-held mobile/cell phones, or to SMS on the move, so they're going to use handwriting control.
d'oh!!
@(Unverified) Odds are they will only allow you to this when you have stopped your car.
on first thought, that seems incredibly impractical
i haven't got to the second thought yet
It seems like an interesting alternative to an on-screen keyboard. Typing with the on-screen keyboard is kind of a pain; handwriting might be more efficient. I'm guessing it won't let either way be used while the car is moving above a certain speed though.
@mrqs
Agreed - does not seem practical in any sense.
i think if I was going buy the new A8, then I might as well get Porsche Panamera (still 4 doors) and more gadgets and much luxurious.
@xirsteon
why go from bland to ugly?
This is an interesting approach to automotive UIs. Like others, I don't see the practicality of this. In a car, you want to keep all focus on the road, not on making sure you got a mouse gesture right. This seems tedious. The touchscreen/voice command combo I used recently in a Lexus worked pretty well.
@webran61 touchscreen is the worst we can have for road safety, it requires you to look were you want to press...
While here, it's just a touchpad maybe with hard border, and just draw your letters... it's not as bad as the large touchscreen we see which force the driver to leave the road attention for precious secs.
Sucks for left-handed people
@StompnTom Or right handed folks in the UK, Hong Kong, and Japan.
that is one beautiful interior...the UI is nice too.
Some of you guys need to realize that like ANY navigation entry, this is something that should be done while the vehicle is STATIONARY.
And if you think about it, this could be much easier to use than those annoying onscreen keyboards that have you guessing about the location of the next key.
welcomed-the rotary interface is horrid for entering letters. you have to turn a nob for each letter, its like using a rotary phone
At least Engadget didn't say "John Henry-like" this time....
just beautiful.....
Wouldn't it be better to just spend the money to improve voice commands like the Lexus casual input? Safer AND faster.
@irfan voice recognition is still not the best solution, accents, languages it'll be hard to get all supported (not to mention people with voice loss etc)
And think about the driver of the A8, his passenger may not want to hear him talking to the GPS....
Pretty much a limousine, so this A8 is meant to be driven by someone else :)
@SebXX I disagree. The new Lexus system is pretty good with accents, AND the whole point of my post regarding putting money into improving voice control is backed up by your post. You feel its currently inadequate... so wouldnt it make sense to spend the money to improve it?
And from my observations, A8 owners drive themselves. I havent seen a single A8 on the road with a chauffeur. If you can afford a full time driver you can afford much more than the A8.
I've been to Ingolstadt. Beautiful city, and the Audi part of town is friggen' awesome. They own like 4 city blocks.
I truly love my Audi - EXCEPT for the MMI. They made things like setting the fan speed far more difficult than necessary simply to show it on screen. Press a button to get to the fan menu, then twist a knob to adjust and press the knob to set. Try finding the fan button in traffic... Sometimes simple is better?
@Crashnburn01 100% agree... buttons make things easier, they should better evaluate which feature can safely be hidden in submenus...
@Crashnburn01 agreed, the MMI is what the first iDrive was: too much. I dont want to hit a button and spin a dial and watch the LCD to make sure I set the seat warmers on the right setting. Hopefully its better in 2 years when my IS350 lease is up and im ready for an S5.
super nice... and so elegant