I go to work in the early hours of the morning when traffic is minimal which is a good thing because I have a lot of button pushing to do. I get off work in the hot afternoons and park the car 'till the early AM.
AM: I press the remote unlock, the car unlocks and the lights come on. I open the door and a chime goes off telling me that I have opened the door. I get in, close the door, start the engine and another chime goes off telling me that I haven't put the seat belt on yet! Of course, if you can get the seat belt on in less than 7 micro seconds then you can bypass the occurance of the second chime. I select reverse, undo the brake, reverse out of my driveway and put the car in Park because I wish to select Memory 2 so that the mirrors are dipped to eliminate the headlights behind me from hurting my eyes but the Memory buttons don't work in anything but Park. The Climate Control recovers its last condition so I select the menu, turn off the A/C, rotate counter clock to reduce the fan speed to min, press down to select Floor and Defrost. Now I select Map/Guide and get the Nag screen, press the knob to get the the map to check for traffic and incidents so that I may determine my route for the next 40 miles. I press the steering wheel button to get the MID to display my menu du jour. Headlights are on but I then turn on the fog lights for maximum visability during the dark hours. Do a quick wipe of the windows to clear the dew, press the rear - sunshade button to put up the sunshade so that, again, the headlight glare from behind is reduced. I go to D and proceed forward, the sunroof is tilted, for venting from the day before, so I have to close it and then slide the shade closed for minimum interior noise. Within 4 minutes I am on the freeway and wish to use Cruise control so I enable the cruise, get to the desired speed and select Set. I now have to change the MID to one of only 3 menus available so that the silly CRUISE is not displayed. Meanwhile I am selecting a DVD to play and selecting the tracks of choice. I wanted to check the Intantaneous Fuel Economy but I had to go to the Trip Computer for that because the Cruise eliminated the ability to use the MID. Road Works mandadated that I release the Cruise but soon afterwards I was back in Cruise and had to go through the sequence again to get the MID back on something useful. BTW, I set a reminder in the Calendar for an apointment in the afternoon. I reached work and backed into my parking space but I then had to put the window shade up again because the sun would be out later and crack the sunroof for the ventilation. Open the door to exit and the chime went off again to tell me that I had opened the door! After all of that, do you really think that I need a computer to tell me that I opened the door?
It doesn't take much more than a sixth grade education to realize that the RL was designed by a bunch of people that can't drive who failed the BAR exam. And, some of you complained that the buttons on the steering wheel were getting dirty and worn - I can't imagine why!

 

You must be exhausted!! My routine seems much less complicated than that, but I could probably detail my morning ritual of getting ready for work every day as well which would seem just as laborous. Such is life. Do other luxury cars with mulitple appointments and conveniences do it easier?? Based on what you wrote, 90% of it sounds like ever changing personal preferences dictated by time of day, outdoor temperatures, humidity levels and traffic conditions. Not to mention the inability to tolerate minimal warning chimes found on any vehicle sold in North America!! These things can't be engineered. C'mon!!

 

It doesn't take much more than a 5th grade education to write using paragraphs. In 6th grade they teach you to leave a double space after a punctuation mark that ends a sentence.

 

Just consider this: You didn't have to turn the cruise control "main" switch on, because the car didn't turn it off when you switched off the ignition the night before like a lot of them do.

Rejoice!

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I'm not sure that other luxury cars do it easier or that Acura should do it the same. BMW holds the record for screwing up the interface with i Drive. I think that Acura could do it much better without too much thought and a few lines of code.
My preferences are repeated for months on end, they don't change much with the weather.
Why only in America do we need chimes? It implies Americans are too stupid to know if they opened the door or not. I am an engineer and spend a lot of time reducing the number of button pushes that people have to make to perform functions. The RL is an exercise in bad user interface. Don't get me wrong, I love the RL and I am technical in nature, I just strive for improvement. Acura should have made much more progress in the human engineering field by now - the car has been around for over 3 years.
These things can be engineered and the following could too:

1 - Make the chimes an option. (for those who don't know if they have opened the door).
2 - Use a color change on the Cruise light for Cruise (eliminate the Cruise on the MID)
3 - Enable all MID menus all of the time.
4 - Enable Mem 1 and 2 read and write ALL of the time.
5 - Enable TPMS all of the time.
6 - If the rear window shade was up when you go into reverse then put it back up again when you take it out of reverse.
7 - Leave the gear number indication on in Manual and Auto mode.
8 - Have Mem 1 and Mem 2 for an environment memory, controls all user set-ups inc. A/C.
9 - Have the rear seat headrests go UP from a driver control.
10 - Interior mirror programmable to Mem 1 and 2.
11 - Programmable and /or manual folding side mirrors.

 

That depends on if you were taught English or American.

 

You are correct - I actually never turn that switch off but on a % basis that's a small negation.

 

We have manual folding side mirrors. The JDM Legend has electronically controlled side mirrors.

Overall, your frustration is with the overall automation that permeates our society. The car is just yet another example of this.

 

I thought mem1 and mem2 do "remember" HVAC settings

 

I have to follow up a little on these. I do agree with you that the RL is an amazing vehicle. That being said:

Point 1 was improved after 05, no chime when door is opened with lights on. Unfortunately, in our letiginous society some warning chimes are going to be necessary, for better or for worse. Ditto for the legal disclaimer on Nav screen.
Point 2 is a matter of preference, not engineering ingenuity.
Point 3 MID menus have been further enabled for 2008, there is a thread on that. Point 4 All I know is that if you enable Mem 1 and 2 out of park, some moron is going to get squat into the steering wheel when their wives settings go into effect by pushing Mem 2 doing 80mph up the highway, again litigation.
Point 5 Why do you need to see tire pressure constantly, the car will warn if it drops by 25%?
Point 6 would be convenient, but I have my windows tinted and hardly ever use the powershade anyway.
Point 7 Preference, I don't need to know the gear in Auto mode, that's why they call it auto.
Point 8 All I know is that I have had my car in Auto climate mode for the last 3 years, so its the same every time I get in. I also live in Indiana with a variety of climate changes, but at least the climate controls are easy to use, also improved upon after 05.
Point 9 Yes, this would be nice, but yet another electric motor to break.
Point 10 Ditto on the electric motor, but ultimately, the memory presets are designed for 2 different people, not for one person who likes different settings for different times of the day.
Point 11 Addressed by neuronbob.

I believe that everything can be improved upon, but as I said previously, you can't engineer preference for the masses. You can just make it work well, which I think the RL does. I have had the opportunity to sample from almost every luxury car maker and find the RL to be one of the best of the best. Until we can engineer intuition into our vehicles, there will be some button pushing, unfortunately, more for some than others!!