Honda/Acura has done pretty well with Ergonomics, but I think they missed some stuff on the new RLX.

• Steering wheel mounted volume and station changer always get hit when turning the wheel one handed
• Why is the volume control for the radio so far from the Driver (Up by CD slot) If I don't want to use the steering wheel why do I have to reach?
• Anyone else having trouble with the Voice Recognition ?

 

Oh, now you've said it....I've have had a real problem with voice recognition weather sunny or cloudy, on the fly or standing still. I have even raised up from my seat and had a problem. One area is with the voice shortcuts for the phone.
Guess I'm going to have to memorize the book!!!!

 

This is a problem with all car voice recognition. You have to memorize the proper keywords to make it do things you want it to do. SIRI and Android voice recognition send your voice data to its back-end server to analyze which offers much better natural language analysis.

The next car I buy will have to offer SIRI integration for voice recognition for me to purchase. The automaker is half baked because they don't have huge servers to do it properly.

I don't have a problem with the other issues though.

 

Honda (/Acura) have been congratulated for many years and iterations of models for their ergonomics. The switches are in the right places, they are logically laid out and you don't need to read the manual to turn the volume down.

That attribute is completely lost in this car.

 

And here's another one. (Trust me the list could be longer)

The Radio Volume know can disappear when pushed in. Nice, but why isn't this the way to shut the radio off also ???

 

Really? So you're saying contrary to prior Honda/Acura vehicles you need a manual to figure out how to turn down the volume in the RLX?

Go cry somewhere else dude.

 

I agree on this one. If pushing it in doesn't provide some functional purpose, then why allow it be pushed inward in the first place. Not sure what the design thought was behind that one.

I will say overall I think the ergonomics in the car are great. Everything is easy to access, within reach, the multiple LCD's are very information and display all the information I need/want to see without being disruptive or distracting. Where most of my issues lay are within the actual OS and UI of the Navigation system itself. There are some weird quirks that don't make sense, mostly based around the new protection system that prevents you from inputing data while the car is moving versus standstill. Most of them I already listed in a previous post around what I thought were my biggest wishes/improvements for the 2015 models and higher.

 

^^^^^

Because it looks ugly to have an odd rotating button sticking out constantly over a almost flush-looking control panel face, whenever the audio system is turned on.

Honda audio systems have always been like this with the push-in/push-out audio-volume button, except the few models that have 2 flat buttons, one for volume up and the other for volume down.

 

I agree. The primary reason for the pop up nature of the volume knob is cosmetic. The steering wheel volume control is intended to be the control used the vast majority of the time but they still wanted to offer a volume knob for the old-school folks or those with spouses that like to crank it up from the passenger seat when their favorite song comes on.

 

I believe this is for the "flush" look to go away when it's not needed. The dash volume control is there for the passenger to adjust the volume. The driver should be able to adjust it with the steering wheel control. I'm not saying I agree with that design but I believe it's there for that reason.

 

Here's another one. The blind spot monitoring icons. Why aren't they in the mirror ? If you concentrate on the light you're not looking in the mirror and vice-versa.

An what's with that funky drivers side mirror. Does nothing for me

 

^^^^^

I absolutely agree. The Acura BSI indicators should be placed in the outside mirrors like most other automakers, not inside the doors where the mirrors are mounted outside.

It is impossible to look at both the indicator and the outside mirror at the same time, for some quick glance lane changes.

 

In case you didn't get it: I used the "volume" control as an example of some of the controls being embedded as opposed to discrete.

I am not out $60K for buying this ergonomic disaster. Who's crying now?