In test driving an ILX hybrid yesterday we tried all the things we normally do with my TL's nav system to make sure the voice commands cover all features locked out while the car is in motion and is reliable enough to actually use. We discovered one of the common things we do can not be done while the car is in motion.

While driving on a long trip in my TL using the nav system for guidance we'll look ahead at various exits to locate hotels. Using the nav system we can scroll to them, select them, and call them or navigate to them. While doing this the cursor moves slowly and smoothly across the map and it is easy to stop it at any particular point thus picking a specific icon on the map is easy.

In the ILX while the car is still it works the same way. But, once the car is in motion trying to move the cursor in any direction no longer moves it a small amount, rather it jumps to something else in that direction, like a road. Most of the time it appears the smallest distance it will move in any direction is about 1/2 the width or height of the screen. Has anyone discovered a way to make it move in small, smooth increments while the car is in motion? With the way it currently works there is no way to put the cursor on a specific icon on the map while the car is in motion.

 

I noticed the same thing. Its as if they deliberately stop you from doing certain things while the car is moving. This makes sense if you're driving alone, i.e. you don't want someone moving pixel by pixel and rear ending the car in front of them, but a lot of the times I have a passenger and there's no reason they can't be doing the adjusting.

Maybe Acura should add a simple test that if the passenger side airbag is on, all navigation functions operate even when the car is in motion.

 

I had a long talk with Acura Client Services this week about this and other issues. I think they finally understood what I was saying - why would someone want to pay $35K for a car with a navigation system that doesn't work when they need it the most. And to not allow a passenger to fully operate the nav/audio system while the car is in motion is not acceptable. The competition does allow picking POIs while the car is in motion and some allow full operation if a passenger is present.

There is a company that makes a lockout override device. They have had them for Toyota and Lexus for a few years and are about to release the ones for the 2013 models. Unfortunately they are only in the R&D stage for Acuras so there is no guarantee they will be able to make it work and it could easily be 6-12 months before they are available.

 

Which company? I'm definitely interested. We're starting to get use to using voice commands while driving, but still prefer using the nob if it were an option.

 

There are a few companies that make these for Lexus and that seems to be because they have had this interlock for some time. Honda hasn't so it might take awhile for the market to catch up. But given there will be a lot of Honda navigation units out there, there is bound to be someone who will figure out how to disable it.

 

The company website is http://www.prestigioussociety.com. There was another company working on similar products but I have been unable to locate them via old emails or Google searches.