As OEMs continue to pursue the SDV, they are increasing both the number of technologies in the vehicle and their significance to the overall user experience. However, the success of these technologies will ultimately rely on their ability to ensure that this experience is delivered in a seamless and satisfactory manner. In doing so, OEMs, developers, and suppliers can ensure successful product launches, while securing long-term customer loyalty with the vehicle and its ecosystem of digital services.
Recognizing the ways in which HMI features can positively or negatively contribute to the in-vehicle user experience is our In-Car HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking report series. Representing one of our best-selling, longest running, reports, it provides a comprehensive, analytical, assessment of the latest HMI systems launched globally. Across 2024, our UX experts will review and benchmark the systems provided in six recently released vehicles to understand who is leading in the space, and who is falling behind.
Following our article on the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric HMI UX report, this Insight covers the latest edition of the series, which analyzes the systems offered in the 2024 Acura ZDX. While sharing its IVI and UX highlights, we will also be outlining the strengths and weaknesses posed by some of the car’s most interesting technologies and more deeply analyzing their implications on the end user experience.
A Closer Look at the Acura ZDX
The new ZDX offers a technology-focused cockpit that features Acura’s first integration of Google built-in, the tech giant’s infotainment OS that provides native versions of its popular mobile apps – including Google Assistant, Google Maps, and the Google Play store.
Google built-in is hosted across the ZDX’s two interior screens: an 11-inch Precision Cockpit Driver Information Cluster, and an 11.3–inch Center Information Screen that offers touch control alongside wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In the ZDX, the OS allows its suite of apps to be shown on either of these displays, enhancing route planning in Google Maps with recommended charging stations to optimize travel time, for example. In a similar fashion, this native version of Google Maps can estimate how long the ZDX will need to be charged for in order to reach its destination, and automatically initiate battery preconditioning if the user selects a DC charging station as their destination.
Key Takeaways
When testing the ZDX, our experts noted that its use of Google built-in was indicative of a broader movement impacting the automotive industry today. Here, they highlighted its proliferation across the market, leading it to be evaluated across many vehicle releases from various OEMs. Through these evaluations, a common set of strengths and weaknesses the OS poses to the overall user experience has emerged across these implementations.
A key strength of the ZDX’s implementation of Google built-in was the familiarity of its user experience, with many of its apps closely resembling the experience provided in Google’s mobile apps. Our experts particularly enjoyed the Google Play store which, like its mobile counterpart, offers a digital storefront that allows users to expand the vehicle’s features and functionality. At the same time, they appreciated the search logic offered by Google Maps and the level of depth provided by its POIs. Google Maps, however, also represented one of the common weaknesses found in the implementation of Google built-in. Here, its lack of POI categories and the confusing implementation of its ‘saved/favorited destinations’ feature caused the app to falter from a UX standpoint. Google Assistant posed similar weaknesses, in both the number of stability issues and bugs encountered during testing, and how it often failed to recognize other input methods.
For our experts, these common positives and negatives illustrated the power Google holds in the user experience of many vehicles today. As such, they highlighted the need for OEMs using Google built-in to drive innovation in features and domains outside of its native Google features – such as ADAS, radio and phone.
This need was proven by the most prominent weakness in the Acura ZDX’s user experience – the implementation of its proprietary radio system. Our experts felt that this implementation could give users the impression that there is a critical stability issue with the system, and that something is ultimately wrong with it. Investigating this issue further, our experts then found in the owner manual that ‘FM signals only reach about 16 to 65 kilometers (10 to 40 miles)’ – the likely cause of this instability.
The AM/FM radio’s UX issues extended to the icons it used across different screens, which our experts felt was confusing and inconsistent. A key example of this was the icon for the ‘sources’ button that did not clearly indicate its function, but featured a design more closely representing a redo arrow. This weakness was similarly noted in the juxtaposition between the ZDX’s ‘direct tune’ icons, and the inconsistent button layouts presented between the screens for FM/AM radio and SiriusXM radio.
While pointing these issues out, our experts highlighted that FM/AM radio is broadly recognized across the automotive industry as a traditional hygiene feature, and that its implementation should not be changed in order to ensure that it provides a smooth and efficient user experience. Our experts concluded that the ZDX, conversely, does not deliver this experience and would likely confuse users, leading them to believe that the radio is not working altogether and become frustrated as they learn that is instead how the system has been implemented. This implementation, they felt, renders the system unusable and deceives users – delivering a stronger negative impact on the user experience than if the feature was not offered at all.
Analysis
A deeper dive into the user experience offered by the Acura ZDX’s various features and systems unearthed new strengths, while underscoring key weaknesses. Within this analysis, the EV’s ADAS emerged as one of these strengths. Its hands-off piloted driving system, for example, utilizes an integrated light bar to communicate its status, while ensuring a smooth hand-over routine for when it requires the driver to regain control. The ZDX’s rear cross traffic alert feature particularly stood out to our experts in the tailored warnings it delivered to the user while clearly distinguishing between vehicles and pedestrians, enhancing safety as the driver reverses.
However, building on the issues our experts found to impact the user experience of its navigation system, our experts found that the system’s POI feature further weakened this experience. When using the feature, the on-screen keyboard covered the search suggestions provided by Google Maps when entering a desired destination or POI – leading to a potentially frustrating and time-consuming experience when searching for and selecting results, especially when compared to the mobile Google Maps app. Our experts similarly felt that the limited number of POIs offered by the navigation system, combined with the inability for the user to edit and personalize points of interest, restricted its overall usability.
Next Steps
Overall, our experts felt that the Acura ZDX offered an interesting mix of features and technologies through the pairing of Google built-in, facilitating a user experience that many customers will be familiar with, and Acura’s own systems in domains like ADAS and EV charging. In testing the ZDX, the team felt that its implementation of Google built-in was indicative of the power that Google currently holds in the UX space and will continue to hold as the OS becomes more commonplace, and likewise presented a familiar set of strengths and weaknesses they had experienced across a number of models that also utilize the system.
Although, while enjoying some of its feature offerings beyond Google built-in, our experts found the implementation of the EV’s FM/AM radio to be a major disadvantage to not only the user experience of that system, but the vehicle as a whole. The combination of issues posed by the system’s limited reception of FM signals and the inconsistencies in its design and layout were ultimately detrimental to the user experience of it, with our experts feeling that these issues could confuse and frustrate users – potentially leading them to forgo using the AM/FM radio altogether.
While we have highlighted some of the strengths and weaknesses presented in its overall user experience, the insights shared in this article represent only a portion of the knowledge shared in the full Acura ZDX HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking report. Spanning more than 150 pages, it provides even deeper insights into the user experience of the model’s features across several key domains, including ADAS, infotainment, navigation, and voice recognition. While scoring these features and functions against our proven evaluation methodologies, the report also benchmarks the ZDX against the vehicles reviewed in our 2023 HMI UX reports, and those reviewed in our 2024 HMI UX reports to date.
Want to learn more about the latest in-vehicle HMI solutions, their impacts on the end user experience, and which vehicle offers the best user experience? Then be sure to secure your copy of our In-Car HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking series!
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