Did you know you can reboot and reinstall a car? That’s what happened to ours today, when I took our trusty A6 Avant down to the Audi dealer to have its MMI (user interface to you and me) updated.
The car emerged two hours and a few CD downloads later, sporting version C6-HU 34.6.0 0647 of the MMI software (hitherto C6-HU 21.2.0 0534, in case you wondered). As if by magic, the car now also speaks Dutch (and a few other new languages, such as Portuguese and Russian) when instructing me how to get from A to B.
The navigation system now offers a 3D view, with the camera angle slightly tilted to give the impression of being somewhat elevated above the ground. Perhaps the software update has added other useful new features, but I didn’t encounter them on the short drive home.
The new 3D view is nice, because the viewing angle compacts the field of view, which means one can see more of the surrounding area than when in 2D, even when the zoom is set identically, say at 400m.
It also works well with ‘junction zoom’, whereby the system zooms in ever closer as one approaches a junction at which a new manoeuvre is required, such as turning left or right.
The only thing I don’t like about the 3D view is that most streets don’t have their name displayed along them, which is the case at the same zoom level in the 2D view. It also seems impossible to obtain north orientation for the map (even though you can configure it for same), probably to avoid confusion or perhaps impractically sharp viewing angles when travelling east or west. Who knows?
Since Audi had a special offer going, I took the opportunity to avail myself of the latest Western Europe DVD for the sat-nav system, too, so perhaps the woman with the dulcet tones will now be less determined to send me via the perpetually languid Overtoom when I ask for directions to pretty much any destination inside the ring (A10).
Poland and Hungary have been added to the list of countries for which there are maps and guidance data, which could prove handy. Hungary would have been good to have a year ago, but at least we’re now covered if we choose to return.
It’s strange to witness a car being rebooted and reprogrammed, as I tend to still think of them as predominantly mechanical machines, but they’ve really been powerful computers on wheels for quite a long time now. Nevertheless, it still amuses me to think that a car can be improved and have features added by installing a new version of the software.
Similarly, it can have new bugs introduced in the same way, so I hope not too many of those have crept in.