My wife owns a 2004 VW Touareg. It's a fine vehicle – except for the center console, the electronics and its accompanying software. Here is a picture of the navigation system zoomed in to 1 mile.
Look at that resolution – it's slightly better than my Apple ][+. If I zoom in to 500 feet all you'll see is a blue screen with a triangle, and we're in the middle of downtown Boulder! This would be fantastic software for the early 1990's. This GPS system often can't find streets in Boulder like "Broadway" or "Mapleton". When you turn the knob to the right – the cursor goes left, yep left. To select an address you have to enter the number with the crazy cursor, then select OK, then select from another screen to choose the address range (I don't know why), then select OK again. We've updated the system 3 times (when the old console system crashed – probably out of embarrassment) and it never gets better. You think they would upgrade the software when they rip out the entire center console – nope. How can anyone sell stuff so wrong? There is a lot of bad software out there – but to put it in a product that is supposed to be your flagship SUV is almost unfathomable. Did any executive even play with the systems before they went into production? Play with your stuff before you subject your customers to it. If it sucks, delay and fix it – the lost time is better than a frustrated customer.
