Car Audio Head Units Belong in Space Shuttles, Not Cars

We recently installed a brand new car audio system as part of a "Pimp Mom's Car" feature in honor of Mother's Day. I mean, Mom had gotten her share of flowers and chocolates - why not go for something different this year? In writing the article and installing the system, there was a clear difference between the stock and finished stereo. It was "night and day", as the saying goes - and when we were done there was no doubt that the audio quality was vastly improved. So much, in fact, that we didn't understand why anyone would drive around with their cars' stock audio solution when, for just a small amount of money and effort, they could upgrade to something much better.

Except that there was one big reason. One nagging, frustrating, glaring reason.

Our new head unit was harder to control than the space shuttle. I mean it. We were fairly certain we could land the Endeavor before we could master all of the features of our new CD receiver. And really, we just don't understand why. There was no coherent user interface. The main knob didn't do the same thing all the time. The hard buttons didn't get you to the same places and were, instead, mode-dependent. On this particular system, it took some practice before we could even turn it off consistently. It was also just incredibly gaudy and confusing. With such an amazingly powerful device - we just wished that someone would learn some basic interface design and make these things easy to use... like the stock radios they are replacing.

A stock CD receiver vs. Navstar 6 from the Space Shuttle

After it was all said and done, the head unit of the system, like so many others we've used, was so complicated that our designated Mom couldn't really use it easily. It made us want to figure out what the opposite of "user-friendly" was - because there needs to be a word for it. The system seemed more at home in a futuristic sci-fi movie than the cockpit of a vehicle.

You see, that's the problem with aftermarket stereo systems. They appeal to that crowd that likes flashy lights and blinky devices. But that market is immensely small compared to the tens of millions of consumers who are being trained by Apple, Samsung, and others, to enjoy simple, consistent and well-thought-out user interfaces. And we're not talking about touch screen interfaces - just consistency.

Please don't tell me THIS is the only solution?

Who knows, maybe someone will listen and we'll start to see receivers like this come back into vogue, along with the whole aftermarket concept. I see no reason why it couldn't be the next big thing. So why did I harangue for so long about this? Well, as we mentioned, during our recent installation it took us longer to train our Mom to use her new system than it did for us to actually install it. And that's just sad. And wrong.

Confusing, inconsistent, and overly complex user interfaces for CD receivers are epidemic. It's not like you can select a head unit from a company that understands user interfaces - they ALL fail miserably in this respect - at least from what we've been able to glean off the market. Additionally, there seems to be a trend to cater to the wanna-be DJ's who apparently love to upgrade their car audio systems in ways that are just as flashy as their rims, LED lights, and trunk-filled LED displays. While I think it's great to target that market, there is an even bigger market just waiting in the wings for a manufacturer who will understand simplicity and, if we're lucky, efficient user interface design.

Look, we're going on about this because we think that the car audio market could literally explode if it figured this out. It's an exciting area that is largely untapped for the run-of-the-mill consumer. And honestly, once you upgrade your home theater, it makes perfect sense to want your car to sound great, too. In our opinion, replacing the head unit in your car is, hands down, the greatest "excitement" upgrade you could make to your vehicle... besides, I dunno, nitrous...

So will the industry figure this out? We don't know, but we can sure hope.