But despite all the different brands and all of the different configurations there are still some things that are similar on all (if not the vast majority) of vehicles manufactured in the last few years. So I present to you a couple of the features, icons, and configurations that all vehicles have in common.
How to Save a Radio Station to a Preset - Pretty much every single touchscreen radio and radio with physical preset buttons allows you to save stations to those preset buttons the same way. Simply tune to the station you would like to save and press and hold you get the physical button or the virtual on screen button where you would like to save that station. After a couple seconds you should receive some sort of confirmation from the radio that the channel was saved. The medical programs or designs and manufactures the radio this seems to be a universal throughout the industry.
GPS Systems Will Lock You Out While Driving - most vehicles will have this feature and if they don't have it now their line will have it in the very near future. This feature denies you access to add or change the destination of your vehicles navigation system on the vehicle's touch screen while you're driving. This is meant to prevent drivers from tinkering with their navigation system or typing in an address while they're driving. This has frustrated some owners because it also prevents passengers from making navigation changes while the vehicle is not in park. The solution that the manufactures came up with for the inconvenience this causes you is to allow you to make any navigation changes you'd like at anytime via the cars voice activation system. Just press the voice command button on your steering wheel and follow your manufactures voice commands to add or change the destination in your navigation system.
Wait for the Beep - Speaking of voice command systems, I frequently get customers contacting me telling me their voice command system doesn't work in their vehicle, or at least it doesn't understand them. Usually the source of this trouble is the customers aren't waiting until after the beep to begin giving commands to the vehicle. All voice command systems will tell you what they're looking for and ask you to speak your command and then there will be an audible beeping sound. To make this work as best it can, wait for the beep, take a one second pause, and then begin speaking. This allows the system time to switch over from speaking to listening and it will make things far more accurate for you going forward.
These features are helpful and are becoming more prevalent on newer vehicles. If we can understand and use them to the best of our ability now this will greatly assist us in not only the ownership experience of our current vehicles but on our next ones as well.
