Love You, Mean It
Today I stopped at a drive-thru to get some food. The cashier said he loved my car. I said thanks and discussed Lexus for a minute or two with him. He had a '94 ES and loved it too.
I left thinking about how the Lexus brand inspired love. Mechanically solid, reliable, and luxurious are good traits. Back in 1994 that's all there was to think about. High-tech electronics in a car was a CD changer.
Today you get Bluetooth, USB, voice recognition, self-parking, radar cruise control, etc. All these things are computer controlled and require significant investment in usability design to make them luxury items. Look at Apple to see how good design turns ordinary electronics into luxury items. The problem with Lexus today is that the brand can't or won't put the effort it needs into the design of the electronics to make them luxury components. I'm talking about the poor user interface, and lack of true support and upgradability.
Let me elaborate on the upgradability issue. My car can't completely work with my iPhone and it never will. If I get another bluetooth phone it may not work at all. The car is only a year old! Worse, Lexus will never offer an upgrade to make the systems work with my iPhone. I'm stuck with the system "as is" even though much of it is controlled by firmware that can be reprogrammed or components that could be replaced. Lexus owes it to their customers to support their products for a few years after sale with meaningful software upgrades to address usability issues and add support for new devices such as mobile phones.
A lot of people are complaining about how they can't input locations into the navigation system while the car is moving. That's really just the tip of the iceberg. The whole system including music control locks down while the car is moving. It's really very frustrating. Also, sadly, not something that's easy to properly assess during test drives. It takes an hour long commute with crippled electronics to really feel the pain.
I bought a new Lexus with a navigation system over a year ago and I've only used the navigation system three times. Each time I used it I was disappointed in how hard it was to make it work. Honestly, I paid a lot for this car and its electronics and I didn't get what I paid for.
I don't hate everything. We use the navigation system on my wife's Acura all the time. Even when we don't need it the kids love to see it count down the miles to our destination. It's simple, always available, and it's a joy to use.
It's easy to say you love your customers. Lexus says they love us but they don't really mean it.
I left thinking about how the Lexus brand inspired love. Mechanically solid, reliable, and luxurious are good traits. Back in 1994 that's all there was to think about. High-tech electronics in a car was a CD changer.
Today you get Bluetooth, USB, voice recognition, self-parking, radar cruise control, etc. All these things are computer controlled and require significant investment in usability design to make them luxury items. Look at Apple to see how good design turns ordinary electronics into luxury items. The problem with Lexus today is that the brand can't or won't put the effort it needs into the design of the electronics to make them luxury components. I'm talking about the poor user interface, and lack of true support and upgradability.
Let me elaborate on the upgradability issue. My car can't completely work with my iPhone and it never will. If I get another bluetooth phone it may not work at all. The car is only a year old! Worse, Lexus will never offer an upgrade to make the systems work with my iPhone. I'm stuck with the system "as is" even though much of it is controlled by firmware that can be reprogrammed or components that could be replaced. Lexus owes it to their customers to support their products for a few years after sale with meaningful software upgrades to address usability issues and add support for new devices such as mobile phones.
A lot of people are complaining about how they can't input locations into the navigation system while the car is moving. That's really just the tip of the iceberg. The whole system including music control locks down while the car is moving. It's really very frustrating. Also, sadly, not something that's easy to properly assess during test drives. It takes an hour long commute with crippled electronics to really feel the pain.
I bought a new Lexus with a navigation system over a year ago and I've only used the navigation system three times. Each time I used it I was disappointed in how hard it was to make it work. Honestly, I paid a lot for this car and its electronics and I didn't get what I paid for.
I don't hate everything. We use the navigation system on my wife's Acura all the time. Even when we don't need it the kids love to see it count down the miles to our destination. It's simple, always available, and it's a joy to use.
It's easy to say you love your customers. Lexus says they love us but they don't really mean it.
Comments