Before test driving our car I was pretty bummed about it not having a volume knob. After using the car its not an issue. I use the steering wheel. I only ever mute the volume when in a call and the bluetooth does that automagically.
I stressed out worrying about the lack of a volume knob while waiting for months for the Clarity to become available. Very soon after I finally bought, however, I found that I am perfectly happy with the Volume controls on the steering wheel. The raised tips at the ends of the control make finding the controls easy to locate without taking my eyes off of the road. My thumb now goes to the control quickly and easily. Not a real world problem, for me at least.
I see professional reviewers equally dislike the fact that neither Clarit nor Tesla have volume knobs. The difference for Model 3 is that eventually volume will be voice controlled.
it doesn't bother me ,actually i think that it looks rather neat,on the other hand i don't like the screen getting covered with finger prints
How about this: while you are driving, go to the Sound screen and try to adjust the fader, bass, etc by directly tapping once on the screen where you want the level to be. It won't let you because the vehicle is in motion. But it will let you multi-tap the left/right arrows on the screen to change the level. Which is safer: performing one tap to get it to the desired level or having to tap mulitiple times to get it there?
Was also bummed out about it at first ... but have gotten used to it since I use the steering wheel. Have to say though that I’m disappointed in the lack of features for the passenger to control things. That’s where it get’s a little dicey. Overall, the infotainment system is mediocre at best and doesn’t match some of the other cars I’ve owned which is a disappointment since the others are 3 years older. Sent from my iPad using Inside EVs
Look at the top button on the touchscreen. It’s audio on/off. It will pause your audio. Does that work for you?
What I don't like is when playing music from a USB thumb drive you can only fast scroll when parked. Otherwise if we touch the scroll button while driving it will only go one screen at a time. To me that is less safe. It means we have to touch the scroll button multiple times to get to a song or artist. We've tried using voice commands but they only work about 50% of the time.
That's also eveything off! It's stops a couple of the functions like navigation. Mute on the steering wheel would be a much better solution.
Not so much. What bothers me more is I can't turn the audio off quickly when starting the car. I think a volume button with push on/off could solve that problem.
Some of the lock out for safety things annoy the hell out of me. The enable android auto one that comes up for me occasionally even though I have used the phone before is probably the most annoying. There is also some Bluetooth functionality that is locked ok. It’s also a problem when the system messes up and something doesn’t work write and you are trying to have a passenger fix it. Which is more dangerous pulling over to deal with it or having the passenger do it... As for the volume knob I just with the steering wheel controls had a mute.
Should consider the car rental test. Can you jump in the car and start driving and adjust the climate control and sound while on your way. I had to do that and was able to in the Subaru I got as a rental all those features are on knobs I could adjust while driving in a different place from where I live. So I could watch where I was going but turn the knobs. Other features of the car are not as good, a little odd.
I had a Subaru rental just a month ago and hated it , the menu system was even more confusing had dual screens and had no clue how to set anything while at a red light. Honda's isn't much better but adjusting the some basic details like stock audio and Nav was much easier as well as its legibility. Not to mention no android auto on the Subaru. Very rare to find an amazing experience in a car , even BMW takes a while.
The Forester I'm driving had the dual the screens which is awkward since none can give you the speedo, but everything else like a digital clock next to an analog clock.. At least the climate and volume and tuning are on knobs. The info system is like Toyota so I mainly ignored it, because they are not that great .
I believe the Accord did not have a knob in ‘17 and they brought it back in’18. I was surprised they didn’t make a change in the Clarity. I find the volume on the wheel usable. The directional control is more of a problem. I change source accidentally all the time.
I agree I’m constantly pushing the wrong button for volume. The volume button should be been placed in place of the button that changes the source of audio. Also requires to many presses to for each function. Also screen gets a lot of finger prints which makes it really hard to see in certain light