Revolutionizing Legacy Infotainment: Lincoln Nautilus Sets a New Standard

The Future of Car Infotainment: Lincoln Nautilus’ Digital Experience

The world of car infotainment systems is in a bit of a sorry state. While car makers like Tesla and Rivian have designed relatively well-designed and easy-to-use systems, legacy automakers have been struggling to keep up. That’s why Apple’s CarPlay is so popular – it allows drivers to bypass their built-in infotainment systems and use something designed by a software company.

I recently got to experience the new Lincoln Nautilus and was pleasantly surprised. While it’s not perfect, the Digital Experience infotainment system shows significant improvement.

Big, Responsive Screens

The key concept behind the Digital Experience is that in-vehicle infotainment shouldn’t be confined to one big tablet-like screen. In the Lincoln Nautilus, it’s built into two screens. One of these screens is a massive curved screen that stretches along the dashboard, displaying important information, such as navigation, climate control, and more. The other is a touch-sensitive display in the center of the dashboard.

Customization is Key

The Digital Experience is divided into three main areas: Critical, Supportive, and Glanceable zones. Critical information, such as your speed, is shown in the primary area, while Supportive information, like mapping, is displayed in the second area. Glanceable information, like the weather and time, is shown in the third area. This allows you to customize the information you want to see and how you want to see it.

Wide Integration

The Lincoln Nautilus’ Digital Experience integrates very well with CarPlay, allowing you to display different aspects of CarPlay on different areas of the screen. You can even have different apps and information displayed on multiple screens at once. For example, you can have the maps app open on the main display, while the weather app is displayed on the second screen.

The Rest

Other aspects of the software are also relatively good. Climate controls are easily accessible through the display, and the system is very responsive. The steering wheel’s D-pads are also very intuitive, allowing you to control different functions of the vehicle with ease.

Hints at the Future

While the Digital Experience in the Lincoln Nautilus is not perfect, it does hint at a better infotainment future. The concept of critical, supportive, and glanceable information has potential, and if other vehicles adopt a larger multiscreen setup, we could see even better infotainment systems in the future. Additionally, it’s nice to see automakers taking infotainment performance seriously, recognizing that sluggish and unresponsive software can be dangerous. If other vehicles start being as responsive as the Nautilus, we’ll be in a much better place.