Tesla continues to pus forward towards reaching its full potential as a disruptor in the automotive industry. After becoming wildly popular, thanks to its extended range EVs, the American brand is now also winning in the infotainment departments, at least according to Consumer Reports. The magazine conducted a survey covering some 60,000 vehicles and found that Tesla’s in-car tech is the best with a satisfaction rate of 86 percent. BMW and its iDrive system came in second with 80 percent.
What’s interesting to note though is that there’s no mention as to which iDrive system was used in this survey, which is pretty disappointing. As you may very well know, there are a number of iterations of the Bavarian infotainment system, going from the very worst – in its initial phases – to the very best, in iDrive7.0 guise. What is mentioned is that the second-place iDrive system had Gesture Control, but that’s not of much help. That’s because Gesture Control is available on two different iDrive systems already.
Nevertheless, it’s quite impressive to see Tesla win ahead of some rather tough competition. Its numbers are even more impressive if you take into account the fact that only 56 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with their infotainment system. The lowest ranking went to Lexus and its Touch Pad while other BMW rivals didn’t do so well either, with Porsche’s system coming in at 69 percent, Audi with 68, and Mercedes-Benz at 58 percent.
To cope with the drawbacks of infotainment systems a lot of manufacturers now offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as an alternative. Not BMW though, as the Bavarians are sticking to only the former, leaving Android users to fend for themselves. In this category though, 64 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with Apple CarPlay while only 59 percent were similarly thrilled about Android Auto.
