Tech Pack High review

[ScottishA4B9]

Well I have had my car for over a year now and thought I would review the Tech Pack High.

I really only ordered it as I had to have it in order to have the Virtual Cockpit (which I love).

I find inputting destinations extremely fiddly view the finger recognition pad. The inputting of destinations via the voice recognition is a no go as it has failed to recognise what I am saying every time I have tried rendering it useless.

The satnav has frequently directed me to the wrong destination and is not accurate and quite a bit off in accuracy.

Audi connect is very hit and miss and sometimes picks up delays ahead and reroute me, but mainly it fails to recognise delays, roadworks or accidents ahead.

Google maps frequently fails to display properly and pixelates out most parts of the UK which is a shame because when it works, it's marvellous.

As has already been said, voice commands do not work!

The 10GB hard drive I find pointless and I have not used it at all.

So was the Tech Pack High worth it? I can honestly say absolutely not!

Considering the rest of the VAG range are using touch screen whilst Audi insist on using the awful and fiddly touch pads.

The only reason to order this pack is if you truly have to have the Virtual Cockpit, otherwise save your money.

 

[v1rotate]

Well I have had my car for over a year now and thought I would review the Tech Pack High.

I really only ordered it as I had to have it in order to have the Virtual Cockpit (which I love).

I find inputting distinctions extremely fiddly view the finger recognition pad. The inputting of destinations via the voice recognition is a no go as it has failed to recognise what I am saying every time I have tried rendering it useless.

The satnav has frequently directed me to the wrong destination and is not accurate and quite a bit off in accuracy.

Audi connect is very hit and miss and sometimes picks up delays ahead and reroute me, but mainly it fails to recognise delays, roadworks or accidents ahead.

Google maps frequently fails to display properly and pixelates out mist oarts of the UK which is a shame because when it works, it's marvellous.

As has already been said, voice commands do not work!

The 10GB hard drive I find pointless and I have not used it at all.

So was the Tech Pack High worth it? I can honestly say absolutely not!

Considering the rest of the VAG range are using touch screen whilst Audi insit on using the awful and fiddly touch pads.

The only reason to order this pack is if you truly have to have the Virtual Cockpit, otherwise save your money.

Wonderful news. Glad I spent the money on the B&O instead then!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cuke2u]

I seriously would not recommend touch screens, they are a distraction and as dangerous to use as mobile phones whilst you are driving. I find the audi solution far better and have no issues with either the pad or with voice recognition. As for the 10gb hard drive not being used, your maps are installed on this and it enables them to be updated, unlike the sd version, I have also stored much of my music on mine.

 

[Kestrel]

I seriously would not recommend touch screens, they are a distraction and as dangerous to use as mobile phones whilst you are driving. I find the audi solution far better and have no issues with either the pad or with voice recognition. As for the 10gb hard drive not being used, your maps are installed on this and it enables them to be updated, unlike the sd version, I have also stored much of my music on mine.

I would echo everything you say here, `cuke2u`

 

[thefunkygibbon]

not sure what comes with tech pack high.. the tech pack in my brochure included fancy MMI with touch control (already standard in S5) audi connect services (already standard in s5) and audi phone box (don't have)

I must say that the audi connect services and the enhanced MMI are pretty good for me, the touch controller and knob work loads better than i anticipated (coming from a touch screen Seat Cupra) in fact I think they work better. Voice recog is a bit hit/miss but then car voice recog always is. I tend to use Android Auto if i need to do that.

Hard drive, as has already been mentioned, its not just for music. TBH I use SD card for audio storage as 10gb wasn't enough.. although it's frustrating that there is a limit as to how much music you can store on there. I have a 128gb card and I find I can only store about 64gb of music on there before stuff starts getting "ignored". That and my iPod Classic isn't recognised either. So those are my downsides but then I would expect that to be the same throughout the range rather than it being specifically relating to the bigger MMI system.

 

[Fozzie1960]

I found the voice recognition a lot better after doing the individual speech training. Also, I like being able to enter destinations for the sat nav via myAudi or Google Maps, much easier than faffing around with post codes and addresses. Never had a problem with the touch pad. Not had much use for the online news or weather.

 

[cuke2u]

I believe there is a 1000 files per folder and a maximum of 10000 items on all media...

 

[thefunkygibbon]

I found the voice recognition a lot better after doing the individual speech training. Also, I like being able to enter destinations for the sat nav via myAudi or Google Maps, much easier than faffing around with post codes and addresses. Never had a problem with the touch pad. Not had much use for the online news or weather.

yeah thats what i end up doing, sending it via myaudi. very handy and much quicker than doing it whilst in the car.
only use the news/weather when i'm sitting in the car waiting for somebody tbh. and even then, it's a bit better (albeit ostensibly illegal) to just pick up the phone and browse bbc

 

[R.A.G]

As has already been said, voice commands do not work!

Have you done the voice learning to train the system to understand your voice/accent?

 

[ScottishA4B9]

I haven't heard of the voice training! It doesn't seem to be a visible option in the menu.

 

[Klickflip]

All I'm gonna say is E-LE-VEN ..

I had a 2016 skoda courtersy car the other week and the touch screen was really unresponsive and system really laggy . I think dedicated buttons work better.

 

[PR.]

Agree with the troubles of using a touchscreen while driving, hand wobbling about trying to peck buttons on the screen, the longer your arms raised your other arm on the steering wheel is getting confused and your concentrating more on the screen than the road and you have to maintain that concentration to keep pecking away.

The touchpad is pretty good but it sometimes suddenly struggles to recognise a letter. The controls can all be used without looking at them and you can flick your attention back and fore "The menu I want is 3 down" *eyes back on the road* *click* *click* *click* *select*

The speed is the main thing it's very fast to get around the system compared to the old one in my Seat Leon that was SD Card based, took ages to search for POIs and would regularly reboot the next time you went to use it. I've not had any issues with mis-direction and again found it better than the Seat Leon Nav which would prefer single track lanes with a theoretical national speed limit rather than the 50mph main road running parallel.

 

[cuke2u]

When gesture control becomes mainstream god knows what will happen when you go to pick your nose. Sometimes I do wonder at where we are going with this technology and whether there is any benefit at all.

 

[RandomUserName]

I think touchscreens are definately a bad idea in cars from both a concentration (hand off wheel, eyes off road) and usability point of view.

My soon to be returned Mondeo has possibly the worst touch user interface I've ever seen. Buttons are minute and close together, they require either massive pressure or sometimes just breathing nearby to activate, the layout is awful with common functions hidden down two or three levels of sub screens, the layout is left-hand drive biased, the glare in sunlight makes it virtually unreadable, even in normal light fingerprints make it look awful, and it's a whole new level of slow to respond. The icing on the cake is that there are 22 buttons on the steering wheel (including 8 dedicated cursor buttons!) and not one of them lets me move the cursor around on the screen or select an option. I just get the ability to select next/previous track.

I'll take a decent steering wheel control system like the A4's any day thanks.

 

[A4B9]

The scribble pad on the wheel would be a lot more usable if you were left handed or if we drove on the other side of the road like the rest of the world

 

[RaZ A4]

All I'm gonna say is E-LE-VEN ..

I had a 2016 skoda courtersy car the other week and the touch screen was really unresponsive and system really laggy . I think dedicated buttons work better.

E-LE-VEN, lmao

 

[PhxViper]

Have you done the voice learning to train the system to understand your voice/accent?

I haven't and would be interested in doing this? How do you do it?

Don't you get a bigger middle screen with Tech Pack? Seems to be missed from the review? And the Charging Box with additional USB?
I agree with some parts of the review, I've never used the hard drive, but am aware its doing stuff in the background and makes the overall smother.

Google Maps works great for me personally, 1 minute after turning the car on its loaded. No pixels. Clear. Able to zoom in and out.

and @ScottishA4B9 Your picture in your sig is broken bud.

 

[R.A.G]

I haven't and would be interested in doing this? How do you do it?

Main MMI Menu>Settings>Speech Dialogue Training

 

[cuke2u]

The scribble pad on the wheel would be a lot more usable if you were left handed or if we drove on the other side of the road like the rest of the world

I am naturally left handed, however I can use a mouse in either hand, so it wouldn't matter to me. I am sure though most of us are able to draw a letter or a number with either anyway.
I have this peculiar thing where my preference for using a mouse at home is in my left hand, where as at work it's in my right. I guess I have to face that I am just odd

 

[Fozzie1960]

I am naturally left handed as well, but do everything right handed except for writing.