At the Detroit Auto show, the 2019 Acura RDX was debuted in January to the delight of spectators. This very model will sit dead point in the hottest luxury vehicle segment -- medium-sized SUVs. It's certainly not an overstatement to state that a luxury brand in today's competitive market can either live or die on the success of its medium-sized SUV. Here, the stakes with most modern luxury SUV, not excluding the new Acura RDX, are high. For Acura, the good news is that the outgoing RDX is still at the top selling list and the new one just landed with a whole lot of awesome features. The exterior as well as interior styling has obviously given Acura's RDX some distinctiveness in a world of largely anonymous designs, and the specs on everything from its drivetrains to its interior dimensions depicts leading potential.
The True Touchpad Uses Absolute Positioning to Make it More Intuitive – Isn't That Intriguing?
Some recent reforms as reflected on Acura RDX give me perspective on its seat comfort, driving dynamics and overall user controls, but my main focus has been on Acura's all-new control interface called the True Touchpad. I've learnt that the true essence of True Touchpad is to bring the display screen as close to the driver's line of sight as possible while bringing the control interface equally close to the driver's hand. By doing this, swapping screen touch control for a pad on the center console is considered. This is because the screen is too high and far away from the driver's reach. Some other known road masters like Lexus took a similar approach a few years ago and the result has not been bad at all. Worthy to note is that mouse control has increasingly given way to touchscreen control.
The 10.2-inch Display Screen is Strategically Placed Just Below the Windshield
Acura scales high on this assessment with her design of an industry-first touchpad – absolute positioning. That is a fancy term for having the touchpad exactly mirror the 10.2-inch screen just where your fingers are positioned. In many other systems, the user has to scroll an active cursor across the screen to select items. But with True Touchpad, you can, for instance, access the lower left item by pressing the lower left part of the touchpad. Yes. It's that easy. There's no need, whatsoever, to cycle a cursor through each item. All you need to do is just press where the item is located and it responds. Also, the screen features dual screen zones with the main zone at the left and smaller zone at the right. Both of them can be quickly accessed and controlled with this fantastic True Touchpad design.
Acura's True Touchpad Shows Great Promise to Effectively Improve Driver Interface
The impressive result in the 2019 Acura RDX proves that this system is much more effective than the touchpad interface in other luxury cars. However, expect to invest some time towards getting used to it because you're still looking at the screen up high while controlling it with your fingers down low. You sure understand the need to keep your eyes as close to the road as possible. The goal here is specifically to control that screen without your hand bumping and swaying as you aim for certain items on it – this challenges mars every other touchscreen interfaces.