Acura Infotainment Review | Just Give It Some Time
Acura's True Touchpad infotainment system is a hot topic at Autoblog HQ. Some of us utterly detest its functionality. Others, myself included, will plead its case as a worthy alternative to normal infotainment systems. "It's not that bad," I'll say over and over. I had to eat my words to a certain extent when our long term 2021 Acura TLX's infotainment system broke recently due to bad wire connectors, but now that it's up and running again, it's time to give it a proper shake.
The screen in this TLX is a high-resolution, 10.2-inch monitor that sits far from the driver on the car's dash top. It's oriented horizontally in a widescreen format. The controversial bit I mentioned at the beginning is all to do with how you navigate the user interface using Acura's unique touchpad. It uses something Acura calls ultimate positioning technology, meaning that where your finger is on the touchpad corresponds to the same spot on the screen, allowing you to select whatever is in that location. Press down on the top right corner of the touchpad, and the square located in the top right corner of the screen is selected — no need to "swipe" over to it.
This takes a considerable amount of time to adapt to. I didn’t master it or get used to it overnight. In fact, it’s really rather frustrating out of the gate. Virtually all touchpads in cars before this one are more intuitive at first. Just swipe around the pad, and your "cursor" swipes around with you. After a couple road trips, plenty of takeout runs and everything in between, I’ve become a believer in Acura’s technology, though, with one major caveat I’ll address later on.