Navigation, Voice Recognition, And Phone Connectivity
Hyundai’s navigation system is fairly standard, including the usual points of interest and traffic data from SiriusXM. Hyundai Mobis handles all map updates, but sources its map data from Navteq, now owned by Nokia. The maps are flat 2D representations, and they're not as fancy as the latest 3D maps with topography data used by Ford and Audi. Nevertheless, they get the job done. We didn’t run into any issues with the mapping software; it works as advertised, but didn't offer anything we hadn't seen before.
SiriusXM traffic data is incorporated into the navigation software. When traffic is anticipated along the route you're current on, the software presents an option to detour around the bottleneck The most palpable downside is that you always have to have a configured destination in order for the navigation system to know where you're heading.
During our time with the 2013 Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track, we discovered that Hyundai's navigation system just loved to ask if we'd like to take a detour, and then failed to present a viable option for avoiding rush-hour traffic in Washington state or quicker routes in the traffic hell that is Portland, Oregon.
Voice Recognition
Hyundai employs a Nuance-based speech recognition system to interface with its infotainment system. In testing, the system had no trouble searching through our phone book to find Chris Angelini, Tom's Hardware's editor-in-chief, or entering trip destinations.
The voice recognition is accurate. However, it's not the most responsive solution we've used, and there is noticeable lag between spoken command and system acknowledgement.
If you use voice recognition to call Blue Link services, you're actually utilizing Vlingo's cloud-based services (interestingly, now owned by Nuance). We had no issues getting the Blue Link services to recognize our requests to share our location via Facebook.
Phone Connectivity
Hyundai's phone connectivity implementation isn't particularly fancy, either. The infotainment system connects to your typical Android-based phones and iPhones for hands-free use. Call clarity is fairly good, and the car connected to our phone every time we started it up.
We didn’t experience any issues with Hyundai’s Bluetooth implementation, though we do wish the company had expanded its phone connectivity features to include contact images and text messaging support.
