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Hands-on with Acura's novel touchpad infotainment interface

After Acura's Precision Cockpit was unveiled here in LA, I sat in the, uh, driver's seat of the wheel-less interior mockup to get a feel for how this new touchscreen-free touch interface works. There are a lot of good ideas inside. Here are 11 things you should know. It's less like a trackpad and more like a remote-control tablet. So instead of letting you move a cursor relative to its last location like the trackpad on a laptop, each point on Acura's trackpad is mapped to a corresponding point on the center display. If you want what's in the upper right corner of the display, you touch and click in the upper right corner of the trackpad. Simple. I figured it out in two minutes. Maybe less. The whole thing is surprisingly intuitive. The ease of use is helped by the fact that the targets on the screen are pretty big – no tiny "buttons" to fiddle with. The clicks are real. The trackpad actually moves when you press down, so no need for simulated haptic feedback. In their research, Acura engineers found that accidental touches and presses are a real issue. We could have told them that – hit a bump while using a finicky remote interface like Lexus's all-but-abandoned joystick thing, and you select an item half-way across the screen from the one you intended. The placement of the trackpad in this concept interior also helps avoid unintentional inputs – it's not in the middle of the center console where it might get brushed or bumped, but instead in its own little cave at the base of the center-stack waterfall. (Acura's low-profile button-based transmission selector suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.) View 13 Photos Lots of cues cut down on distraction. You hover over the option you want before positively confirming the selection with a hard press. There's no cursor to find and reposition like in the Lexus trackpad system The red highlight gives the necessary visual cue that you put your finger in the right place. The pad is slightly dished to give you a tactile cue of where the center and edges are. It allows you to build up muscle memory, sort of like how you know generally where the "keys" are on your smartphone or tablet's virtual keyboard by now. Or at least I do on mine. You look at the screen, not what you're touching. The problem with touch screens is that they have to be low down in the car so you can reach them. That means you have to look down from the road to stab at what you want.

Acura NSX is this year's Pikes Peak pace car

Acura's new NSX is the official pace car for this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The hybrid supercar will go running up that hill on June 28, leading a group of 140 racers up the 14,110-foot mountain. It'll be driven by Sage Marie, Honda's senior public relations manager (and friend of Autoblog), who competed in the Pikes Peak race in 2013 and 2014. To make the most of the occasion, Acura is installing 24 cameras along the course to capture the pace car's run. But this won't just be for a cool photo gallery. Acura will use the cameras to create a 360-degree video that will be posted to the company's social media channels after the NSX completes its climb. Look for that to drop sometime on the morning of the 28th. The NSX heads up Pikes Peak at 7:40 AM Mountain time (9:40 AM Eastern). We'll have plenty more information about the Pikes Peak Hill Climb throughout the coming days. For now, check out the NSX pace car in the image gallery above, read Acura's official press blast below, and be sure to scroll through the amazing photo galleries from the practice sessions (Day 1 and Day 2) shot by our own Drew Phillips. Related Video: Next-Generation Acura NSX to Serve as Official Pace Car for the 93rd Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Pikes Peak-first 360-degree video to capture NSX run to the top TORRANCE, Calif. (June 25, 2015) – The next-generation Acura NSX supercar will serve as the official pace car in the 93rd running of the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 28. With a custom racing-inspired livery, the twin-turbo charged NSX pace car will lead the field of 140 entrants to the top of the 14,110-foot Colorado mountain. "The Acura NSX is the ultimate performance vehicle, and a novel way to promote its capabilities is the iconic race up Pikes Peak," said Mike Accavitti, senior vice president and general manager of the Acura Division. "As the pace car, the beast that is NSX has yet to be fully let out of its cage, but fans and drivers will get a first glimpse of the unique character, performance and handling it will deliver in this one-of-a-kind racing environment." Powering the NSX through the 12.4-mile, 156-turn course is a bespoke 75-degree twin-turbo V6 engine mated to a 9-speed dual clutch transmission and three motor Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system, which delivers 'on the rails' cornering capability essential to conquering the demanding mountain course.

2021 Acura TLX Long-Term Update | Tuneful turbo-four soundtrack

I used to be enamored with the turbocharged 2.0-liter engine format. I owned a 2004 Subaru WRX, with its turbo boxer mill, and liked it quite a bit, rough though it could be. Then turbo-fours, often displacing the same 2.0 liters, began replacing heavier and thirstier naturally aspirated V6 powerplants across the industry, and I was on board. Since then, they’ve become much more refined and responsive, all while their often uninspiring soundtracks faded into the background as automakers worked to improve the experience inside the cabin. TheyÂ’ve also become so ubiquitous that, apart from certain standouts like the turbo boxer in the Porsche 718, they ceased to be as exciting to me. Then AutoblogÂ’s long-term 2021 Acura TLX arrived in my driveway, equipped with a 2.0-liter turbo I4. I was excited about the styling and the handling, but I didnÂ’t expect this four-pot to make a huge impression on me. The first time I opened her up under wide-open throttle, though, I was pleasantly surprised. This 2.0TÂ’s 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque are ample motivation for this sporty sedan, even with all-wheel drive and a 3,990-pound curb weight. It wonÂ’t knock your hat into the back seat, but itÂ’s quick enough, especially in Sport mode. The thing that really won me over with this 2.0T, though, is the sound. Ripping to this thing's 6,800-rpm redline produces a melodious song that sounds a lot more exciting and expressive than most other fours. The cherry on top is the punctuated hiss of the turbo releasing its pressure when you get off the throttle. The amplitude of the engine note is manipulated using AcuraÂ’s Active Sound Control. As an Acura spokesperson explained it: “Active Sound Control uses the TLXÂ’s speakers (whether audio is playing or not) to add sound (same-phase or reverse-phase) to the cabin that smooths the sound of the engine heard inside the cabin. Engine noise doesn't increase in a linear way with rising revs; instead there can be many resonances that create peaks and valleys in the sound pressure level and an uneven sound. The level of ASC is tailored to each drive mode (Comfort, Normal and Sport).” Put another way, ASC is basically an electronic filter that can deaden or amplify the sound and smoothen it out, similar to how active suspension damping adjusts to the situation and drive modes to either let in more or less road feel, while actively eliminating the harshest of vibrations.