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As GM readies Alexa convenience for vehicles, we ponder its dark side

SEATTLE — On the 30th floor of AmazonÂ’s glass tower, in a room with a breathtaking view of downtown Seattle, thereÂ’s a beautiful bed that nobody sleeps in. ItÂ’s near a kitchen nobody cooks in, a living room couch that no one crashes on, a kitchen table that doesnÂ’t host any family meetings. ItÂ’s AmazonÂ’s Smart Home Lab, a place where every Alexa-enabled gizmo the company or its partners can produce is crammed into the same space, ostensibly for Amazon to test. The company invited us there to show us the companyÂ’s vision for consumer products to leverage AlexaÂ’s voice interaction software before taking us down to a demo of its latest implementation in a Buick Encore GX. In this eerie simulacrum of a fantastic luxury apartment, however, nothing went right the first time. ItÂ’s a challenging environment for Alexa to work correctly, our hosts noted, pointing to the fact that there were six wifi networks available for the devices to connect to. In a normal home, one wifi network controls all the devices, who can theoretically sort out for themselves which one youÂ’re actually trying to activate. In the Smart Home Lab, any unmuted Alexa device thinks itÂ’s in charge. Even so, the connected toaster wouldnÂ’t connect. The Fire TV Cube wouldnÂ’t play a song. Our handlers futzed with everything, muting and unmuting devices, repeating commands, making us feel better about our own struggles with similar technologies. If it doesnÂ’t work right at Amazon HQ, maybe itÂ’s not just us! ItÂ’s telling that down on the faux lawn, in between the gleaming Amazon spheres that host a billionaireÂ’s tropical garden and the Day 1 building that the Smart Home Lab resides in, the BuickÂ’s Alexa implementation doesnÂ’t use a “wake-word” at all. The familiar Push to Talk button on the steering wheel, which normally activates General MotorÂ’s own proprietary voice command system, can be set to default to Alexa when that rolls out to GM vehicles in the first half of 2020 via an over-the-air (OTA) update. Given the reluctance of Alexa to respond to its wake-word in the comfort of AmazonÂ’s own lab, we hoped that this was by design. Drivers are already familiar with Push to Talk, and a physical button is more reliable than the vagaries of contemporary voice recognition – not to mention the privacy and accuracy issues involved with always-on mics. Our experience with the not-ready-for-primetime Mercedes-Benz MBUX system is illustrative.

Best car infotainment systems: From UConnect to MBUX, these are our favorites

Declaring one infotainment system the best over any other is an inherently subjective matter. You can look at quantitative testing for things like input response time and various screen load times, but ask a room full of people that have tried all car infotainment systems what their favorite is, and you’re likely to get a lot of different responses. For the most part, the various infotainment systems available all share a similar purpose. They aim to help the driver get where they're going with navigation, play their favorite tunes via all sorts of media playback options and allow folks to stay connected with others via phone connectivity. Of course, most go way beyond the basics these days and offer features like streaming services, in-car performance data and much more. Unique features are aplenty when you start diving through menus, but how they go about their most important tasks vary widely. Some of our editors prefer systems that are exclusively touch-based and chock full of boundary-pushing features. Others may prefer a back-to-basics non-touch system that is navigable via a scroll wheel. You can compare it to the phone operating system wars. Just like some prefer Android phones over iPhones, we all have our own opinions for what makes up the best infotainment interface. All that said, our combined experience tells us that a number of infotainment systems are at least better than the rest. WeÂ’ve narrowed it down to five total systems in their own subcategories that stand out to us. Read on below to see our picks, and feel free to make your own arguments in the comments. Best infotainment overall: UConnect 5, various Stellantis products Ram 1500 Uconnect Infotainment System Review If thereÂ’s one infotainment system that all of us agree is excellent, itÂ’s UConnect. It has numerous qualities that make it great, but above all else, UConnect is simple and straightforward to use. Ease of operation is one of the most (if not the single most) vital parts of any infotainment system interface. If youÂ’re expected to be able to tap away on a touchscreen while driving and still pay attention to the road, a complex infotainment system is going to remove your attention from the number one task at hand: driving. UConnect uses a simple interface that puts all of your key functions in a clearly-represented row on the bottom of the screen. Tap any of them, and it instantly pulls up that menu.

The last Buick Cascada unceremoniously rolls off the assembly line

Motorists in the market for a new Buick Cascada need to act fast. Peugeot-owned Opel has built the last example of the drop-top model in its Gliwice, Poland, factory, and there's no replacement in sight. Buick announced the Cascada's demise in early 2019, and GM Authority learned the model went out unceremoniously. There's no indication that the final example received a commemorative plaque on its dashboard, or is headed to a private collection; photos of it aren't even available. The dealership who ordered it might not know it's about to receive the last specimen of the breed. As a non-luxury, front-wheel-drive convertible, the Cascada was marooned on an island that Buick's rivals abandoned halfway through the 2010s. The Chrysler 200 Convertible and the Volkswagen Eos were discontinued after the 2014 and 2015 model years, respectively. Landing in a class of one likely raised more than a few eyebrows in Buick's product planning division, but it was a semi-enviable position that helped the firm sell about 17,000 units of the Cascada between the 2016 and 2019 model years. It proudly pointed out about 60 percent of buyers were new to General Motors. Left-hand-drive examples of the Cascada were sold under the Buick and Opel banners. Right-hand-drive models joined the Vauxhall range in the United Kingdom, and they wore a Holden emblem in Australia. The four flavors were identical with the exception of some brand-specific trim pieces and powertrains. None will get a successor; the aforementioned carmakers are no longer operating under the same roof, and the global convertible segment is steadily shrinking.  The Cascada's multinational provenance made more sense before General Motors sold its Opel and Vauxhall divisions to PSA Groupe, the Paris-based carmaker that owns Peugeot, Citroen and DS. The French firm pledged to keep producing cars for Buick for as long as necessary, but the former sister companies tacitly agreed to stop co-developing vehicles. The sedan and station wagon variants of the Regal are now the only Opel-designed, PSA-built model left in the the Buick portfolio.