FCA’s newest UCONNECT system

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...the-android-based-uconnect-5-140787.html

Not a DIY repair job when, and not if, it breaks.....

Akin to having a HAL9000 on board...."Is that you Dave"?

My unconnect in my 13' 2500 was the single worst radio I've had in a modern car. Voice commands never worked, my phone constantly needed to reconnect, and unfortunately the dealership in my town couldn't help or tell me what was going on.

Hopefully I just got a bad one or theyve done the R&D to fix the new ones.

I am good with it as long as Apple Car Play is supported, which according to the article it is.

We have an 18 Durango R/T and I feel like the Uconnect Navigation is worse than it was on our 16 Journey. We just use google maps through car play for navigation, that works awesome. It won't let you use both the on board nav and nav on your phone if you are plugged in.

I have a 15 Durango Citadel u-connect radio never worked properly from the beginning no matter how many times I took it in,never again.

What a poorly written article.

I won't be buying an FCA product unless the option to permanently delete all traces of Alexa is available. I neither want nor need to be tracked.

I was looking at a used 2019 Ram Limited. When I read all the terrible online reviews/problems with the 12" infotainment I decided to look at a Bighorn Sport with the 8.4" Uconnect that sounded like it was less problematic.

Anyone have any real world feedback on the 2019/2020 version of the 8.4" Uconnect?

Sounds to me like they just keep on tweaking things til they get them all wrong, plus all the tracking crap is just too much. Nanny state. The navigation on my 2016 Challenger, 2016 300, & 2017 Ram all barely work. You certainly can't use them on the fly when you really NEED them! The nav is useless to me. When I really need it, I pull my phone out.

I've been reading that one of the latest updates I think even in the 8.4 system gets pushed thru automatically and screws up the system and there's no way to go back to the system that actually works. Technology at it's worst.

I like these new screens and everything they do. I like the way Chryslers setup works better then anyone elses. But it seems like all these things, and not just uconnect, they keep pushing more and more technology which makes things too complicated or not work right. The last couple gmail updates have been like that, the very last one got so bloaty it slowed everything down.

They will all track you to some extent, anything with NAV at least. That is a revenue stream that isn't really seen from the outside. The washing post did something recently where they hacked into a Chevrolet car that was a few years old and found out all of the information it sends out. If something is Free you are likely the product.

Now is there some dude in his moms basement watching you go get groceries in your new Ram? No. But I guess if someone wanted to find you bad enough then it wouldn't be hard, through your car, your phone, your smart watch etc.

I'm screwed when it gets easy for the insurance companies to get that info. I like to open the throttle when the road opens, and everything we own has seen its top speed at some point.

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Though I hadn't touched the dashboard, the vents in the Jeep Cherokee started blasting cold air at the maximum setting, chilling the sweat on my back through the in-seat climate control system. Next the radio switched to the local hip hop station and began blaring Skee-lo at full volume. I spun the control knob left and hit the power button, to no avail. Then the windshield wipers turned on, and wiper fluid blurred the glass.

Remember the bit in the movie 5th Element - traffic tickets popping out of the dash board? The part they probably got wrong was that the ticket would be emailed to you. I recently noticed that google maps will occasionally display the speed limit of the road I'm on. How long can it really take before that data stream gets connected to a vehicle speed governor?

All of this is exactly why I drive a 51 Plymouth, well that and I like the Cambridge.

No one can hack into it, nothing to hack.

No one can track me, nothing to track.

My daughter got me a fit bit, anyone tracking that must think I live in my top dresser drawer.

If I need a watch I have an old Timex.

I do have a smart phone. It's battery is removable,

Paranoid? Not really, just someone that enjoys his privacy. Some of the places I go for work demand an email address for access. I usually use NO@privacy.com to get past that.

Recently got called up for jury duty. The legal requirements are you be a resident and not convicted of certain crimes, bouncing checks being one of them. The questionnaire they required me to fill out asked a bunch of personal information about both myself and my spouse. I answered No to all of them. I am required to fill it out. I am not required to provide the answers they want.

The U-connect in my 14 Ram sucks. I have to repeat myself at least three times before it understands what I'm saying. If I talk in a high pitched female voice it understands me better. The radio went out and I ordered one on May 21st. Still waiting on the replacement to show up at the dealer.

My wife and I just bought a 19 Jeep Cherokee. It has the large 8.4 system. It's much nicer then the Ram's. It understands me even if I talk quietly.

I have the 8.4 in my 15 Durango Citadel it doesn't understand voice commands,navigation gives me wrong directions and the kicker to all of this they sent me an over the air up date in which you had to load or you had no radio.After I loaded it the entire u-connect shut down and they wanted $60.00 to reboot something they caused.I called u-connect because I dealt with them from the beginning and got Dodge to pay for it but still doesn't work right but it's a little better.BTW they told me they had very few complaints about u-connect.

U connect is pretty highly rated, which tells you how bad the others are lol.

In 2010 my 80 yr old mother bought a brand new 300 signature edition w/ Nav. She'd use it but never went where it told her because she knew a better route. She'd go on a rant about how dumb the thing was. I could never understand why she even bothered with it. I'm pretty sure she just liked having somebody to argue with.

When my girl was looking at a 12 200 I did the research about what to look out for - the common problems they might have. Ended up down a rabbit hole of threads about reverse engineering the CAN bus messaging system. It all made perfect sense to me because on a top level view it works exactly like telecom systems from the late 70s that I used to work on. For a while I considered hacking the part of the uConnect that sends out maintenance reminder emails. The idea was to have the car randomly send her emails like "Hey, put my top down!".

I usually always know a better route than the GPS when in my Local area. But, when you don't know the route at all the best route is the one that gets you there.

Our 2014 patriot has had 2 uconnect systems fail over the past 5 years. First one was under warranty, they want $1400 to replace the second one. We are fighting with Fiat over this one.

My research online had shown a high reported failure rate among the uconnect head units, so when we ordered our 2019 classic RAM for the business, we got it with the lower end “radio 1.0” without all the wizzy tech features. That just at 13,000 mi, & is going in to the dealer to be replaced today. If another one fails once the truck is out of warranty, we will be putting an aftermarket unit in because it seems obvious Fiat is sourcing their radios from the lowest Chinese bidder...

Unconnected in our 2011 Grand Cherokee is JUNK. Not sure why my wife wonders why I drive old cars.