Imagine getting into your car, sitting down and having the car automatically adjust the seat position for you and the temperature controls to just the way you like it? It almost sounds like some sort of futuristic sci-fi, but it’s actually a reality inside of the 2019 GMC Terrain and some other GM vehicles.
For a long time, infotainment systems in cars were notorious for being extremely cumbersome and not very user-friendly. Fortunately, they have gotten a lot more user-friendly over the past year. We’re pretty sure that you can owe much of improved usability to competition from Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
With all of that said, we were especially surprised by how user-friendly the infotainment system is inside of the 2019 GMC Terrain. It’s extremely intuitive to use, and operates similarly to a smartphone or tablet experience. Its touchscreen is also nice and responsive. But it’s not just its user-friendly experience that impressed us – but what we especially appreciate is that it’s one of the first infotainment to offer customized user profiles.
User profiles are probably not one of the first things that come to mind when it comes to choosing a vehicle, but now that we’ve experienced it first hand, we realize just how much of a game changer it is. Most families share vehicles with multiple drivers, and that means that each driver has their own preferences inside of the vehicle. The custom user profiles inside of the 2019 GMC Terrain allow you to tweak your experience inside the vehicle, so that from the moment you sit down, you’re personalized settings are ready to go.
To that effect, the vehicle is able to recognize your profile from when you use your key. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, you can even carry your user profile over to other supported GM vehicles! This is accomplished through the cloud. This is ideal if you own another GM vehicle. But heck, even if you’re renting a compatible GM vehicle like the 2019 Chevy Silverado, you’ll be able to bring over your profile. In the background, the GMC Terrain will keep pushing your updated settings to the cloud.
It’s quite unbelievable how many settings can be customized within your user profile. Those settings include: rear seat reminder settings, climate, and air quality settings, settings for the collision/detection systems, seat comfort settings including position and heating, mirror positions, hill start assist settings, lighting, remote unlock settings, apps, chime volume, hands-free liftgate / trunk control, and map and navigation preferences.
In addition, you can use user profile modes to assign restrictions to teens with the Teen Drive Mode. You can also set a pin code to lock the settings in valet mode. Currently, there are no limits for how many unique profiles you can create.
All in all, user profiles were never something we thought about when it comes to in-car experiences, but now that we’ve experienced in first hand, it’s a wonder how we ever lived without it.