Car Tech Blog - 2021 Jaguar F-Pace R Dynamic S AWD
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Today was another great day, I got the chance to drive the 2021 Jaguar F Pace and it was the R Dynamic S AWD trim level. What a beautiful piece of art this was. The lines and overall look with the black out Package was incredible! Inside on the 2021 models, the interior has received some serious changes. The entire look of the front dashboard has been changed, making it look sleek and elegant, plus it included the 12.3” Digital Driver’s Information screen and the PIVI Pro Infotainment system.
To view our in-depth review of the Driver's Information Screen and the Infotainment Screen click HERE
The 12.3” Digital Driver’s Information screen has been well designed. It offers just enough information, while letting the driver customize the overall look of it. In terms of customizing the display you can choose from viewing two gauges (Tach and Speedometer) with the digital menus in the center, or a single gauge in the middle with two digital information displays to the right and left of it, or you can arrange it so that its a full screen map, or a full screen of Driver Safety Systems, which then places a smaller digital speedometer, cruise control etc in the very top window along with your engine temperature, fuel gauge and odometer, miles to empty at the very bottom of the screen.
The buttons to control all this information are 3 buttons that are located on the left side of the steering wheel. This makes it easy to intuitively figure out how to change and configure the information. I have used this system before on our review of the 2021 Land Rover Defender 110 and the buttons worked flawlessly. On this F Pace however the rotary knob was a bit fussy and would easily scroll farther than you wanted it to. I have to assume that was an issue related to this particular vehicle as the Land Rovers buttons worked great.
There is a Favorites button located on the left side of the steering wheel as well, and it can be programed (via the infotainment system) to perform 2 functions. The first function is accessed with a short press of the button, and the second favorite is accessed with a long press of the button. That, I thought, was a neat feature-a programmable favorites button.
On the right side of the steering wheel, those buttons controlled the cruise control features and the most interesting part about it was that it included the LMI function which limits the top speed to whatever you set I to, which could be very useful for off roading. The rest of the adaptive cruise control operated just like you thought it would.
The HUD (Heads Up Display) was very nice, not as large of a viewable area as we have seen in other vehicles, but it was very readable and contained just as much info as any other HUD I’ve seen. The HUD is adjustable (through the driver’s information screen) including the following: Up/down, content, brightness and dimness of the display. The one thing it lacked (based on what I’ve seen in most other HUD displays) was the ability to rotate the display like a clock. The reason I would like to see that added in a future update is that everyone sits differently in the seat, and to some folks, the HUD Display is going to appear slanted down or up, and the ability to rotate the display fixes that problem so that the HUD display appears straight to all drivers, irregardless of how they sit in the seat. I’ve also seen other HUDS with a left/right adjustment which is very nice so you can move the display to the left or to the right and place it in a spot that is more natural for you to view. Maybe in a future update we will see that.
The Infotainment system is the PIVI Pro and is powered by two processors, on to take care of the apps you use, and one to take care of things like updating etc. One of the very impressive things about this infotainment system is that it is always on. The second you start the car, the screen is active and ready to work, there is no booting up of the system, ever, and that is really nice.
The arrangement of the screen I think is brilliant, because of the way they allow the occupants to view the screen. You can have the traditional minions of small apps clutter the screen, or you can choose to have large “cards” displayed and the screen will fit 3 cards at a time. Each card has 3 shortcuts located towards the bottom of the card which allow you to quickly access info, without have to dig through multiple menu’s. It also makes the card very easy to see from the either front seat, no eye straining required. The system has plenty of items for you to use including Apple Car Play, Android Auto (both are wired, not wireless), AM/FM/ and HD radio as well as Sirius XM. In addition to that there plenty of other apps for you to use such as the valet mode, the Economy gauges which tell you how much power a certain feature is robbing from your MPG, like having the heated windshield or defroster on.
The navigation system is a door-to-door system. Using the Incontrol App on your phone, you can preprogram your navigation on your phone, and when you step into the car, it will hand off navigation to the car. When you arrive at your destination and exit the car, your Incontrol app will continue giving you directions right to the front door. The system is also intelligent enough that it will know if you do not have enough fuel to make your destination, and will list gas stations that are on your route for you to stop at and refuel. No more running out of gas on a commute!
The voice command seemed to be very picky about how you said things, and as such was not as intuitive as one would have hoped. I tried asking voice command to “find the nearest McDonalds” but it could not understand me, I had to say “Locate a POI named McDonalds”, and then it understood me. Undoubtedly, the Voice Command system is as good as any other system thats out there if it’s not an updated system link Sync 4 which handled the first request with ease. I’m just disappointed that unlike the MBUX or SYNC 4 that are intuitive and can understand plainly spoken directions (no need to see what commands you can use) , you have to use the computers language to be understood. That being said, if you look through the list of commands that it will accept, and you use that terminology, it works quite fine. Perhaps in the next update that will be fixed.
Overall the 2021 Jaguar F-Pace R Dynamic S AWD was as sharp inside as it was outside (in terms of technology and looks), I just hope that Jaguar uses the over the air updating to improve the Voice Commands ability to understand normal spoken directions, and to add a few adjustment possibilities to the HUD display. I also hope they improve the Meridean Sound system to include a bigger amplifier, 850 watts is just not a lot when it’s competitors are offering 1,200 watts and up.
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