A peek at an even more entertaining ride, with new, big in-dash systems from Byton, Garmin

Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
·2 min read

LOS ANGELES — The proposed entertainment system from Chinese manufacturer Byton is so large, it stretches all across the entire dashboard.

As in, from the driver's side straight across to the passenger.

The system that Garmin, the wearables and GPS manufacturer, displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show was more modest — it looked like a massive iPad in the middle of the dash, and it promises more versatility than the modest, compact systems offered by Apple (CarPlay) and Google (Android Auto) for making hands-free calls, requesting songs and podcasts via voice, and getting directions.

Byton's giant entertainment dashboard
Byton's giant entertainment dashboard

Carmakers work on long lead times, so these systems could be two or three years away.

Garmin promises a smaller variation on the unit to be announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, which will interact with Garmin wearable products like its smartwatch. At first, it will send heart rate data and other information to the in-dash system, but by the end of 2019, it will interact with the watch to let drivers go keyless, and open the door with the watch, says Garmin's Kip Dondlinger.

A new infotainment system from Garmin will let you open the car with your smartwatch. Pictured: Garmin's Kip Dondlinger
A new infotainment system from Garmin will let you open the car with your smartwatch. Pictured: Garmin's Kip Dondlinger

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, the company hoped to entice auto manufacturers to offer Garmin's upcoming system as an add-on, one with better graphics than usually seen, improved weather and navigation information, and the ability to interact with augmented reality, to super-impose, say, images of local restaurants over a map as the driver cruises by.

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And unlike CarPlay, which only works with Apple products, or Android Auto, Android exclusive, the Garmin unit is set to work with both platforms.

Garmin's new entertainment system
Garmin's new entertainment system

For the Byton unit, which will be on a new SUV slated for 2019, "this is what people are going to get," notes USA TODAY's Chris Woodyard, speaking on the #TalkingTech podcast from the Auto Show. "They're not going to tone it down."

Woodyard ponders this big question: "How distracting will that be to the driver? It seemed really distracting."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA Auto Show: Byton, Garmin in-dash entertainment systems aim to amuse