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By Steve Benoff You would think something as cool as a virtual video owner's manual for your car would be something the manufacturer or dealer would tell you about. But no. I found out about the app in a column in Car and Driver magazine. It seems that both Genesis and Mercedes have created apps to help drivers understand the myriad of controls they have at their command in their cars. Luckily I own a poor-man's Mercedes — a Genesis, manufactured by Hyundai. Also luckily, I own one of the three models supported by the new app – a 2017 G80. So I immediately downloaded the app and started to explore. Understand that this app is no substitute for the hundreds of pages that come with every car sold these days. The app won't tell you how often to service your car (although another Genesis app does) or how to operate the navigation system or even how to save an FM preset. But there are aspects to the app that are a definite improvement over the printed page. If you want to know what a particular icon on the instrument cluster represents, this app will tell you. By the way, the app also lets you download the complete owner's manual including the index in case you want to look up something specific. The app starts by asking for the year and model of your car. The app covers all Genesis models from 2017 onward. The app also wants to know which accessory group your car has. Once you've selected this information, you're ready to go. The opening screen of the Genesis app shows the four sections of the "AR-VR Owner's Manual" (artificial reality-virtual reality). There are four major groupings – engine, interior, exterior, and instrument cluster. Instrument cluster doesn't give you the choice of display types. But it does show you the instrument panel, and if you press the center, LCD display pops up. When you press it, 29 items are presented. Pressing any of them will give you an explanation of the item selected. For example, it tells you what to do if "Check PSB" is shown on the instrument panel. The other three sections give you a choice of how you want the information displayed. If you choose pictorial index, you will see a photo of an area of the car with red dots. When you press a red dot, a description of the immediate area will be displayed. At first glance, this seems pretty mundane. I pressed the red dot at the center of the steering wheel and the word "airbag" was displayed. My reaction? Big deal. So here's a lesson I learned and one we all should take note of. When it comes to apps, when in doubt, press again. Pressing again won't destroy your phone. Maybe nothing will happen. Or maybe something will - as it did here. When I pressed "airbag," I was presented with a terrific display of the various sensors throughout the car and the airbags surrounding the occupants. Every dot has a description and every description has a pictorial to go with it. The interior group lets you choose 360VR which is one of the coolest app features I've seen. Starting with a view from between the front seats, you can scan the entire car by moving your phone left and right, up and down. As you scan the car's interior, red dots appear and by pressing them you're treated to a pictorial display. Just to be clear, you don't have to be in the car to use this feature. There is also a button scanner choice available. When you are in the car, point the box in the center of the screen to a feature in the car and the app will identify that feature and give you the choice of watching a pictorial on the feature. This is supposed to be the AR part of the AR-VR, but I don't see the point of it. I prefer to use the pictorial and 360 VR options. Frankly, I think this is such a cool app that you should go out and buy a Genesis, or maybe even a Mercedes. Other manufacturers have probably created their own apps by now. Do you use an app you'd like to share with others? Let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. 16 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MAY 2019 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! Exploring Your Car with an App

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