Tech Review: Hyundai's Alcazar Is Big And Loaded With Tech

The Alcazar is Hyundai's 7 seater play. It is in a way the big brother of the highly successful Creta. It can be configured in both a 7 seater with an extra row or with captain seats in the middle row for a 6 seat configuration. But along with its size, it also brings a boatload of tech which makes it highly competitive with the likes of the MG Hector Plus, the new Tata Safari, and even some cars that are on the horizon. We have a full review of the car, so you can click here if you want to know what it drives like. 

I, however, am going to tackle the technology on the Hyundai Alcazar. So let's start with safety. Because Shams drove the diesel car and Siddharth the petrol, so both their reviews are already there for you to see. 

Safety is a huge part of what Hyundai has been pitching with this vehicle and it is loaded with tech. It gets airbags on both the front and middle row, it gets ABS and ESC along with hill control assistance. It gets intelligent doors that detect motion. Parking sensors are offered on the back in all trims while the signature trim offers sensors even on the front. Going beyond basic parking sensors, there is a rearview camera that also has instructive lines. Alongside this, there are blindspot detection cameras that help you park and while you're taking a turn alongside a 350-degree over-the-top view which all is displayed on the massive 10.25-inch infotainment display. It all works effectively and importantly all the cameras are clear which means the features are going to be extremely handy in day-to-day use, especially, considering the size of the car. 

The new Alcazar will be offered as both, a 6- and 7-seater SUV with a host of smart creature comforts

That 10.25-inch infotainment display is at the heart of the Alcazar experience. Prima-facie looks like the same one we have seen before on the Creta and i20, but this looked smoother from a touch response point of view. It also seemed to me that the text was sharper so maybe Hyundai has bumped up the resolution or done something to the panel which makes things more legible. It also had better viewing angles and brightness levels. Overall a serviceable screen for a slightly convoluted user interface - but one paired with an 8 speaker Bose audio system. Yes, the very same in the Creta and sounds pretty much the same. It's typically sterile in Bose audio fashion. It is mid-heavy which means it will work with Bollywood music and at the same time will be decent for even western music like electronic dance music, rock, or metal, though it may not excite audiophiles which is fine. There is also a new virtual instrument cluster that has been organized in a very straightforward and ergonomic way. It will display things like tyre pressure, the speedometer, and the odometer, all the basics are covered alongside three slick themes which can be changed around. 

The 10.25 inch touchscreen in the Alcazar is more responsive than the one in the Creta and i20 

The main infotainment system also gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, though again, wired. This means you can get access to the best phone beaming technology from Apple and Google. More importantly, you can easily use Google Maps, Apple Music, or any other streaming service alongside getting the duties of either the Google Assistant or Siri, the best two virtual assistants out there. 

But in case you don't like the limited, phone-oriented functionality of what Siri and the Google Assistant can do, you can call upon the BlueLink assistant, which recognizes the natural voice, surprisingly decently. Now this assistant is deeply embedded with the car so it can take over core functions of the vehicle - so you tell it for instance, " I want to see the sky" and it will open the panoramic sunroof. Similarly, you can say " I am feeling warm" and it will turn up the AC and air purification system. It can even roll down the windows for you and can tell you the weather or give you directions with the onboard navigation which is an extra redundancy in the case you don't have Google Maps. Overall, its speech detection isn't on the level of Apple or Google but it gets the job done with the odd hit or miss. 

2021 Hyundai Alcazar SUV

BlueLink is also the name of Hyundai's smart connected car interface. Hyundai has extended the capabilities of the BlueLink suite but these are rudimentary elements like greetings messages and some minor enhancements like we the ability to open the sunroof or window using speech. The biggest new addition is the ability for the car to receive updates for its onboard navigation system which was a huge hole considering Apple and Google maps get updated almost every day leveraging real-time data from its users. 

But the main calling car of BlueLink is the connected car features that work in tandem with a SIM card inside the car connecting it wirelessly with an app on your phone and this time around even your smartwatch. With BlueLink the most important thing is good connectivity - if that doesn't exist, it will not work at all or work in a patchy or delayed way which just makes it useless. It enables you to geo-fence the car in case it is being used by a driver or valet. You can even time fence it, say your kids plan on sneaking out late at night when you're sleeping, you can lock them out by time fencing the vehicle. 

You can remotely unlock the car, start its engine remotely and even kickstart the air conditioning which is handy in an Indian summer. In winter, you can choose to heat the car. It will also activate the air purifier so that it can cleanse the air before you enter the vehicle. It will also give you remote SOS assistance in case the car breaks down or you have an accident. It will give you all kinds of telematics information and also let you know if the car needs servicing. From the app itself, you can also check the fuel levels in the car and what it equates to the on-road range. It does quite a lot, but the smartphone app could be a little more logically designed, but some of these smart connected car features are going to get obsolete soon thanks to ultra-wideband technology that's showing up both in the latest iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S21 models enabling things like remote to unlock to be more instant, but I guess we are a year or so away from the mass adoption of these newer technologies. 

5G will also make some of these things faster as a combination of greater bandwidth, the cloud, and better edge connectivity will make these experiences instant. Right now for every command with BlueLink one has to wait for up to 2 minutes which is kind of unacceptable for opening a car. 

The Hyundai Alcazar has a host of rivals in this segment

Hyundai has packed in twin wireless chargers in this car - one on the front and one in the middle row, which is only offered in the "signature trim". Again this is a nice and modern feature but I am not convinced about the charging speeds as 5-watts on phones that have massive 3,000 mAh plus batteries - that means even a 20 percent charge would take more than 30 minutes. The good news is that there is a litany of USB ports as well. Two on the front, one in the middle row, and two more on the back row. You can charge as many phones as you want to pretty comfortably. 

Like the Creta, the air purifier is properly integrated into the car with it having a nice user interface embedded in the infotainment display and even being triggered by BlueLink voice commands. The most important thing however for me is the fact that it is not a cylindrical thing that's placed inside a cup holder as the one Hyundai provides in the i20. 

Overall, the Alcazar is impressive for the level of usable tech it packs in which will certainly make daily life easy for most people who end up buying the vehicle.