2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Passenger Touchscreen Review | Co-pilot’s delight

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Jeep’s latest SUVs – the 2022 Grand Cherokee and the 2022 Wagoneer – have taken a giant leap forward on the interior display. But instead of opting for a full-width display or something similar, Jeep decided to give the front passengers a small infotainment center of their own. This may seem a bit redundant considering it’s mounted no more than a foot from the Big Kahuna, but Jeep has managed to pack quite a bit of functionality into this little piece of real estate and we were curious to see how well it all works. You too? Well, come with me.

Our test model was equipped with both the passenger screen and the entertainment package in the rear, making it a dreamland for gadget geeks. But what we’re focusing on today is the one on the front passenger side of the dash. It’s the one you can barely see in the photo above because the glass it covers is polarized, meaning light only passes through it at certain angles. Those angles keep it almost exclusively visible to the passenger. The whole disappears from the driver’s seat position. Even at night. Zero glow. No glare. No distraction. And that is remarkable, because you can do a lot with that screen.

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Jeep’s new Uconnect 5 lineup is Amazon Alexa-enabled, allowing passengers to watch movies or TV, or even plug in another device to use it for games or other media via the HDMI port on the dash. And for vehicles like these equipped with the rear seat entertainment package, you can even watch different episodes of the same series on all three screens with independent audio and playback controls. Each position gets its own Bluetooth connection, isolating the audio output for each display to individual headsets.

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But what makes the passenger screen special is the fact that it communicates directly with the primary Uconnect screen, allowing the front passenger to take over some of the driver’s co-pilot functions without encroaching on their space. For example, do you need to change your destination en route? The passenger can suggest a completely different route or destination from the screen in a few steps. This request then appears in both the driver’s instrument panel and the infotainment screen, where the driver can accept or decline the proposed change. Theoretically, this system is also good if you can’t talk to your copilot anymore, and even then the passenger controls can be blocked if you really don’t want to hear from them. Passive aggressive people rejoice.

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And the screen is just one part of the new Grand Cherokee’s massive connectivity push. Between the dashboard, the center console and the rear console we counted no fewer than seven USB Type-C ports, five USB A ports, two 12V DC plugs and a 120V AC plug. The three-row Grand Cherokee L also gets additional connectivity and charging points in the rear, although the passenger screen hasn’t been introduced on that model yet, so for now that’s a win-sum, some-lose situation. We expect that to change in 2023.