{"id":40661,"date":"2024-03-09T14:46:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T14:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arcticinsider.com\/?p=40661"},"modified":"2024-03-09T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T14:54:25","slug":"insider-tech-the-details-the-video-and-the-development-of-the-g8-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arcticinsider.com\/insider-tech-the-details-the-video-and-the-development-of-the-g8-display\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDER TECH – THE DETAILS, THE VIDEO, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE G8 DISPLAY\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Story: Pat Bourgeois<\/p>

arcticinsider<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of new goodness in the 2025 Arctic Cat snowmobile line, and I know many of you have been clamoring for more details, more insights, and by and large just more to satisfy your appetite surrounding the new Catalyst platform sleds. With that I\u2019m happy to finally dive into some of that new goodness starting with the new G8 display. While I was in West Yellowstone\u00a0 last week, I was able to spend some time with Justin Scholl, the primary engineer behind the development of the G8. Justin walked me through a lot of the details of the display, what it offers, how to navigate the multiple screens and information available, and how it\u2019s likely what we will experience with the new G8 over the next year will be just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Justin Scholl – Arctic Cat Computer and Electrical Engineer <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ARCTIC INSIDER:<\/strong> Justin,what is your current role at Arctic Cat and how have you been involved in the development of the G8?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JUSTIN SCHOLL:<\/strong> My current role at Arctic Cat is a Computer\/Electrical Engineer. I am the lead engineer for the Arctic Cat G8 project. I have been responsible for the majority of the development and integration.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI:<\/strong> The Arctic Cat faithful have been asking for something like this for quite some time, I think once they experience it they will agree, the G8 was worth the wait. How long has the G8 been in development and what were some of the biggest goals you and the team were looking to achieve with the gauge package?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS:<\/strong> A new display has been on Arctic Cat’s roadmap for a while. One of the largest goals was to develop a robust system enough to grow with our future advancements and an ecosystem of trail information. The G8 display has been under development for the last 3 years however, the project started over 5 years ago with the release of our Tread 5.5\u201d accessory. Arctic Cat spent the first few years working with Garmin developing the ecosystem of trails. There was a large amount of effort early on to ensure we had appropriate trail information and had a way to present it to customers where it would continue to be updated when necessary and be included easily.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI:<\/strong> Beyond how great it looks and the navigational elements, in your opinion what are some of the coolest or best \u201clesser known\u201d features of the G8?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS:<\/strong> I believe one of the more unknown features about the G8 is the fact that it is built off of the Garmin Tread family of devices. This gives us the unique advantage of it being fairly user customizable, and being able to run various accessories such as Bluetooth headsets,cameras, Garmin InReach, and the ability to run various other apps such as weather and Radar, and many more things that snowmobilers will find very useful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AI:<\/strong> Why is the G8 only available with ATAC?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS:<\/strong> It was chosen to be a factory installed option on the ATAC model as this model is seen as the premium package. This encourages customers to get the most potential out of the new gauge by including all the feathers that it can control. However, the Arctic Cat G8 can be added to any model Catalyst through our accessory kit and is plug and play with zero programming required.<\/em> (For more information on the accessory kit see your local Arctic Cat dealer – AI)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI:<\/strong> Can the G8 be retro fitted and if so, will there be kits available to help accomplish this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS:<\/strong> For 2025 there will be an accessory kit that will allow the G8 to be placed on any Catalyst model sled. There was a lot of thought placed into the G8\u2019s design and this includes being plug and play which will certainly aid in future development of accessory kits for potential in legacy platforms such as the Thundercat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI:<\/strong> Why is the Group Ride Radio feature not available in Canada?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS: <\/strong>The G8 Group Ride Radio is available in the US and Europe. It is not available Canada as the Group Ride Radio uses frequencies that are not permitted in Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AI:<\/strong> After spending just a few days with the G8 on the snow, I can\u2019t say enough good things about it. It also appears there is a lot of room to expand the technology and features of the G8 down the road. Can you talk about that a little?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JS:<\/strong> There certainly is. A lot of thought went into the hardware and software design of this display. Over the Air updates for not only mapping but unit software allows us to continue to grow and develop more features in the future and the great thing about software updates is we can offer those to customers with existing units.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n