A new study from J.D. Power reveals that connected cars might not have the allure to some consumers that automakers and their technology providers expect. That is the upshot of the J.D. Power 2015 Driver Interactive Vehicle Experience Report.
The report measured consumer use of 33 technology features included in new cars, and found that at least 20% of new-car owners didn’t use 16 of those digital features. Built-in apps ranked as the fifth least-used tech feature for that 20 percent. Apple’s CarPlay dashboard system for controlling iPhones, and Google’s Android Auto platform for controlling Android phones, were noted by 20% of drivers as features they would not want in their future cars.
“In many cases, owners simply prefer to use their smartphone or tablet because it meets their needs; they’re familiar with the device and it’s accurate,” according to Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction & HMI research at J.D. Power.
The “connected car” movement can mean one of several things, from a factory-produced Internet on wheels to a driver dangerously using the phone while driving. With an aged American car fleet (the average car is nearly 12 years old), one common way of bringing personal apps into the cockpit is by connecting one’s phone to the dashboard by some means. Modern cars can solve plug-in hassles either by putting a mobile Internet router in the car, or making the phone-to-dash connection easier and safer to operate.
The J.D. Power study seems to weaken an assumption that new-car and future-car drivers will reach for the dashboard to turn on Pandora (et al) rather than the radio. But there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, when you flip the 20% of new-car owners who disdain technology features, it becomes 80% who don’t disdain them. Second, “built-in apps” represented only 32% of the disdaining cohort, further reducing the pool of measured drivers who don’t quickly adopt factory installed connectivity features. Finally, Kristin Kolodge’s remark quoted above indicates that some people simply prefer a handheld interface (the smartphone) to a dashboard interface, purportedly because they are practiced at using that interface.
When it comes to audio entertainment, connected cars pose a challenge to the in-car supremacy radio has enjoyed for decades. The question raised by the J.D. Power study is not so much whether new choices exist, as how consumers will make their choices.
(Off topic, but your Twitter button repeats the URL and doesn’t contain something like a “via @RAINtwitter”.)
My issue with streaming during road trips is losing the web connection on my cell phone. Also, got to be wary of battery usage and how much data is used.