A Lot of People Don’t Bother Using Fancy Car Tech

[Liberal_in_LA]

The Los Angeles Times notes that 43 percent of people surveyed don't use their cars' voice recognition to call up things like GPS directions. Thirty-five percent never tried automatic parking, 32 percent avoided apps like Yelp, and 20 percent didn't even use half of the tech features in their cars. (The survey asked about 33 tech features that seemed to be available in all respondents’ cars.)
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The report polled 4,200 people between April and June who had bought or leased cars no more than three months before taking the survey. Research indicates that people are unlikely to explore car features and start using new ones after the first three months of owning a car, Reuters reports.

It seems that most people, especially those in the 21- to 38-year-old range simply used their smartphones instead of attempting to engage with their cars' tech features. For all ages the lack of engagement seemed to be a combination of active avoidance and not knowing all of the things the cars could do.

Kristin Kolodge, the executive director of driver interaction at J.D. Power, told Reuters, "Customers say, 'I have a competing technology that's easier to use, or I've already paid for it—so why do I need it again?' ... Is it really making it easier? That's where some of the value is being challenged." She noted in a statement that the tech features people seem to like the most are more related to actual driving mechanics—things like maintenance diagnostics, cruise control, and blind spot monitoring—than entertainment or connectivity.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/08/26/driver_interactive_vehicle_experience_report_says_people_don_t_use_a_lot.html

[tularetom]

1. I bought a new car earlier this year. The bells and whistles had bells and whistles

Some of them are real assets like the back up camera, blind spot monitor, all the indicators such as oil pressure, oil life, tire pressure, etc, and parking warnings.

I rarely use the GPS, but the bluetooth phone and particularly to play mp3 files directly off a memory stick are very convenient.

But there is still a lot of stuff on there that is more of a distraction or a pain in the ass to use. Like all the voice command stuff.

[beevul]

2. Yup.

Air tilt cruise, systems indicator gauges like oil pressure tach and temp, TPMS, the onboard media player, very useful.

GPS and Bluetooth meh.

I carry a truckers atlas with me everywhere, and it ignores signal loss unlike GPS. If I get a phone call, or need to text, I just pull over.

A lot of it overthinks the plumbing, IMO.

[hobbit709]

3. The problem with everything run by computer is this

My friend had to take her two day old car back to the dealer to get the programming changed because her trunk light wouldn't come on.
Why does the light switch have to go through the computer for that?

[1939]

4. Voice command is horrible (Acura)

If I tell the map to "zoom out" the supercilious voice says "display banks" and little icons of banks pop up on the map.


On my Prius, every time my cell phone connects with the car through bluetooth, it shuts off my Ipod hard wired to the audio system.

[IDemo]

5. I don't suppose there's any chance, given those numbers

That automakers might consider including some 'unplugged' models in the lineup, minus all the digital candy.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. May I just say, thank god this isn't just an old fart thing.

It seems that most people, especially those in the 21- to 38-year-old range simply used their smartphones instead of attempting to engage with their cars' tech features. For all ages the lack of engagement seemed to be a combination of active avoidance and not knowing all of the things the cars could do.

I love the bells and whistles on my car but I never bother learning stuff until I see a need for it.