It turns out that more technology in cars isn’t necessarily something customers want, and it’s not really improving their driving experience. We know my thoughts on the matter, but I’ll do my best to stay impartial on this latest survey from JD Power that shows most customers don’t appreciate technology in cars unless they can see a clear benefit to them.
JD Power’s 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study evaluated over 81,000 drivers’ experience with “advanced vehicle technologies” in 2024 model year vehicles after 90 days of ownership, It turned out to be a pretty mixed bag when it came to what people liked using. There are a number of tech features that customers like using because they feels that it answers their needs, but at the same time there is a whole lot that don’t get used very often or are continually annoying, according to the survey.
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Peak technology enjoyment in a car includes
There’s some other minor tech that’s fairly nice that I haven’t seen in cheaper cars. Lights under the door to light up the ground on dark nights for when you’re getting out. Just solid utilitarian tech right there.
My single piece of favorite car tech is the cruise control that follows the cars ahead of you and brakes when necessary. I barely use my feet for driving anymore.
I am entirely the opposite. I think cruise just makes driving less engaging and more boring.
Ideally I want everything to be manual, I even control every individual wiper swipe a lot of times if I am just driving along on a highway. Less boring, more engaging. Means I am more attentative on the road.
I do however understand I am a minority.
Fine for short trips, less fun on hours+ long drives. It’s nice having options!
I don’t know what is considered a long trip for you but to me it’s 6 hours plus, which I deal with no problems. I just think it makes driving more boring when there’s less stuff to be in control of.
I live far away from my family and my wifes family so we drive a lot of 6-12 hour drives and I always drive the full stint. Doesn’t bother me but I am not everyone.
There are far more important things than feeling bored when you’re transporting irreplaceable human beings.
Boredom leads to poor focus and tiredness and is highly relevant for safely manning a vehicle
I wish you the best of luck maintaining that pristine focus when you’re doing 5x the mental calculations for hours on end.
Ah yea adaptive cruise control with lane assist is my jam.
I’ve been driving spoiled with Lane Keep Assist. I’d like to continue to keep that as a thing in all cars.
Also, I used a Ford Escape as a rental this weekend, and holy shit I hate having to wait for the startup animation to complete so I can finally mess with the A/C and have it going on full blast after sitting in the hot sun all day. My Santa Cruz has actual buttons for all the climate control stuff and I had no idea I’d miss it so much until now.
Also, adaptive cruise control
I’m fine with adaptive cruise, however, I would also like to be able to turn it off quickly and easily if the situation calls for it.
Tapping the brakes has immediately turned off cruise control in every vehicle I’ve ever driven.
I was referring specifically to the adaptive part, and going back to dumb cruise. I wasn’t clear, my apologies.
Can you explain a scenario where that would be necessary? Given that adaptive cruise slows you down below your target speed to follow traffic all I can see that doing is either nothing on an open road, or accelerating you into the vehicle in front of you.
I use it all the time on the highway.
That doesn’t explain anything. I’ll be more clear.
Can you explain why it would be necessary to suddenly need to turn off adaptive cruise and switch to fixed speed cruise?
Isn’t it just a press of a button to turn it off?
I replied to another comment on this as well. I wasn’t very clear with what I meant, my apologies. I was referring to turning the adaptive part off, and going back to just regular old cruise control.
Lane keep assist is annoying AF when you live in a place where you’re required by law to cross the double yellow when going around bicycles. You get in a steering wheel fight with the car until you find the menu to temporarily disable it. After next stop-start cycle mid-errand, it’s on again by default thanks to US law.
I mean just using your turn signal turns it off in most cars…
Maybe do that?
Confusing unnecessary signaling that others could misinterpret when you don’t intend on turning.
Did you even take Driver’s Ed?
lane keeping and radar cruise control are pretty great driving aids, I gotta admit.
I have to say I prefer launching climate control from my phone before I ever get in the car. And also I’d rather have the cabin try to keep a temperature automatically instead of forcing me to dick with the temp of the blowing air.
I’d rather just have a standard size bank up front, like, 3DIN, and choose my own “car computer”. Have security locking support, guarantee certain power supply, impact, and temperature conditions. And then open up the “car console” market.
And let me be able to upgrade it five or ten years down the road.
If they want to provide a standard first-party center panel offering, fine. But computers and phones have a shorter life than do cars, and I don’t want to be locked into ancient or badly-chosen controls and computers. This “car is a big cell phone” thing is just godawful from a consumer standpoint.
That would be amazing. I miss the days of swapping my head for one I want. Blaupunkt MiniDisc here we go!
After having used both Android Auto and Apple Car Play.
I really prefer having a good phone mount, that puts my phone in a glance-able place near the wheel.
That, and quality Bluetooth Audio.
Nobody is mentioning heads-up displays? That’s peak tech. The info is right there without having to move your eyes off the road.
because barely anyone even knows about HUDs, since there are barely any vehicles in the “won’t cost you both kidneys” price segment with HUDs in them…
…but yes, they really should be in every car. it’s just a no-brainer for safety, for the exact reason you said: simply having your speed right in your field of view alone is worth it!
I feel like a HUD is only in expensive cars because it’s a very useful feature people actually want.
How about the unnecessary tech that just shouldn’t be allowed.
At least in the US I feel like technology has leapfrogged regulation.
I think a touchscreen is fine as long as real buttons exist for things a driver might want to manipulate while driving. My Outlander has a fairly large touchscreen that offers media and navigation control, but everything else (climate, drive modes, cruise control/drive assists, windows, locks, etc) is real buttons and dials, and there are also an extra set of basic media controls on physical buttons as well (volume, next/prev track, tuning).
I’m quite happy with that. And the passenger still gets all the touchscreen bells and whistles if they want to explore the map or set up playlists or whatever.
Electronic doors can just fuck right off… Just another thing to break… I’d even go so far to say motorized windows these are great until the motor dies and you can’t shut the window.
I’ve seen waaay more manual handles break than electric windows…but that might be somewhat biased by the sheer age of most of the cars with manual windows…still, rarely ever even heard of an electric one breaking…is that common where you live?
I hate electronic e-brakes. How am I supposed to impress women with handbrake turns without a hand brake?
I just use it for parking. And I like having a physical parking brake. I don’t trust the function of it when it’s just a button.
i absolutely love it when it’s paired with manual transmission and an auto-break function:
when you stop, for example at a red light, and press the break while standing still for a bit, it goes into auto-break mode.
when you then release the clutch while in gear (neutral gets ignored), it automatically releases the hand break, so you can perform a hand break assisted start from standstill without having to touch the actual hand break!
this is excellent when you’ve stopped at an incline, and generally really useful!
but i get the skepticism…i was extremely skeptical at first too, but you get used to it quickly and then it feels weird when it’s missing or turned off in another car… there’s just no reason not to use this feature it’s simply great!
My car has that and a manual handbrake and, yes, it is quite nice.
Based on this MKBHD/Auto Zone video the way to get real buttons and sensible features is to buy a minivan.
Can’t say that I would buy a minivan, because I hate them.
But my car (Hyundai Azera) has all physical AC buttons and it’s great. But it shows the temp on the touchscreen which is unfortunately kinda fundamental to this car from what I’ve found.
One of the reasons I mentioned android auto, I just have a AAwireless adapter right now, had a Motorola M1 which died. But that is basically all I need other than a charger which I have a 100w type c for that.
Sorry kinda rambled for a bit
I’d say that that kind of imposes a size restriction, but honestly, the crossovers that everyone seems to buy are about the same size as those these days anyway.
My current ride is peak technology imho:
Comfortable seats
A suspension that is comfortable over bumps, but not floaty or bouncy and slightly firm under compression.
You’d like the 2020+ Q50 then