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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I’m planning on having a “headless head unit” built for my next car so I can basically live off an AUX port wired to speakers throughout the car, I hate wireless that much.
Physical buttons please and thank you
I just found out that the Tesla 2024 Model 3 has a gear selector that’s incorporated into the touchscreen… I saw it (someone I know bought one) and I cannot understand.
I drove it, it’s as bad as it sounds. They got rid of the stalks on the sides of the steering column too, the turn signals are buttons on the front of the steering wheel, which is even worse imo.
“You know what would be fun, fucking with 20 years of muscle memory tied to my ability to drive safely” -no one
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no oneElon
All 4runners still reigning supreme with chonky ass thicc boi buttons and dials. Give me Android auto capabilities on a small screen, backup camera, and rear parking sensors. That’s it.
My wife drives a 2023 loaded Kia Sportage. The thing is basically a smartphone on wheels. Giant dash screen with all the car controls buried in it, touch screen climate controls that double as touch screen audio/volume controls. If I want to change the AC temp I have to take my eyes off the road for a few seconds. Also a subscription service if you want to use any of the actual useful functions like remote start, remote climate control, remote door lock/unlock, sentry mode, etc. I hate where cars are at today.
I was helping my mom shop for a new car, and we discovered she needed the requirement of “physical AC controls”.
Everything is all on the touch screen.
As a driver, all I really want is good music, good navigation, and easy access to all my controls.
I don’t want to have to go into submenus to change my temp settings, or open the trunk.
IMO, a vehicle should be a fairly simple tool to operate. All of the nuances with driving should be how you use those controls to get to where you’re going. Even with the (frankly, impressive) self driving tech we currently have, I still don’t think it’s ready to replace a driver at the wheel; bluntly, that’s the only tech I really want in a car.
Automatic options for fairly standard functions, such as turning on your headlights at night, shutting off the highbeams when there’s oncoming vehicles, and even automatic windshield wipers, can make things easier. Which I appreciate. I can override all of these systems, which is good. The advent of climate controls rather than “how hot” and “how cold” you want your blower to be and at what speed, is also nice. Even driving assist, like automatic lane keeping and adaptive cruise control is a nice-to-have. But these are all augmentations of systems and they’re pretty transparent to the driver. If you don’t want to use them, you can easily ignore or override the systems and do it yourself.
What I don’t appreciate is all the infotainment garbage. I can literally play games on the touch screen of my partners 2019 accord. I tried it out and bluntly, it’s not comfortable, it only works when the car isn’t moving, and I’m not going to sit in my car to play games. That’s dumb. I kind of get it for EVs for when they’re charging, but honestly, I can have a better experience on my phone/tablet.
I don’t need weather, I don’t need a touch screen, and I don’t need whatever garbage GPS system you were paid to sell with the car.
Give me Android auto/some carplay, with maybe FM as a backup in case of emergency, and I’m good. My phone already has data, my car doesn’t need LTE. Give me buttons to press for all climate and driving functions and I’m a happy person.
I don’t want to navigate some menu to try to turn on my defogger. Fuck off.
Driving tech should be transparent to anyone who doesn’t give a shit, and just wants to drive down the road.
My phone already has data, my car doesn’t need LTE.
Actually that’s one arena of technology that should have taken a different course. Auto manufacturers should have an upgradable modem module that you can swap out with the latest “G” (as the modules are already self-contained) and the car should have antennae that cover as wide swath of the RF spectrum as possible. Cars are Faraday Cages. Cellular reception on a tiny little rectangle phone in your center console won’t ever be as good as a dedicated modem and antenna. Also, the car’s dedicated modem can transmit at higher power levels (up to 3 watts, vs a couple hundred milliwatts) so you’ll get cellular reception in places your phone will just say no service. It also moves the higher-powered RF outside the car with the Faraday Cage shielding the human, for those that are concerned about such things. (Also, also, phones have to limit their total RF output to the sum of the current transmission rate of the radios, so when you’re doing Bluetooth + cellular, the cellular modem won’t be allowed to transmit at its maximum power level, further reducing range.)
Bonus points, there has literally been a Bluetooth SIM profile in existence for decades, although very few car modem have ever been designed to support it. This means, if this was implemented as standard, when the phone pairs with the car, the car inherits the cellular account of the phone while the car is turned on. So you’re not paying for two cell bills, you get better reception, same phone number, better data speeds, better voice calling, etc. The phone also has supremely better battery life because it doesn’t have to be constantly screaming at cell towers.
Of course, automakers and cell carriers would never implement these things that already exist because they’d eat into their precious profit margins.
Personally, I don’t want my car to have any connectivity options because car makers have already proven they are just going to abuse it to sell your data.
Car tech peaked in 2018. Everything since then has been a down grade in my opinion
I want fucking buttons!
Data privacy is a concern of mine.
Car makers see technology as a data mining opportunity to force us to use their shitty infotainment systems to track our every move and interest, and then milk us with subscriptions.
Peak technology enjoyment in a car includes
- multiple zone ac
- heated/ventilated seats
- real buttons and not FUCKING CAPACITIVE TOUCH
- android auto/apple car play
Nobody is mentioning heads-up displays? That’s peak tech. The info is right there without having to move your eyes off the road.
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.
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?
lane keeping and radar cruise control are pretty great driving aids, I gotta admit.
How about the unnecessary tech that just shouldn’t be allowed.
- Doors that are not primarily manual to open or unlock.
- Touchscreen of any type. I’m okay with capacitive touch buttons but they should be in a fixed location and physically distinguishable from other surfaces.
- Electronic e-brake
- Replacement of any of the main driving functions with anything that is not physical and tactile (turn signals, windshield wipers, headlights)
At least in the US I feel like technology has leapfrogged regulation.
Electronic e-brake
I hate electronic e-brakes. How am I supposed to impress women with handbrake turns without a hand brake?
Yeah, it’s why I’m considering Mazda for my next vehicle. Granted, my 2010 Civic needs to get closer to “death” (about 100K more miles or so).
Physical controls were a primary reason I went with a 2023 Mazda 3. I didn’t want a touch screen as the primary input device. The rotary dials for menus and volume have been great. I find the screen is just in a better position too; it doesn’t need to be within reach so it just blends into the dash better and is at an easier angle to see.
No one hates the tech in their cars, ABS is universally loved. What people hate is tech working not in tandem but against them
I’d argue that touchscreens in cars is pretty dumb for the most part. Detents and buttons are incredibly effective physical feedback systems that are being thrown away for them, sadly.
I still can’t believe they’re legal. Interacting with your phone while driving is against the law but for some reason when it’s a part of your dashboard it’s a-ok?
That’s because they’re putting dumb shit in. We have the technology for example to -
Have high beams shine around other cars. (Regulators actually fucked this up)
Put all the speed and other needed information on the windshield.
Put a thermal image on the windshield so you can see the road as if it were daylight.
Use “fly by wire” controls instead of the same control scheme as a Model T.
And quite a bit more. But no instead we have the world’s worst mix of UI/UX and software in an attempt to save money and sell data.
I’ve driven a car that used a projected HUD like that before and hated every second. It is horribly distracting and unnecessary. The traditional dash is just better and has remained unchanged for so long for good reasons.
Okay. And I’ve driven stuff with projected HUD and loved not having to look away from the road. The best part about tech like that is you can turn it off. It takes literal pennies to implement.
Have high beams shine around other cars.
… while pedestrians and cyclists get blinded.
Thermal imaging would mean we could reduce lights to just markers. But also those high beam systems should be able to recognize cyclists and sidewalks. It’s not perfect but it’s better than what we have now.
Fly by wire would be a terrible design for a car, I’ve seen people driving on space saver tires or with taped up windows for months. If people already just ignore warning lights until something physically stops them from driving then at least having a physical steering column means there’s still control after the power steering fails so that they don’t go straight on into oncoming traffic.
On your other point about still using the same control systems as a model T, modern cars don’t. Hydraulic steering came around in the 50s and almost all modern cars have electric power steering, the model T had completely unassisted rack and pinion steering. I can’t find any definite answer on what the last car without any hydraulic steering was but I’d definitely like to find out if anyone knows.
Yeah FBW is cool for like big super complex systems that are maintained and inspected rigorously.
Not small sporadically maintained, almost never inspected vehicles with two pedals and a two dimensional control wheel.
Don’t look at cruise control systems then.
I was referring to the control scheme. Wheel, pedals, etc…
And we already digitally control speed. Direction can’t be that hard.
Even then we still don’t use the same control scheme as the model T then, the model T had a separate forward and reverse pedal and no clutch.
But fly by wire isn’t a matter of difficulty it’s a matter of redundancy and safety, like I pointed out before, people aren’t going to maintain the system properly and if there isn’t a back up it’s going to lead to accidents.
Okay fine, the model T was a bad example. But we have had this control scheme for a long long time.
And we already do fly by wire for acceleration. Why is turning suddenly so different?
Spyware needs to go, asking with selling of driver’s data.
It will get worse.
