Car owners want tech they can ignore

A new JD Power study points to a counterintuitive preference among buyers of new vehicles: technology earns the strongest approval when it works in the background. The findings arrive as carmakers continue to add larger displays, software-driven controls and automated functions to their lineups. In the survey, the clearest divide was not between vehicles with technology and those without it, but between features that reduce small chores and those that demand more attention from the people inside the car.

JD Power collected responses from 68,084 people who owned new 2026-model-year vehicles and had lived with them for 90 days. Its study covered 40 technologies across five areas: comfort and convenience, connectivity, driver assistance, electric vehicles and so-called smart-vehicle functions. That breadth matters because the results were not a verdict on a single screen or one automaker’s software. They offer a view of which types of equipment are satisfying owners after the early novelty of a new purchase has worn off.

At the top of the ranking were systems designed to operate with little instruction from the driver. One example is smart ignition, which can start and shut down a vehicle in response to the driver’s actions rather than requiring a conventional step. Automated climate-control systems also performed well. Those systems use artificial intelligence to manage cabin conditions with comfort and energy use in mind. Their shared advantage, according to the findings, is that they handle routine tasks without turning them into another interface to manage.

Smart ignition produced the highest overall satisfaction result in the study. Owners reported 2.4 problems for every 100 vehicles equipped with the feature, a low rate within the survey’s problem measure. JD Power customer-success director Doron Hikry said the implication for manufacturers is to favor tools that simplify the driving experience. In his view, technology is connecting with customers when it addresses a practical need without creating extra work or anxiety for the driver.

The weakest response went to passenger-facing dashboard displays, the additional screens installed in front of a front-seat passenger. Such displays have appeared first in upscale products from Mercedes, BMW and Porsche and have not yet become common in more mainstream models. More than a third of respondents with one said they had never used it. Just 6 percent said it was used on every drive, suggesting that a prominent piece of hardware can still play little role in daily travel.

Hands-free driving systems were another category where the promise of more capability did not automatically translate into greater enthusiasm. JD Power described these Level 2 Plus systems as allowing hands-free operation on specified roads, unlike conventional Level 2 assistance that still requires hands on the steering wheel. Examples include Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise and Mercedes Drive Pilot. The technology is more automated, but its higher degree of autonomy appears to be asking some owners to make a bigger adjustment.

Respondents gave standard Level 2 systems better marks for design and the quality of the user experience than the Level 2 Plus alternatives. The numerical problem rates, however, ran slightly in the other direction: Level 2 systems recorded 14.3 issues per 100 vehicles, compared with 13.8 for Level 2 Plus. Hikry said the contrast may reflect a current comfort level with technology that unmistakably supports a driver, rather than systems that take on a larger share of the driving task.

The individual model awards reinforce the same pattern without making it universal. The Cadillac Escalade and Toyota Tundra were recognized for camera-based mirrors, while other manufacturers received honors for blind-spot cameras, digital keys, one-pedal driving and electric-vehicle charging schedulers. These functions still add software and sensors to a car, but they are intended to remove friction from familiar tasks. The next test for automakers will be whether they can add advanced capabilities while keeping the driving experience clear, predictable and easy to set aside when it is not needed.

Source: The Verge