Cars from the Future Part IV: Technology and Infotainment

This week for our look at cars of the future, we examine what people want from their car's technology in the future. In he last five years in-car automotive technology has evolved into much more than just a radio and maybe hands-free calling. Touch screen infotainment systems are becoming the norm, but is that what consumers really want?

Technology

According to the study from the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung GfK, you can separate buyers future desires into three levels of priorities. 

"Engine efficiency remains the number one topic in global media coverage, but connectivity and telematics are closing in as a strong up-and-coming trend" remarked Dr. Rainer Mathes, president of Prime Research.

The most important things that buyers want in their future car are danger recovery/intervention systems and automatic emergency calling. Both of these factors were wanted by 80% or more respondents. 

From this list, it is clear that safety functions are the most important to European consumers. Drivers between 40 and 65, particular wanted forward scanning safety technology at 85%. Even drivers 18-29 wanted it at 76%. 

Drivers appear to want a heads-up display if it displays traffic info

© photo courtesy of: BMW

It does not appear to matter how this technology was implemented either. Seventy-four percent said that car-to-x communication was a good idea. This is technology that allows cars to communicate with the municipal infrastructure to know about conditions ahead like red lights, traffic or stopped cars. 

The second highest priority in a future car was car-to-car communication, traffic jam avoidance, self-parking and for the car to remember a driver's preferred settings. These factors were wanted by between 65% and 80% of drivers.

These systems all make driving easier but not necessarily safer. Men tended to want traffic jam and route guidance help more, but both sexes wanted their car to remember their preferred settings. 

The lowest priority features in future cars are the ability to save a parking space, entertainment, digital assistant, Internet access and mobile office functionality. These features were desired by between 30% and 55% of consumers.

Entertainment and business functions are included in most of the items that drivers want the least. The desire for entertainment functions actually varies widely by country. It is most popular in Spain at 62% but only 28% of Belgians desire in-car entertainment. All other countries are somewhere in between but still well less than Spain. France is at 42%, Germany at 39%, the Netherlands at 37% and Austria at 36%. 

Autopilot

We are on the cusp of the introduction of automotive autopilot. Adaptive cruise control is becoming increasingly normal and so is low-speed automatic braking.  In the survey, 65.6% of drivers said that they were willing to give automotive autopilot a chance: 40% said that want a choice, 14.3% wanted it for sure and 11.3% wanted it only if it saved money on fuel or insurance. The rest of those surveyed either did not trust the technology or enjoyed driving too much.

These drivers could still be swayed though; 33% said that they might consider it if the technology made driving safer.

The Austrians and Spanish are most open to automotive autopilot at 78% and 76% respectively.