• A study by J.D. Power found that many new car owners find some of latest technological features annoying and/or confusing.
Modern vehicles are veritable labs on wheels, packed with technologies, most notably to do with the multimedia systems and drive assist features. For some new owners, this is not a problem, but for others, mastering all that tech can prove a frustrating issue.
That’s what a new study carried out by The J. D. Power Group revealed. The sheer number of features offered with new models is polarizing for owners.
The organization ranks vehicle features on a scale called PP100, the number of problems that can be encountered by 100 vehicles.
In terms of technology, owners of recent vehicles reported an overall average of 43.4 on that PP100 scale for gesture controls, with 21 percent of respondents saying the technology doesn't offer enough functionality. Other technologies, such as hands-free driving aids, received low marks for usefulness. The advanced semi-autonomous driving systems offered by Tesla and General Motors (with its Super Cruise) didn't fare much better.
In any domain, users rarely have much love for complicated systems. For vehicle owners in 2024, navigating through menus can be time-consuming and confusing, and sometimes the systema aren’t necessarily that reliable.
Some driver assistance technologies did receive high marks. Owners generally like functions such as blind spot monitoring, which respond to a specific need while driving, rather than introducing an innovation they don't understand.
In other cases, systems aren’t being deemed complicated, just pointless. One example, passenger display screens described by many respondents as “unnecessary”. Manufacturers keep adding screens with their higher-end models, but that the fact is only about 10 percent of cars on the road at a given time even have a front-seat passenger.
To carry out its study, J.D. Power collected responses from 82,000 owners of 2024 model-year vehicles in the 90 days following their purchase.