Drivers pass on lots of car tech

Many of the features automakers are including are going unused, a survey finds.

Drivers are shunning much of the technology automakers are stuffing into cars.

It amounts to a waste of billions of dollars in investment that’s ultimately paid for by consumers, according to automotive research firm J.D. Power.

In its 2015 Driver Interactive Vehicle Experience Report — a study of how newcar owners use their vehicles within the first 90 days after a purchase — J.D. Power found that at least 20% never used 16 of the 33 technology features measured.

For example, 43% ignored the voice link to a human concierge for directions or restaurant reservations. Additionally, 38% never took advantage of a car’s ability to use a wireless link to create an Internet hot spot and 35% never tried the automatic parking system.

A third of them didn’t use a heads-up display, in which speed and other information is projected onto the windshield, and 32% ignored apps embedded in the infotainment system such as Yelp or Pandora.

More than half expressed reluctance to use a vehicle’s voice texting and voice recognition systems.

“In many cases, owners simply prefer to use their smartphone or tablet because it meets their needs; they’re familiar with the device and it’s accurate,” said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction research at J.D. Power. “Invehicle connectivity technology that’s not used results in millions of dollars of lost value for both consumers and the manufacturers.”

Kolodge noted that the industry expects to sell about 14 million vehicles to consumers this year — and roughly 3 million more will go to government and commercial users not included in the study. Considering only the retail sales, at least 2.8 million consumers are paying for technology they are not using.

Consumers would like to dump some of this technology when they next purchase a car, the study found.

The most frequently cited reasons for not wanting a specific technology feature in their next purchase are because they “did not find it useful” in their current vehicle and the technology “came as part of a package on my current vehicle and I did not want it.”

Moreover, new-car owners who reported that their dealer did not explain the feature have a higher likelihood of never using the technology. In some instances, the buyers didn’t even know they had the technology in their new vehicle.

J.D. Power surveyed 4,200 vehicle owners and lessees after 90 days of ownership from April through June of this year.

Kolodge noted that the technologies owners most often want are those that enhance the driving experience and safety, which are only available as a built-in feature rather than via an external device. This included features such as vehicle health diagnostics and blind-spot warning and detection.

“For the next few years, consumers are going to get a fire hose of new technology that they have never seen before,” said John Hanson, spokesman for Toyota.

Much of the technology will connect the car to other cars and networks and some of it will be high-level driver assistance technologies such as forward collision warnings that trigger automatic braking, he said.