Car Buyers Increasingly Interested in Self-Driving Features, Study Shows

Self Driving Cars  

Autonomous driving features are increasingly becoming available for new cars in the market. Such capabilities have already become the top priority for car buyers according to a recently published study.

The trend to equip cars with advanced driver assistance systems has been clearly noticeable for a while now, with many automakers and tech companies engaged in a race to be the first to launch a driverless car.

This has helped make consumers more familiar with autonomous driving technology, and contributed to making numerous self-driving features commonplace. With so many autonomous driving features being available lately, they have become the top priority for car buyers nowadays, a recently published study shows.

Self-Driving Capabilities and In-Car Connectivity, Most Important

According to the Car Tech Impact Study conducted by used and new car sales website Autotrader, the vast majority of car shoppers want cars that have autonomous features. Autotrader surveyed 1,012 U.S. vehicle shoppers online in September 2015, to see how much consumer car-buying decisions are influenced by automotive technology.

The most important finding from the study is that 77 percent of respondents said that a car's tech features are more important to them than a car's color, which is 8 percentage points higher than in 2014.

Specifically, the technology features that consumers want in their cars have to do with integration of smart devices and autonomous driving. As many as 70 percent of those surveyed responded that they would be willing to buy a car that is equipped with some of the most common advanced safety features.

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"As consumers hear more about autonomous features like automatic braking and collision avoidance technologies, and they begin to understand how they work or actually experience them, they appreciate what they do and they want them," said Michelle Krebs, Autotrader senior analyst.

Furthermore, 83% of respondents said that safety features are higher on their list of priorities than a car's entertainment and information capabilities, and 47% responded that if they owned a smartwatch, they would synchronize them with their in-car infotainment system.

Preferring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Over Car Makers' Infotainment Systems

When it comes to connectivity, car shoppers don't seem to be too satisfied with the solutions offered by automakers. While infotainment is obviously pretty important to them, many respondents said that they don't like the systems developed by car makers, and would like it better if car companies worked on providing more seamless integration with systems designed by tech companies, such as Google's Android Auto and Apple's CarPlay.

This finding is yet another confirmation to results from several previous studies suggesting that when it comes to infotainment, car shoppers trust tech giants like Google and Apple more than they trust established car manufacturers.

Finally, there are two other interesting findings from this study that confirm just how big of an impact technology has on the car-buying decision making process.

With 46% of respondents saying that they would be willing to spend up to $1,499 to have an interactive dashboard in their cars, and 65% of them answering that they would switch brands if it was necessary to obtain the technology they are interested in, it's clear that technology is one of the key aspects of that process.

By Jordan Perch

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Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV.”