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J.D. POWER 2017 TECH CHOICE STUDY


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J.D. POWER 2017 TECH CHOICE STUDY
Results Revealed to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit
By Steve Purdy
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau

“How do we know who to give the finger to?”

This important query came from a curmudgeonly colleague of a certain age during Q&A at the end of a revealing presentation by the smart folks at J.D. Power. They presented the results of their 2017 U.S. Tech Choice Study to the Automotive Press Association last week - the third annual attempt by the J.D. Power analysts to understand what technologies new car buyers want and will pay for, and which ones inspire the most skepticism.

The discussion that triggered the above question from Jim Dunn, dapper veteran automotive spy photographer with a glint of humor, grew out of the topic of self-driving cars and whether they would be programmed to stay within posted speed limits. Think of a busy freeway like the John Lodge in Detroit where a 55 mph speed limit is posted but traffic flows consistently well at an average of 75 until some silly law-abider gets in the middle of it. If the autonomous car is programmed not to go over the speed limit, Jim wanted to know, would it be reasonable to offer up the classic single digit salute as you go around the obstructer.


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Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction & HMI research at J.D. Power, went over the results of the study that covered such topics as entertainment and connectivity, alternative mobility schemes, car sharing, cyber security, collision avoidance and mitigation, energy efficiency, autonomous cars and other innovations just coming to market.

Not surprisingly, older consumers have less trust in, and acceptance of, some of the features that take over control of the vehicle from the driver. But we were surprised to learn that among Generation Z consumers – the youngest that are relevant – substantially more (11%) reported they “definitely would not” trust automated technology like self-driving cars. What’s up with that?

As you might imagine, though, youngsters overall are considerably more accepting of a variety of other technologies like collision protection and driver assistance while the older generations, Boomers and Pre-boomers, would prefer doing without most of them. Generations Y and Z are most comfortable with alternative transportation schemes like car sharing, mobility-on-demand and journey-based ownership.

We found no big surprises in the elements of the study but lots of questions, like the one above, beg to be explored further. Product planners at all the automakers are paying close attention, particularly at how much various consumers are willing to pay for these technologies.

© Steve Purdy, Shunpiker Productions, All Rights Reserved