Survey results: what technology could benefit drivers the most?

26 October 2018

Vehicle manufacturers are increasingly adding new technologies to benefit drivers, and recently, events have been held to introduce technology companies into the automotive world. With this in mind, Autovista Group wanted to ask readers of the Daily News Brief what they thought would be the most beneficial current or upcoming technology to be included on vehicles. Our poll gave a number of choices, and introduced some surprising results. Taking first place in our latest poll with 35% of the vote was the ability for vehicles to connect to a cloud-based system, which would allow manufacturers to monitor systems on board a car and notify a driver if something was wrong. This is a system that has already been incorporated on certain vehicles and looks set to be a widely adopted technology. It also gives carmakers the opportunity to steer any repair work into its network of dealerships, although such ideas have met with opposition from the independent aftermarket. Second on the list, with 23% of respondents choosing it as the most beneficial technology, was a full windscreen head-up display. This concept was first suggested by companies in the last decade, and would allow for a satellite navigation route to be mapped out on the actual road ahead, while giving drivers information without the need to look at in-dash systems. Third was self-parking technology, gathering 18% of responses. Already widely adopted by a number of manufacturers, the technology has the ability to ensure cars are well parked, reducing small collisions and improving the number of parking spaces for vehicles, with efficient use of space. There are fears however, that this technology in widespread use will end up removing a key driving skill. Next, with 12% of the vote, was the ability for cars to pay for fuel or electric charging themselves, working as a transmitter for payment details, much like a mobile phone, drivers would be able to move away from the station and the car would send payment details and log them onboard as a receipt. This would allow drivers to fuel quickly and simply, while the technology could also be expanded to pay for parking and even meals through drive-thru restaurants. Last in the poll came Facial recognition and voice integration, each tied on 6%. This is surprising, as a number of carmakers are working on voice integration systems, using Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri smart assistants. This would remove the need for interacting physically with the car and would make certain tasks safer. However, this came bottom of our poll, together with facial recognition, a security systems that would prevent a car from being started if it could not identify the driver