A new J.D. Power survey released on Wednesday reveals that car consumers put safety tech over entertainment tech. Also, Generation Y was willing to spend the biggest amount on car tech.
The survey was the 2015 U.S. Tech Choice Study by J.D. Power. Features that ranked highest included night vision ability, blind spot detection, and accident prevention.
J.D. Power says that today's technological options in vehicles are making self-driving cars in the future possible. Consumers are interested in vehicles that will take over certain driving functions, such as steering and driving.
Kristin Kolodge, executive director at J.D. Power, said in a statement that technologies for collision protection are especially popular. However, technologies for "energy efficiency" have little interest.
Among the top five technologies in the survey that were not related to protection from car crashes was a camera for the rear-view mirror. Another one was a paint that automatically conceals scratches, according to USA Today.
Generation X and Generation Y were willing to spend more money on car tech, than the Baby Boomers. Gen Y (born from 1977 to 1994) respondents in the survey were willing to spend the most capital on tech for their next vehicle, according to Wards Auto.
Systems that are smartphone-based , such as Google Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were not very popular among the study's respondents. However, they are also new technologies.
Kolodge said that a "unique challenge" for automakers is thus created. That is because consumers are loyal to their smartphones, yet have a "lukewarm" interest in the new smartphone technologies for cars.
J.D. Power conducted the U.S. Tech Choice Study from January to March. It is based on responses from 5,300 people who either purchased or leased a new vehicle during the past five years.