[RahulNagaraj]

According to the latest J.D.Power study focussing on in-car technology's user experience, features like front passenger screen and gesture control are useless.

The study included more than 81,000 buyers of MY2024 vehicles, with the stipulation that must have owned the vehicle for at least 90 days. The data collected from the participants were then sorted into three categories: Must-have, nice-to-have & not necessary.



Participants of the survey stated that front passenger displays were simply "not necessary". Reports mentioned how for new car buyers learning to use the central infotainment screen and the digital driver's display itself was difficult enough. It stated that adding another screen offers nothing to the driver. In addition to this, the study also mentioned that only 10% of drivers travel with front passengers on a daily basis, which means no one is using the screen anyway.

Another feature considered an "irritant" by the respondents of the survey was gesture control. As per the results of the study, 21% of new car owners said the tech lacks functionality.

The study though did also mention a few in-car features which received a thumbs-up from car owners. This includes AI-based tech like smart climate control, setting driver preferences and a few safety features blind-spot monitoring and rearview camera - both of which help improve visibility.

Source: JD Power

Link to Team-BHP news

[JunkyardHunter]

So in other words, the sky is blue and the floor is made out of floor?

Consider while driving, making had gestures to turn up the volume and control the A/C ( a job that buttons could do perfectly well), is not only gimmicky, but also dangerous. In unpredictable driving conditions - like India - this is simply not a good idea.

[DRIV3R]

Gesture control is convenient and takes lighter work than fiddling with buttons or touchscreens. Your focus on the road and driving is definitely less distracted while using gesture control to change tracks or bump up/down the volume.

Not an useless feature in my books.

[SmartCat]

Product teams get their ideas from dystopian sci-fi movies:

[vzvish91]

I prefer well placed physical buttons with good tactile feedback over everything else.
IMO, every car should provide atleast 1 customizable button on steering.

Physical buttons placed in awkward or hard to reach places are also useless.
For example: XL6 Alpha+ variant has its seat ventilation buttons placed below the ACC and its not easy to reach. Whereas in Tata Nexon its placed on the seat itself which is more convenient to use.

[xjosephjacob]

No way ! Who wouldn't want to give the co passenger a big screen to mess with instead of talking, or ignoring the scenery around ? Nothing beats flailing our hands like a wizard trying to change the AC temperature (only to end up opening the sunroof in the middle of a rain). Got to love these 'essential' car features.

Exaggeration's apart, today's Car makers are going full 'Apple' on us. They're saying "You didn't know you needed huge screens for your passenger or gesture controls until we added them. Trust us, you totally wanted this all along." And it sells, so why wouldn't they ?

I like it that the Skoda's are making some effort to retain the haptics in cars:
https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/...ning-and-more/

[Foxbat]

I initially thought they were a gimmick but I now use gesture control regularly for changing tracks and volume on my 5 Series. There are many more uses but I'm still to explore those despite having the car for 5+ months

On long drives they also help your hands from getting cramps as you are forced to move the position of your hands.

[AsphaltNomad]

Some features are gimmicky to start with, I consider gesture controls and passenger screen to be amongst the gimmicky ones. I've used neither of these features however human habits have a knack of getting used of things that at some point of time were simply not needed. On a side note, do gesture controls work for the passenger as well or it only recognizes driver's actions?

[kadanaJ]

I've seen a plenty of folks making hand gestures when talking to their co-passengers while driving (let's not get into the safety issues involved with doing that).

Makes me wonder if the gestures get triggered while they're waving their hands about.

[Turbanator]

Muscle vs Gesture memory, in my case, the former takes precedence. It should be the same with the majority as few things work with gestures. So, no wonder why no one find any value in it. BMW started this and even within their different iDrive versions, it keeps on changing.

Passenger display is another waste as most will instead prefer looking at a phone or tablet instead. A complete waste more so when someone has to pay extra like for a Porsche.

[AAD]

Originally Posted by kadanaJ

I've seen a plenty of folks making hand gestures when talking to their co-passengers while driving (let's not get into the safety issues involved with doing that).

Makes me wonder if the gestures get triggered while they're waving their hands about.

It sure does and I say this from my personal experience with my M340i. Mostly it tends to mute the volume as hand gestures used during conversation with co-passenger tend to resemble the gesture to activate Mute

[zohan]

The best part is when the car changes the music track when me and my wife are having a pretty intense discussion with vigorous forearm movements. Have helped in diffusing some situations I must say

[AAD]

Originally Posted by zohan

The best part is when the car changes the music track when me and my wife are having a pretty intense discussion with vigorous forearm movements. Have helped in diffusing some situations I must say

Haha. On a similar note, I keep teasing my wife that the next version of drive 8.5 will also mute the co-passenger with gestures