Report: 64% Of Car Owners Want Connected Activity

Over 40 million U.S. vehicles will be connected to the Internet by the end of 2015, and that number will steadily increase through 2016, according to Parks Associates.  New research from the firm reports 64% of car owners in U.S. broadband households would like built-in support for at least one connected activity in their next car. That demand is in contrast to current connected activities in the car, the majority of which are done on a smartphone without any connection to the car.

“Automakers are keying into this demand by embedding connectivity in new vehicle models. Many are also supporting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto—they do not want these mobile-centric solutions to be differentiators for their competitors,” said Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates. “Many of these solutions will be on display at CES® 2016 in January and Autonomous Car Detroit in March. With the exception of smartphones, no other device touches so many points in a person’s life as the car, from home to work to family and community interaction. Car-generated data will increasingly enrich connected solutions outside the car, while also offering an interaction touch point for those external solutions from within the car.”

The firm released its top-five trends for connected cars for 2016:

• Automakers embrace Apple and Android.
• Connected cars lead the way in crossing boundaries between different Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems.
• Connected technologies enable a shift in vehicle ownership models to one defined more by experience.
• Autonomous driving features will come to market system by system, such as emergency braking services.
• Privacy concerns will remain in the headlines until connectivity becomes indispensable to driving.

Parks Associates research shows 44% of car owners in U.S. broadband households have some kind of advanced connected car feature and 61% of car owners prefer to bundle vehicle data consumption with smartphone data consumption. Nearly 25% of vehicle drivers in U.S. broadband households find the ability for a connected car to automatically set a home “away mode” very appealing, and more than 50% of U.S. broadband households express privacy and safety concerns regarding connected cars.