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A wireless charging pad is now the most sought-after on-board device for others looking to buy a new vehicle. Being able to plug in a USB cable and not drain the battery tops the list of 163 features surveyed through AutoPacific in its annual report. Future demand survey. Nearly 15,000 more people who intend to buy a new car in the next 3 years responded to the survey, with 44% checking the box that allows wireless charging for front passengers.
This knowledge from market research is quite enlightening; When we check new cars, they are increasingly equipped with functions or devices that do not seem necessary: an additional infotainment screen for the passenger, for example, or remote parking via a smartphone application. Sometimes, those functions are even mandatory: several luxury brands do not allow you to order certain cars without a sliding glass roof.
These decisions are justified through product planners based on demand from assembly visitors, so it’s helpful to look at one of the resources driving this.
In second position is a momentary wireless charger for the rear seats and the heated and ventilated seats. These were selected by 37 percent, just ahead of rain sensors (36 percent).
The aforementioned sunroof (or sliding roof) shared the 5th position (35%) with the possibility of buying more than one driver profile. Interestingly, this feature has gained popularity over the years, rising from 19th place among the most requested in 2022 to 10th in 2023. More and more car brands are adopting the Android Automotive operating system, which uses Google accounts to provide a perfect virtual life for the subject. force. in your vehicle; Others build their own answers in their own clouds, but it is increasingly incorporated into each and every new car we test anyway. (It’s probably time to create a Google account to check those features on AAOS cars as well. )
In seventh place on the list is a feature that requires a car to be electrified: it is a 110V (34%) family outlet. Ford’s much-sought-after Maverick hybrid pickup, now also with all-wheel drive, is a good example. Some electric vehicles provide enough power on board to run a small workplace or movie theater.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen rear sunshades on a car (I probably wasn’t looking at them), but a third of respondents were looking for them in their next vehicle. Only 32 percent were interested in the Rear Cross-Traffic Alert with Automatic Emergency. Braking.
I’m surprised this generation of protection hasn’t earned a higher rating – its price tag easily shows up when reversing in a crowded parking lot, when the spaces on either side of your car are taken up by gigantic SUVs and pickup trucks. Maybe the other two thirds just Move back to park? It’s safer and much less difficult to do now that rearview cameras have been a legal requirement for a few years.
Finally, 31% of those surveyed by AutoPacific also said that a built-in air compressor would also be on their list. In particular, hands-free driving technologies such as Super Cruise or Aumost sensilot are among the 10 most sensible.
But perhaps the first position was to detect driving forces that do not respond. AutoPacific says this idea was represented through two other features: a formula that stops the car in its lane and a formula that returns the car to the emergency room in the event a driver is unresponsive. When combined (45%), the demand for those two features exceeded the demand seen in 2023 (43%) by a less well-defined insensitive driving force formula.
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