As radio’s role in car entertainment, and its place in the dashboard, will continue to be crucial, according to Xperi Senior VP and General Manager of Connected Car Jeff Jury, he cites research showing how consumers feel about the in-vehicle experience — specifically, a more personalized experience — in Xperi’s blog.
“Consumers are demanding more and more from their in-vehicle entertainment interactions, and much of what they demand is around making it simpler to use and, importantly, easier to discover,” Jury says. “In other words, they want personalization.”
Jury notes that it’s mostly a matter of audio and visual in-car media playing catch-up. “Entertainment personalization already exists in other mediums consumers might stream at home or on their phones, but today they want that, and more, in their vehicles: holistic content discovery across all formats at once — video, audio and even gaming — on a platform that responds to sensed (based on in-vehicle behavior) and historical preferences of the vehicle’s passengers/driver.”
Xperi’s research shows that one in four consumers said personalized recommendations — as in, the vehicle learning their entertainment preferences over time, and pushing content based on that — are an important feature in their next vehicle purchase. For ultra-luxury vehicle buyers, that number moves to 40% — “a good indication that this will grow in importance as car-buyers sift through their vehicle choices,” Jury says.
Other findings show that 41% of car owners dislike having to hop from source to source just to find something good to listen to in the car. And half predict that within the next five years, their car will be able to recognize them when they get in and make entertainment adjustments to suit their preferences.
Indeed, says Jury, “a platform that is able to navigate across all media, tying it together with relevance, is critical to the successful future of in-vehicle entertainment and to its safety, as it can predict what the user wants, and play it without any hands coming off the steering wheel or eyes off the road.”
In the blog, Jury throws up several examples of how in-car media personalization could work, such as recommending a TED talk on the same topic as an NPR story a driver is listening to, continuing a movie a driver started watching at home while the car is parked, or offering music or a trivia game matched up to either the driver’s location, or to a product purchased on the journey.
“These are all scenarios that are entirely within the grasp of automakers in the very near future, and it is happening rapidly,” Jury says. “Responding to what consumers say they want from their in-vehicle entertainment is a no-brainer when it comes to finding new ways to influence vehicle purchase choice, and clearly, personalization is key. It is important to remember that consumers want a ‘better’ entertainment experience, and those car companies that can deliver will win the battle for these customers.”
