Survey finds customers increasingly reliant on CarPlay & Android Auto, big factor in future car purchases

Both Android Auto and CarPlay have been gaining momentum over the last several years, with more carmakers signing on board. Now, a new study shows that users are becoming increasingly reliant on those in-car infotainment systems…

Strategy Analytics surveyed a group of people, finding that most users who own a car with either service use them for essentially all of their tasks. The study found that 34 percent of CarPlay use Apple’s system for “all” of their use of media in-car, while 32 percent use CarPlay for all of their navigation. Meanwhile, 27 percent of users rely on Android Auto for media and 33 percentage for navigation.

The report speculates that users rely on CarPlay or Auto because they has a better and more fluid UIs than typical in-car systems, however some users are turned away because of how difficult it is to navigate between functions or access Siri or Google Assistant.

“These consumers are showing lofty levels of satisfaction and are highly likely to recommend these systems to others. The most impressive finding is how many respondents would now be somewhat or very unlikely to consider a future vehicle without CarPlay or Android Auto. Typically we find that infotainment is far down the list of vehicle purchase priorities, but it appears that mirroring solutions could be changing this.”

Generally speaking, car infotainment systems are slow, ugly, hard to navigate, and don’t receive regular updates (usually paid). With Android Auto or CarPlay, the experience is updated as often as your phone is. The only real exception to this rule is Tesla, where their infotainment systems are updated on a regular basis via OTA software updates. But Tesla doesn’t support either CarPlay or Android Auto.

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