What do people look for when they’re shopping for a new car? Safety, fuel efficiency and … voice assistants? According to a recent study conducted by J.D. Power, car buyers are taking an increased interest in having the virtual assistant they are familiar with using in their home and on their phone also present while they are on the road.
According to J.D. Power, voice assistants remain one of the top complaints for drivers. In-car systems seem to lack support for popular voice assistants, and the systems that do offer access to the A.I. have limited skills. That’s a disappointment for many drivers who would love to be able to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Being able to do things like change the song, take a call, or dictate a text through a voice assistant should ideally make driving much safer.
There is already plenty of demand for voice assistants in cars, and most people want to interact with the assistant that they are already accustomed to. According to J.D. Power, 76 percent of respondents said they want the same brand of voice assistant in their next vehicle as they have in their home. That should allow preferences, settings, and commands to be universal no matter if you’re sitting in the living room or heading out on the road.
The presence of a voice assistant could even help influence a person’s next purchase. Nearly six in 10 respondents said they are more likely to buy a car from a certain company if the vehicle has the same voice service that they use at home. Those figures increased significantly for Generation Y and Generation Z respondents, which saw nearly 80 percent willing to give preference to a car with their favorite voice assistant.
Those findings from J.D. Power should be more than enough motivation for car manufacturers to integrate voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri into their systems at every opportunity. The companies behind those voice assistants already have offerings to try to get services into cars, including Amazon’s Echo Auto, Google’s Android Auto, and Apple’s CarPlay.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.