Automakers are having an increasingly difficult time convincing their customers that more in-car screens — and the often dodgy software that accompanies them — are a compelling reason to pay a major premium.
Virtually every major car company is now installing increasingly enormous screens into the dashboards of its cars, frequently stretching far beyond the driver’s seat and into the passenger area as well.
But what’s becoming more and more clear is that practically nobody actually wants any of those purported luxuries in their ride. As a new survey by consumer research firm JD Power goes to show, owners of 2026 model-year vehicles are being actively put off by the enormous displays.
Out of the 68,000 owners JD Power surveyed, over a third of them said that they never even tried to use passenger screens, while only six percent said they use them every time they get in the car. Worse yet, in its own investigation, JD Power found that the larger screens were more prone to infotainment system problems as well.
