Pandemic Increases Importance of Personal Vehicle and In-Dash Infotainment - Seite 2

Radio Indispensable, Pandemic Influences Content

Nine out of ten vehicle owners say it is important to have radio in their dashboard, with over half wanting it as the anchor of their media diet. Other key findings include that dashboard entertainment/information has become more important in the pandemic because of the ability to listen to music as an anxiety reliever, given all the bad news and stress in the world (especially true for Gen Z) and the ability to access local news/pandemic bulletins. More than half say the kind of content they listen to in their vehicle has changed versus pre-pandemic.

“It comes as no surprise that the majority of car owners say radio is indispensable to the vehicle dashboard. At Xperi, we are true believers in the power of free broadcast radio,” said Jeff Jury GM, Connected Car, Xperi. “Given how highly Millennials value today’s radio, its relevance to the vehicle dashboard is confirmed for decades to come. This study also reinforces that car owners are looking for a dashboard that offers infotainment content that is personalized, discoverable, and textually and visually-rich.”

Personalization Key

Four in five vehicle owners say it is important for their in-vehicle dashboard entertainment to be personalized to their particular tastes and interests and this is increasingly relevant to young consumers, Gen Z (91 percent) and Millennials (89 percent). Top reasons for the importance of personalization include not having to fiddle with controls while driving, too much content clutter and being used to having relevant content pushed to them on other digital platforms.

Cost-free, Worry-free, Discoverable and Continuous

The survey also weighs in on the importance of free content, without the worry of upgrades and connection. Four in five vehicle owners say no-cost listening choices are important and relate to the sentiment that, with so much great broadcast radio and free, discoverable content available, it makes no sense to pay.

Being able to continue listening to a radio station digitally when the vehicle has gone out of broadcast range is also important. And, compared to their older counterparts, Millennials and Gen Z place greater importance than older demographics on having content relevant to what they listen to “discovered” for them, and having rich visual/textual information about the artist and song they are listening to.