Vehicle Voice Controls Survey: Smartphones Important to Most Drivers

Voice controls are making their way into a lot of vehicles. According to a study from IHS Markit, more than half of new cars will soon include voice recognition features. And there are already plenty of drivers that rely on this technology regularly. So how many consumers are likely to take vehicle voice controls into account when making purchases? We asked 1,000 respondents about their thoughts on voice recognition technology and its use in vehicles.

Vehicle Voice Controls

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 45% of respondents said that they currently own multiple products that have voice control features. And 38% own one such product. More specifically, 26% said they own vehicles with voice control features. The most popular vehicle brands among those respondents are Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Honda, Chevy and Mazda.

User Satisfaction

Of those who own vehicles with voice control features, 42% said that they use those features every day. 28% use them a few times per week. 12% use them a few times a month. 15% use them less often than once per month. And just 2% said they don’t ever use their voice control features. However, most of those respondents also have smartphones with voice control features. In addition, 73% of connected vehicle owners said they’ve been at least somewhat satisfied with their voice control features. 13% said they’ve been unsatisfied. And 13% were neutral or undecided.

Future Consumers

Looking forward, 53% of respondents said that they would be at least somewhat likely to purchase products with voice control features within the next two years. And of those consumers, 39% said they plan on purchasing vehicles with voice control features. Ford, Toyota, Chevy and BMW were the most popular brands mentioned by those respondents. According to Personality Radar, those who own vehicles with voice control features are young, active professionals who have achieved some success and also enjoy trendy new products and services. And those who are likely to buy voice controlled products in the future are affluent, tech savvy consumers who value quality but also pay attention to growing trends.

Key Takeaways

There are still a fair amount of consumers who plan on purchasing vehicles with voice control features going forward. But this sector isn’t looking at quite as much growth as others. Based on the brands listed by consumers, it seems that many of those who plan on considering those features for future purchases are looking for luxury and specific tech features going forward. But those who have the features in their current vehicles just seemed to have those features included as an afterthought. It’s worth noting though, that most who own vehicles with these features also have smartphones with similar features. So automotive companies that offer smartphone connectivity or facilitate the easy use of voice features for those devices while driving could potentially make their offerings stand out. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Chevrolet Introduces MyLink by DrivingtheNortheast under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on April 15 via AYTM’s online survey panel.