J.D. Power Gives In-Car Voice Control a Thumbs Down

The negative impact that voice controls had on J.D. Power’s most recent Initial Quality Study is significant.

In fact, it’s severe enough that executive director of driver interaction Kristin Kolodge says most manufacturers should just go back to square one rather than piling more features on an already poor foundation.

You might have tried using a voice control system in the past. Maybe it’s part of you cell phone, or perhaps your car if you own a relatively recent model. Whatever the scenario, there’s a good chance that you’ve said one thing to the computer only to have it spell out another. During the more recent Initial Quality Study, 23 percent of the problems new car owners reported with their vehicles had to do with infotainment system malfunctions and within that proportion, 33 percent stemmed from poorly functioning voice recognition systems.

Kolodge told Automotive News that she thinks manufacturers should focus on making navigation, hands-free calling and audio systems function better before diving into options that can complicate things further.

[Source: Automotive News]