{"id":2120800,"date":"2026-08-31T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2120800"},"modified":"2026-08-31T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:25:00","slug":"passenger-screens-are-causing-drivers-tech-headaches-as-over-a-third-of-buyers-never-bother-to-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2120800","title":{"rendered":"Passenger Screens Are Causing Drivers Tech Headaches As Over A Third Of Buyers Never Bother To Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"columns-holder\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-widget\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-heading\">Add Jalopnik on Google:<\/div>\n<div class=\"add-on-google-buttons-row\">\n                        <button type=\"button\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"preferred-source\">Preferred Source<\/button><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMXBneTRxX2Zw\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"google-discover\">Google Discover<\/a>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">When I&#8217;m riding shotgun in a luxury car, there are few things I like more than a dedicated passenger screen. Yes, I&#8217;m aware the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2244578\/ancient-infotainment-system-options\/\" target=\"_blank\">main infotainment screen<\/a> is a few inches to the left, but they allow me (or whoever is sitting in the passenger seat) to control vehicle functions while looking straight ahead \u2014 beating my greatest nemesis: motion sickness. They also enable the center infotainment screen to be angled more toward the driver. To me, that&#8217;s a win-win, but for a great many vehicle owners, the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s not just luxury cars, either. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/whats-the-point-of-passenger-screens-1851638518\/\" target=\"_blank\">Passenger screens<\/a> are becoming increasingly common in regular-degular vehicles, as well, but even as their ubiquity rises, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jdpower.com\/business\/press-releases\/2026-u-s-tech-experience-index-txi-study\/\" target=\"_blank\">a new study from JD Power<\/a> that surveyed 68,084 2026 model-year vehicle owners suggests that a chunk of buyers aren&#8217;t finding these screens to be nearly as popular or useful as automakers were hoping for. Apparently, 35% of folks who have a vehicle with a passenger screen say they&#8217;ve never even tried to use it, and just 6% say they use the screen every time they drive. I suppose this plays into the idea that people are actively afraid of their cars and the features they have. This is according to the analytics company&#8217;s Tech Experience Index.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Aside from that general fear, there are also functional issues buyers have had to contend with. JD Power&#8217;s survey found that even when owners do use their passenger screen (I assume they&#8217;re not the ones using it; their passengers are), they often run into issues. For every 100 vehicles with a passenger screen, there are 21.3 problems tied to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2243251\/features-still-scream-luxury-reader-answers\/\" target=\"_blank\">passenger screen<\/a>, which seems less than ideal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s not that buyers don&#8217;t want technology in their cars. At least according to this study, they do. Hell, they even like most of it. We just might be reaching a bit of an inflection point when it comes to screens in cars. People really dig things like keyless ignition that can turn the car on and off without pressing a button, as well as smart climate control, but the screens are just not something they&#8217;re jiving with.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Of course, this isn&#8217;t really something automakers want to hear right now \u2014 especially companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which have recently introduced their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/bmw-s-new-infotainment-system-is-a-boomer-s-nightmare-1851735148\/\" target=\"_blank\">Neue Klasse Panoramic iDrive<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/1959343\/new-mercedes-benz-glc-ev-hyperscreen-interior-design\/\" target=\"_blank\">MBUX Hyperscreens<\/a>, respectively. Both systems have massive screens built in. That being said, we have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/1995818\/car-brands-bringing-back-physical-buttons\/\" target=\"_blank\">seen some buttons returning to vehicle interiors<\/a>, working in tandem with these screens, though it might not be enough.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;The technology customers value most is often the technology they barely notice because it simply works,&#8221; Doron Hikry, Director of Customer Success at JD Power, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Maybe I&#8217;ve just drunk the Kool-Aid of Big Passenger Screen, but I still think these things are great. While it would undoubtedly be nice to return to the days of hard buttons and switches, that&#8217;s just not the world we live in. Cars today are far too complex and carry with them too many features to make dedicated buttons a feasible way to operate them. Screens aren&#8217;t going anywhere, whether you like it or not, but I&#8217;m sure there is a way to better integrate the experience and make them just a bit less glitchy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Add Jalopnik on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover When I&#8217;m riding shotgun in a luxury car, there are few things I like more than a dedicated passenger screen. Yes, I&#8217;m aware the main infotainment screen is a few inches to the left, but they allow me (or whoever is sitting in the passenger seat) to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,247],"class_list":["post-2120800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-jalopnik-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2120800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2120800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2120800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2120800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}