Survey: Consumers are ready for new tech ideas in cars

A new survey about what vehicle consumers want and don't want suggests that the auto industry is lagging consumers when it comes to technology ideas.

The study, undertaken globally by software supplier Cisco Systems, found a surprisingly high degree of consumer comfort with the idea of vehicles that drive themselves -- a technology that so far exists mainly at r&d centers.

It also found that many consumers from the United States to China don't trust automaker or dealership Web sites when it comes to shopping for new cars.

Half of the U.S. respondents in Cisco's survey said they trust third-party vehicle information sites, such as the Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds.com sites, but only one-fourth trust factory or dealership sites.

That feedback may be unsettling to dealers who are devoting more of their media dollars to Web site retailing and online branding.

Almost half of the U.S. consumers said they would be content shopping for a car at a mall kiosk instead of an auto dealership and even making future purchases online, all the way through to the final purchase documentation stage.

Such kiosk retailing is highly restricted under many states' auto franchise laws.

Andreas Mai, Cisco's director of product management for Smart Connected Vehicles, says the survey response simply reveals that many consumers want it nonetheless.

Globally, Cisco found that three-fourths of the owners are happy to have their vehicles share information about their driving habits if it will result in lower insurance costs or reduce vehicle maintenance expenses. Nearly two-thirds said they would even be happy to share data on height, weight, driving habits and entertainment preferences if it improved their driving experience.

Mai reports that 60 percent of the owners globally said they would even be willing to provide biometrics such as fingerprints and DNA samples if the effort translated to improved vehicle security technology.

The survey found that 60 percent of U.S. respondents were comfortable with the idea of traveling in an automated "driverless" vehicle, and 48 percent were comfortable having their children transported in one.