JD Power's 2026 Tech Experience Index surveyed more than 68,000 owners of new 2026 model-year vehicles after 90 days of ownership, covering 40 technologies across convenience, connectivity, driver assistance, EVs, and smart features.
The Numbers
2.4 problems per 100 vehicles — smart ignition's score, the highest satisfaction in the entire study
35% of owners with a passenger screen have never used it once
6% use their passenger screen every single drive
Conventional hands-on Level 2 driver assistance outscored hands-free Level 2+ systems on both execution and overall experience
The technology customers value most is often the technology they barely notice because it simply works.
Why More Tech Isn't Automatically Better Tech
Ben's first read landed on the obvious surface conclusion: fewer screens, more buttons. Kyle pushed the framing somewhere more useful for anyone running a business, not just a product team.
The more you promise in value from a brand, the higher the level of expectation, and the higher the risk of aversion if those expectations aren't perfectly met. That's why the Carvana value proposition is so clean. It doesn't have a laundry list of things it's promising.
Ben's summary of that idea was sharper than the source material itself: every added promise becomes another way to disappoint someone.
You've got a portfolio of promise risk. Any one of those can tank the entire portfolio.
The Level 2 vs. Level 2+ Finding Says the Same Thing Differently
Hands-free driver assistance recorded fewer reported problems than conventional hands-on systems, and owners still preferred the simpler version. Kyle's own habit backs it up: he turns off radar cruise control regularly because he finds it annoying, despite it technically being the more advanced feature. More capability doesn't automatically translate into more trust, especially when the added capability removes a layer of control the driver actually wanted to keep.
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A shorter list of promises, kept perfectly, beats a longer list that occasionally lets someone down.
The lesson here isn't really about screens or driver-assist levels. It's a warning for any dealership stacking service packages, app features, or "value adds" onto a customer relationship: every promise added is a promise that now has to be kept, and the data says customers notice the misses far more than they appreciate the extras.
