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Google poised to release Apple CarPlay rival this month

Apple and Google. They're the Michigan and Ohio State of the tech world. They're New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, Real Madrid and Barcelona, or whatever sports-based rivalry you want to cook up. Bottom line, if one company expands into a segment, it's only a matter of time before the other follows suit. And now, that rivalry is about to carry over to your car's dashboard.
Unnamed sources are reporting to Automotive News that Google will unveil its very own challenger to Apple's new CarPlay in-car operating system later this month at the Mountain View, CA company's annual developer conference. The system, allegedly called Google Auto Link, will be the first product to come from the Open Automotive Alliance, a partnership between Google, General Motors, Hyundai, Audi, Honda and hardware manufacturer NVIDIA.
The official announcement is expected to be made on either June 25 or 26, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Expect to hear a lot more about Google Auto Link then.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Car buyers are paying big money for technology they don't use

J.D. Power released the results of its Tech Experience Index study that measures "how much owners like [in-car] technologies and how many problems they experience with them." Among the study's findings, automakers are loading vehicles with more software and digital experiences that owners claim they never learn how to use or decide they don't need. For example, owners report to J.D. Power that gesture controls, like those used by BMW (spinning a finger, for instance, can raise or lower the audio volume), don't improve the overall ownership experience. In fact, gesture controls received the lowest overall satisfaction score in the study for a second consecutive year. In another example, the study found that 61% of owners claim never having used "in-vehicle digital market technology," while 51% of respondents said they didn't need it. Driver/passenger communication technology was another sore point with users, with 52% saying they have never used the technology, and 40% of those saying they have no need for it. (10 Features owners say they want, and 7 they really don't). Conversely, some technologies are well received by owners. For American owners, rear-view cameras and so-called "ground view" cameras were among the top three desired technologies. We assume that "ground view" is a surround-view or 360-degree camera system. The one-pedal driving possible in a number of EV's with adjustable regen braking also scored very high marks and few claimed issues.  While it could be argued that owners who don't want to use a specific piece of technology should just avoid using it, the reality is that all of these unused features add cost to the final price of any vehicle. Considering that the average transaction price of a new vehicle hit a record $45,031 in September of 2021, controlling spiraling costs is a big deal. J.D. Power's survey results found that dealerships can play a big role in explaining new technology to buyers. Scores for some technologies like trailer assistance received higher scores from owners who received training from their dealers. Unfortunately, 71% of owners say they were taught how to use tech from outside sources whereas only 30% learned from a dealer. The results of this study are the product of responses from 110,827 owners of current model-year vehicles that J.D. Power surveyed after 90 days of ownership from February through July 2021.