The Future of Factory-Installed Navigation
Increased use of cell phones for navigation services would lead many to believe factory-installed, or on-board, navigation is heading down the same path as cassette and CD players. In fact, the death of on-board navigation is far from reality.
Consumer Demand Secures the Near-Term Future of Navigation
According to AutoPacific’s Future Attribute Demand Study, 60% of new vehicle buyers want factory-installed navigation on their next vehicle. While down slightly from previous years, feature demand remains strong and ranks 3rd overall out of over 100 features surveyed.
AutoPacific Future Attribute Demand Study: 2016-2019
Despite lower demand from younger generations, interest in this feature remains strong at greater than 50% from even the youngest buyers. As demand increases with age, expect factory-installed navigation to have a presence for years to come.
AutoPacific 2019 Future Attribute Demand Study
Autonomy Secures the Long-Term Future of On-Board Navigation
Autonomous drive technology continues to generate buzz in the industry, and automakers and suppliers are racing to make it ready for prime time. Among the many components needed to make fully autonomous driving a reality is extremely accurate GPS map data. At current levels of technology, this map data must be on board the vehicle, rather than sourced from the driver’s phone. Future autonomous drive implementations that can autonomously get a vehicle from point A to point B will require on-board GPS maps to determine the best route and drive itself to the destination.