Overcoming Usage Hurdles to Increase Tech Adoption in Automotive

Point B welcomes Scotty Reiss, Founder of A Girls Guide to Cars, to talk about tech adoption challenges faced by automakers when introducing new features into their vehicles. What will it take to increase consumer comfort and confidence when using new automotive technologies? How can OEMs increase their ROI on advanced automotive tech? What are some of the things the industry can do to accelerate new feature adoption?

1:10 What is A Girls Guide to Cars?

2:50 Enhancing the user experience

6:50 Empowering the vehicle owner to use new features

8:30 How to engage non-engaged consumers

9:21 Building trust and value through vehicle data

11:15 Purchase decisions and vehicle ownership longevity

Announcer: 

Welcome back to another episode of Point B, a Sibros podcast where we interview industry experts about the latest innovations and trends in automotive technology and the connected vehicle industry. Tune in to learn about topics ranging from the next generation of electric vehicles to advances in connectivity and micro mobility.

Steve Schwinke:

Hi, I'm Steve Schwinke, and welcome to Point B where we discussed the emerging trends in the transportation industry. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about overcoming usage hurdles to increase tech adoption in automotive. And today I'm really excited to speak with Scotty Reiss, the founder of a Girl's Guide to Cars which is the leading automotive site for women with a mission of sharing information about cars on women's terms. Scotty also contributes regular car content to Forbes, Parents, Pure Wow and other magazines. So Scotty, welcome to Point B.

Scotty Reiss: 

Nice to be here. Thank you Steve. Thanks for having me.

Steve Schwinke:

So, let's just start by talking a little bit more about a Girl's Guide to Cars.

Scotty Reiss: 

So, the mission comes out of one of the craziest and most confounding statistics in all of human history and that is that women buyers influence 85% of all car purchases. That's over 500 billion a year in new car sales, and yet they are not engaged as consumers. There's very little content written specifically for women. The language around cars is not about how women think about cars, use cars, and drive cars. The content is not designed to invoke emotional attachment to cars or emotional engagement with their cars. 

If you look at most automotive content, it's either what I think of as hard appliance type information. Here's how to maintain it, here's what you need to know. It's finance focused. It is enthusiast focused. Here's how to rev it, make it go faster. And yet there's almost no consumer voice and no consumer content created around this amazing thing that we own and the amazing experiences it brings us. When it comes to content for women, there's so much content out there in other areas such as beauty and fashion and style and parenting and decor and travel and food and why not cars. So, our mission 10 years ago was to create a conversation that invites women in and gives a woman the confidence to be an engaged car owner by letting her talk about cars in terms that are important to her.

Steve Schwinke:

That emotional attachment, you also talk to your readers about how to enhance that experience or how to be more productive while you're in the vehicle and some of tips they can start thinking about to really maximize the time they spend in a car. Is that correct?

Scotty Reiss: 

There's two sides to that coin really. There's the pre-sale and the post-sale. Our goal is to give women enough information about a car as they're considering a purchase so that they're making the right purchase. I mean, there's nothing worse than plopping down $40,000 or $50,000 on a car and realizing a few weeks to a few months into that ownership that you made the wrong choice. Our goal is to help women be confident, to know that they're buying the right things when they buy a car. What are the packages? What's available? What are the features in a trim level? What are the things that you need, and what are the things that you want? And make sure you get the things that you need. Our goal is to help women make that correct purchase decision. 

The second part of that is once she's made that purchase decision and she's in her car, to help her really get the most out of it. Maybe she didn't get Apple CarPlay. Well, it’s not too late. You can still go get Apple CarPlay. Maybe she opted for something and she didn't really understand how it works. Like break hold. My favorite technology in new cars right now is brake hold. We kind of joke, “it's so hard to hold your foot on the brake.” But when you get it, and you know how to use it, and you use it at every intersection, it changes your life. It takes so much physical stress out of crawling traffic. So, getting our readers up and getting them really humming along with the technology that they have in their cars, and learning how to use all those systems. 

They call it a take rate: the number of consumers who actually use technology that's in their car. The take rate can be really low, something like 10 to 30% of people who get advanced technology in their car actually use it. That means they're paying for something they're not using. It also means there's safety systems, there's connection systems, there's advantages, there's all kinds of great stuff, and you're not even using. And you should use it. It's there. You've paid for it, and it's going to make your life better if you do. So, that's the other part of our goal. 

Then, the last thing I'll add, is sort of a fundamental element under both which is that manufacturers should really support these efforts of education. Not just the sale but also the education. Because once a consumer learns how to use your technology and they're used to where all the buttons are. Once they're used to what the interface looks like, and they're used to how this car feels, guess what they're going to do, if they like it? They're going to come back and buy another one. Or they're going to recommend it to someone else. Or they're going to look at something else for their partner, or their parent, or their child. So, how you build a customer is really about creating this great experience from top to bottom.

Steve Schwinke:

I couldn't agree more. And I have like 30 more questions to ask so I'm going to try to prioritize them. I've been in the auto industry most of my career. One of the first things that we tried to do is demystify the different warning symbols on the vehicle. Like, does this mean a flat tire? What does a check engine light mean? And that was 20 years ago. 

Now you have active safety systems in these vehicles like lane keep assist, right? And forward collision alert. And I don't know if the dealers are spending enough time really educating the customer about some of these very important features. So, how do we solve that problem? How do we really empower people to get to know their vehicle, and understand all these features that are at their disposal but that they don't even know are there.

Scotty Reiss: 

You know, that's such a good question and the answer is something that nobody wants to hear. That is to simplify the language. That's the biggest hurdle that we have towards tech adaptation in cars is everybody calls their system something different. And I appreciate that Honda has Honda sensing and Ford has co-pilot 360. That's actually helpful I think. Within that framework, the language needs to be simple and it needs to be human so that people can understand when they're looking at one car and it has adaptive cruise, and they look at another car and it has adaptive cruise, and they look at a third car and it has adaptive cruise, and they read the one line description and they go,” okay, that does the same thing.” Now I understand what these things are because it's that repetition and it's reinforcing the message. That's what we're doing as an industry. By giving everything the same name and using standardized names we’re reinforcing that message.

Steve Schwinke:

Just go back to 20 years with anti-lock braking systems, right? Now it’s just standard and everyone knows just apply braking pressure and the ABS system will do the pumping of the brake, in simplistic terms, to help you stop in slippery conditions. But there was a lot of education that went into that. But how do you educate people when they can't experience it?

Scotty Reiss: 

So, the question of engagement – how do we engage non-engaged consumers – is a perplexing one, and it's one that is really at the core of what we do. Driving engagement is really critical to overall adaptation of technology across the board, not just women. 35% of our audience is male and they come to us because they're looking for that plain speak. I think the more that people are able to experience cars in a great way, in a more hands-on way, to drive it and to feel it and to hear it, even if it's just a test drive, is so important.

Steve Schwinke:

I always thought that actually having data – you know, our company does that – on how the vehicle is performing and to provide that data, that information, in a consumable way. Even to the owner of the vehicle and building trust through data.

Scotty Reiss: 

Absolutely. So, there's one key component to understanding our cars and I think it doesn't really exist. I don't ever see it anywhere, but you see it in other sectors and that is value. What's the value of your asset? And a car, as long as it's running, is an asset. It might be an asset that depreciates in price, in value, but it is still an asset nonetheless. And you look at your investment accounts and see what that looks like on a regular basis. You look at the value of your house and see what that looks like on a regular basis. Honestly, I think if we looked at cars that way, I think more consumers would be more engaged in using the features that are in that car, maintaining the function, making sure everything's in good working condition, upgrading things on a regular basis, and maybe even upgrading the technology in the car. 

So, as you offer, here's an over the air update for this camera and it's $500 and what's the long-term value of that? I get to use it now and it's still going to be worth 400 of those $500 in five years. That would be an amazing detail that would make me say, “oh so, I get to use this basically for free for the next five years.” If I'm only going to keep the car for five more years, I get to use this for free. That's a pretty good deal.

Steve Schwinke:

It gets me into a little bit of an interesting question as we talk about the software defined vehicle. The idea here is that we're going to be able to update the vehicle with new features. Do you think that's going to keep customers owning their vehicles longer? Or is the purchase decision for a vehicle more focused on the exterior styling, which a software update really can't fix?

Scotty Reiss: 

Interesting question. There's a couple of cars that have come out recently that looking at them from the outside, you would hardly know they've changed. So, Range Rover last year came out with their new flagship SUV and on the outside it looks almost the same as the prior model and that's by design. High-end, super high-end, luxury cars tend to have more subtle changes from one model year to the next. There's nothing like spending a hundred thousand dollars on a car and then having the manufacturer dramatically change the design in a year or two and then all of a sudden your investment looks very outdated. So, they do that with intention so that their customers buy something for a long time. And that's something that we're going to see more and more. 

I've been hearing this for a few years now and thinking about not just the software but also the hardware, the hard details inside a car. Everything from headliners and seats to dashboards and floorboards and all of those things. Manufacturers are looking at how they separate the shell of the car from its interior and how they can retrofit. Because, you think about it, if you were to go and buy a 2015 Toyota Prius, the engine is fine. The thing that's taken the most wear are the seats and the carpets and all those soft things are where you really feel the wear and tear in that car. The engine, the chassis, the suspension, all that's probably fine. That'll probably go for another 15 years. It'll probably go to 300,000 or 400,000 miles with nothing but oil changes. Toyota's kind of famous for that. But then you get in the car and you're like, “oh, there's stains on the seats.” And that's why people buy new cars, because they want that brand new, never been breathed in experience. They want to be able to make it their own, and they want the warranty. 

I think we're going to end up seeing these hybrids where cars are retrofitted with new technology. They're retrofitted with new seats. They're retrofitted with new details and the whole idea of the extended warranty. So, whatever work has been done to the engine and to the motor and that kind of thing, there's a warranty on that so they have some sense of protection in their investment.

Steve Schwinke:

I want to thank you for joining us today. We certainly could spend another few hours talking about these topics, but I'll be sensitive of your time and hope to have you again on the Point B podcast.

Scotty Reiss: 

I would love that. Thanks for having me.

Announcer:

Thank you for tuning in to Point B. Join us next time for more autotech innovations and trends. Point B is brought to you by Sibros.