Drivers are no longer willing to settle for compromised connected car setups, and even a simplified UX may no longer be enough to meet motorists’ expectations. Instead, automated AI experiences are becoming the expectation to streamline drivers’ and eventually riders' journeys, making it easier to manage parking, charging and other driving-related services on the move.
Two-thirds of vehicle owners say they want their in-car infotainment system to manage all available content, regardless of media source, according to the latest Gracenote automotive survey of 4,001 drivers across the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea. More than half of drivers in the US and Germany also reported they would switch from their phones to the native in-dash system - but only if they were confident the experience would be better.
This is a clear message to the industry: mirroring smartphones as a default format is no longer enough. This is now only an entry-level option that meets drivers’ most basic needs.
Generic phone projection setups create fragmented and inconsistent app-by-app experiences that are not optimised for driving. Content is siloed, with distracting interactions and critical driving-related services such as parking, charging and in-car payments sit outside of the vehicle ecosystem, becoming disconnected and not intuitive to the driver.
Drivers expect more
Today’s drivers want their vehicle to act as an intelligent mobility platform - one that anticipates their needs, intelligently presents relevant services when available and enables seamless transactions without switching devices or app experiences. The demand for this goes far beyond entertainment, with 66% of drivers open to exploring new content in the vehicle as long as this is adapted to the needs of the driver and can be operated easily and safely on the move.
‘Invisible utility’ is drivers’ true priority; delivering seamless functionality, where the vehicle acts as an intelligent companion, suggesting more convenient alternatives to park, cheaper EV chargers, and more, all to assist the driver. The future of the connected car experience will revolve around AI and intelligent, automated experiences, which completely remove the typical UX and simply ‘handle’ all mobility needs outside of the core driving experience.
Users are already flagging issues with manual searches for parking and charging. They want the experience to just work, with their car intelligently understanding when the optimum time is to present prompts with minimal distraction and maximum value, using data to seamlessly guide drivers to the most suitable location.
Agentic AI can increasingly help to provide this type of experience, which in the context of connected cars refers to automated in-car systems that can intelligently carry out inter-connected tasks simultaneously for the driver, such as managing requests for navigating to parking or charging locations and completing bookings or payments together. However, it is important to understand that Agentic AI will not work - or potentially even worse, will provide deeply unsatisfying experiences for drivers - if it is built on a foundation of incomplete and highly inaccurate data.
According to Parkopedia’s latest Global Driver Survey:
Conclusion
Drivers want the vehicle itself to handle their extended mobility needs while behind the wheel, creating real commercial opportunities for merchants and OEMs. This is also amplified for EV drivers, with 84% of potential owners saying they would be more likely to buy an EV if it offered integrated ‘Park and Charge’ functionality, with a service handling unified parking and charging needs. Meanwhile, McKinsey reports that a significant proportion of drivers would even switch to another car brand to get a better in-car technology experience, including 55% of Chinese drivers, 39% of German motorists and 38% of American drivers. Infotainment is no longer a feature. It’s a purchase driver.
For OEMs, the opportunity is clear: move beyond media hubs and leverage fully connected service ecosystems to win sales and retain current customers. The brands that integrate navigation, parking, charging and payments into one seamless mobility experience will gain both revenue and loyalty. More than this, Agentic AI is becoming crucial in providing drivers the experience they expect from their car. Intelligent, contextually-aware functionality is what drivers increasingly want, with this set to become a key differentiator between brands.
Agentic AI absolutely has to be built upon complete and accurate data, though. It is not enough for OEMs to add functionality without ensuring extensive and rigorously checked data, as this would result in poor user experiences, failed parking and charging sessions, and significantly damaged brand reputation. This is exacerbated for EVs, where incorrect base data can result in vehicles being stranded with no available charge.
At Parkopedia, we believe best-in-class infotainment doesn’t simply mean adding more apps - it’s about delivering the right service to remove friction and deliver the ultimate convenience behind the wheel. When drivers can discover, navigate, and pay for everything they need directly from the vehicle, safely and intuitively, everyone benefits.
The future of the cockpit isn’t mirrored - it’s integrated, and eventually automated. While there’s still space for intelligent and seamless phone apps as an entry-level service and in certain circumstances, such as where speed to market is the most important metric, only intelligently integrated apps that streamline the driving process and add value will survive.
Meanwhile, embedded systems offer the ultimate in convenience and customer loyalty, providing branded user experiences, recognising drivers’ preferences and responding to the driving scenario, leveraging vehicle sensor and telematics data, all which will be vital in an agentic AI and autonomous future, where data and transactions are inseparably linked with an array of driving-related decisions and vehicle-centric payments to aid the driver or rider, and deliver a heightened mobility experience in a new age of in-car convenience.