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A study found 25.9 percent of car owners don’t use adaptive cruise control.
Many car owners also don’t like using augmented reality head-up displays.
Just 27.3 percent of car owners regularly change their car’s driving mode.
New cars come loaded with convenience, comfort, and safety technology, but a new study suggests a good chunk of these features never get touched. The nationally representative survey, carried out by Censuswide, put questions to 1,350 UK motorists during summer 2026, and the answers point to a lot of expensive hardware sitting idle.
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Read: 19,000 Americans Named Their Most-Wanted Car Feature, And It Isn’t High-Tech
Commissioned by the large British dealership group Dick Lovett , the research found that 25.9 percent of owners whose cars have adaptive cruise control never switch it on. Another 7 percent say they wouldn’t know how to work it if they wanted to.
Driver Aids Owners Switch Off
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The pattern repeats across the driver-assistance suite. Nearly 18 percent steer clear of lane-keeping assist, and 21.3 percent disable automatic emergency braking outright, with many complaining the systems are too aggressive and cause more trouble than they prevent. Voice assistants go unused by 17.8 percent. Augmented reality head-up displays fare no better: 17.1 percent of drivers who have one refuse to turn it on, and a further 7 percent don’t know how to operate it.
There are several other in-car features that don’t get much love . Of those surveyed who own vehicles with massaging seats, just 22 percent say they use them regularly. Additionally, only 22.4 percent use AR head-up displays when fitted, and only 24.5 percent use remote start functions. Some of these features are relatively uncommon to begin with. Massaging seats are absent from 67.3 percent of respondents’ cars, while 62 percent don’t have remote start, 60.5 percent lack an AR head-up display, and 57.3 percent go without app-controlled climate settings.
What Features Do Car Owners Use?
On the flip side, more basic and easier-to-operate features are used more regularly. For example, the study found 58.3 percent of buyers say they couldn’t live without Bluetooth connectivity. In addition, 45.7 percent of respondents say they regularly use reversing cameras, 44.5 percent say they frequently use a car’s satellite navigation, and 41 percent use heated windshields.
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One interesting finding relates to driving modes. While almost all new cars have them, just 27.3 percent of respondents say they regularly use their vehicle’s driving mode. Those aged 25 to 34 were more likely to use them, at 38.3 percent.
Age Decides Which Tech Gets Touched
How old you are shapes what you actually use. Bluetooth is a habit for 68.5 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds and 68.8 percent of the 35-to-44 bracket, against 49.7 percent of drivers 55 and over. Wireless charging splits the field even more sharply, at 44.4 percent among 35- to 44-year-olds versus 20.7 percent of the over-55s. Remote start drops from more than a quarter of motorists under 35 to 5.1 percent past 55.
Heated windshields buck that pattern. Usage rises from 27.2 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds to almost 45 percent for drivers aged 45 to 54.
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Basically, it seems that many consumers are paying for equipment nobody showed them how to work, and a decent share of them have decided it isn’t worth the trouble. The driver aids will stay regardless, since regulators mandate much of that hardware. The comfort kit, though, is fair game. If massaging seats and AR head-up displays go unused by most of the people who paid for them, there’s an obvious lever to pull on price.
Dick Lovett motoring expert Alex Lee thinks a bit of familiarity would pay off: “As cars become increasingly sophisticated, taking time to learn what your vehicle can do isn’t just about getting value for money, it could also help improve safety, comfort and the overall driving experience.”
UK’s 10 Favorite Car Technologies
Bluetooth connectivity (58.3%)
Reverse camera (45.7%)
Built-in navigation (44.5%)
Heated windscreen (41%)
Heated seats (31.9%)
Wireless phone charging (31.9%)
Blind spot monitoring (29.4%)
360° camera (27.8%)
Driving modes (27.3%)
Adaptive cruise control (26.9%)
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