Source: Cheshi Ruijian
At present, multi-screen intelligent cockpit has become the standard configuration of new energy vehicles in China, with a penetration rate higher than the global average, and the overall penetration rate is close to 60%, and it is expected to exceed 70% this year. In terms of increment, the carrying rate of markets below 300,000 yuan will increase significantly in 2023, especially in the market of 100,000-200,000 yuan. This means that following the popularization of the mid-to-high-end market, the intelligent cockpit is now showing a significant downward trend in configuration.
On the one hand, consumers are becoming more and more receptive to smart cockpits, and on the other hand, complaints are also increasing. According to data from Cheqq.com, a leading domestic platform for collecting information on defective automotive products and accepting automotive consumer complaints, there will be 16,979 complaints related to smart cockpits in the industry in 2023, an increase of 41% over 2022. Among them, Chinese brand models have the largest number of smart cockpit complaints, with 8,844 complaints in 2023, joint venture brands have the largest increase, with an increase of 78% in 2023 compared with 2022, and luxury brand smart cockpit complaints are relatively small.
Here are some more key findings:
In 2023, there will be a total of 27,926 problem points in the smart cockpit, with an average of 1.64 bicycle-related complaints.
In 2023, the number of complaints about the intelligent cockpit system will account for 10% of the industry, and 13% of the problem points will be generated, and the number of complaints about the intelligent cockpit system will be 1.38 higher than the industry figure;
In 2023, a total of 597 models were involved in smart cockpit complaints, including 436 fuel vehicles and 161 new energy vehicles.
After systematically combing the complaints of the intelligent cockpit from the four first-level indicators of operation visibility, function implementation, voice interaction and service ecology, as well as 26 second-level indicators and 74 third-level indicators, it is found that the function realization problems account for the largest proportion (41%), followed by the operation visibility (39%), and the service ecology and voice interaction problems account for 18% and 1% respectively.
1. Functional implementation
In the function implementation, mobile phone interconnection accounts for 29%, followed by map navigation and parking images, both accounting for about 20%, and some dimensions are focused. The problem of mobile phone interconnection is mainly "no Carplay, Carlife, Hicar function", and mobile phone Internet App is mainly "remote control function failure".
In the past, the mobile phone interconnection, which was only a transitional function of the cockpit OS system, was now the most complained problem item in the function realization dimension, and most of them were mainly "no interconnection function", which was related to the quality problems encountered by users when using the intelligent cockpit, and the fundamental reason why users needed the mobile phone interconnection function was that the existing OS system encountered quality problems. In addition, mobile app complaints have been on the rise in recent years.
Second, the operation of visibility
Operational visibility is the basic attribute of the intelligent cockpit system, and once there is a problem, it will affect all functions of the intelligent cockpit. In 2023, the operability problems of the central control screen system account for the largest proportion, among which the number of complaints about the black screen crash of the central control screen system and the response speed (stuttering) of the central control screen system far exceeds that of other problem items.
In 2023, the models equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon (formerly) flagship on-board chip 8155 have been deepened, and models of about 100,000 yuan already have this high-computing power chip. However, contrary to the computing power data, many models equipped with top-level chips will still have problems such as black screens, crashes, and freezes.
Another thing that goes against the conventional wisdom is the OS. For example, models equipped with the same system of mobile phones will also have complaints about the basic functions of the intelligent cockpit, software problems, and other functions, and even the in-vehicle system cannot be interconnected with the same brand of mobile phones.
As the most obvious dimension of user perception and the dimension that has the greatest impact on other functions, basic system performance problems such as black screen, crash, and freeze are easier to find, and the complaints are stronger. Judging from the results of the current complaints, even if it is equipped with high-computing chips such as Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 or mature OS systems, it cannot completely avoid similar problems.
In addition to the basic performance of the system, some users also have feedback on the system logic and system ease of use. Since there is a certain "technical threshold" for such problems, most of which are the result of collective discussion by users, OEMs should pay more attention to feedback on system logic and system ease of use.
3. Service ecology
Among the four first-level dimensions, the second-level dimension accounts for the most disparate dimension, and ecological expansion accounts for 94% of all service ecological complaints, of which OTA and application expansion are the main problem items.
OTAs are meant to add new features to the smart cockpit and address known quality issues, but the complaint growth rate is at the highest among all issues in the smart cockpit.
According to the problem form mining, OTA complaints are divided into four categories:
No OTA: The official advertisement vehicle has an OTA function, but the OTA has not been carried out after the purchase of the car;
No OTA: The owner wants OTA functionality, but the vehicle does not support OTA;
Reverse OTA: The vehicle has been reduced in function or performance after the OTA;
Unauthorized OTA: The vehicle has an "abnormal" phenomenon without the owner's consent.
According to user feedback, it can also be found that most of the OTA complaints are accompanied by other smart cockpit quality problems. Users think that OTA is the way to solve the quality problems of the intelligent cockpit, but the reality is that OTA cannot solve all quality problems. In addition, there are also many complaints about application expansion problems in the service ecosystem, and the navigation is mainly not updated, and the root cause is still that users encounter navigation-related quality problems and seek to solve them by updating.
Although there are many complaints related to system updates and navigation updates, it is still the fundamental need of users to solve quality problems.
4. Voice interaction
Voice interaction is the dimension with the least number of complaints among the four first-level dimensions, but after comparing the survey results of Kairui Saichi consulting users and the actual vehicle test results, it is found that the following three points are worth noting:
Problem transfer: Users will attribute the voice interaction problem during driving to driving noise;
Alternatives: After there is a problem with voice interaction, the user will choose to use the screen operation, which will not affect the normal use;
User habits: Users do not rely on voice interaction functions, and some users insist on using traditional screen operations.
As a result, compared with other functions, users have less mining of voice interaction problems, and it is less likely to escalate to complaints after discovering problems. However, this does not mean that the voice interaction of current models meets the needs of users. In the future, once users focus on performance, the number of complaints about voice interaction systems of many brands will increase rapidly.
According to the results of the actual car evaluation, the voice interaction performance of various models in the industry is currently polarized. A model that performs well is both feature-rich and stable and easy to use, while conversely, performs poorly in both aspects. According to the results of the 2023 China Automotive Product Quality Performance Research by Kairui Saichi Consulting, the average number of voice interaction quality problems per vehicle in the whole industry is 0.22, but the number of independent fuel models is as high as 1.91.
5. Summary
In general, compared with traditional components such as engines, gearboxes, and chassis, the quality of intelligent cockpits presents three characteristics:
Easy to find: The "distance" with the user is closer, the problem is easy to be perceived, the problem recurrence probability is large, and the problem covers a wide range of scenarios;
Easy comparison: Users regard the smart cockpit as a digital product, and compare it with a mobile phone, which is more likely to expose quality problems;
Easy to describe: The problem threshold is low, and users can describe the problem more intuitively and record photos or videos of the problem.
In the classification of intelligent cockpit complaints, the proportion of perception problems is higher than that of other components, and users are better at expressing subjective opinions and needs.
In terms of user satisfaction, according to the 2023 China Automotive Product Quality Performance Research Data of Kairui Saichi Consulting, the satisfaction of users in the whole industry for the intelligent cockpit is only 6.60, ranking fifth from the bottom of all 37 performances. At the same time, users in the whole industry also pay low attention to the pre-sales of smart cockpits, accounting for only 64%, ranking third from the bottom, only higher than lighting and air conditioning.
Through the comparison of the attention and satisfaction of the intelligent cockpit of each model, it is found that there is a positive trend between the two, that is, the models with high satisfaction with the intelligent cockpit have a high degree of attention, and the models with low satisfaction have a low degree of attention. The product quality of the intelligent cockpit and the user's pre-sales attention are complementary to each other. Good product quality and high user satisfaction will drive potential users to pay more attention to the intelligent cockpit. Improving product quality is the foundation for promoting the progress of intelligent cockpits in the industry.
At the same time, through the comparison of the attention and satisfaction of the intelligent cockpit of each model, it can also be found that there is a positive trend between the two, that is, the models with high satisfaction with the intelligent cockpit have a high degree of attention, and the models with low satisfaction have a low degree of attention. Good product quality and high user satisfaction will drive potential users to pay more attention to the intelligent cockpit. On the contrary, users will retreat to the next best thing, choose mobile phone interconnection or even directly use mobile phone navigation, and pay less and less attention to the smart cockpit. Improving product quality is the foundation for promoting the progress of intelligent cockpits in the industry.
In addition, the high tolerance of users also gives OEMs time to solve and improve the quality problems of intelligent cockpits. During this period, OEMs should make more use of user voices to explore the product quality outbreak scenarios of intelligent cockpits, and improve users' needs for convenient, professional, safe and quality of basic functions of intelligent cockpits.