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10 Takeaways from the 2015 Wards Auto Interiors Conference

Our team attends 40+ automotive events each year to better understand the industry’s trends and issues, as well as to support speakers and conduct media interviews.

Here are some of our takeaways from the recent record-setting Wards Auto Interiors Conference at Detroit’s Cobo Center.

1) Compact utility vehicles (CUVs or “cute utes”) will account for most of the auto industry sales volume growth in the next several years.
2) One convenience feature – remote start – is bucking the trends and is actually declining in new vehicle purchases.
3) Multi-info display screens in new cars will appear in nearly 100 percent of new US passenger vehicles by 2020.
4) Side air bags, although not mandated by NHTSA, are becoming standard equipment on almost all new passenger vehicles to meet more stringent crash test standards.
5) Bluetooth handsfree connectivity with mobile devices is almost ubiquitous on new cars as consumers demand to use their mobile devices in the vehicle.
6) In-vehicle navigation systems are not growing wildly as previously expected, as consumers use their mobile devices for navigation and information.
7) Seating will be a frontier of vehicle differentiation for a long time.
8) The adoption rate of new in-vehicle electronics is occurring at a much more rapid rate than ever before – often within 1 or 2 years of introduction.
9) Semi-autonomous and autonomous driving will dramatically change how the interiors of vehicles are used and designed.
10) What’s driving the adoption of autonomous cars? The fact that 93 percent of accidents – at staggering economic and social costs – are caused by human error.

Thanks for a great conference, Wards Auto! To see intensive coverage of this event, visit: http://wardsauto.com/special-reports/2015/2015-wardsauto-interiors-conference.