C3 Report -- As technology becomes more prominent in cars, consumers are finding it more difficult to understand all these new features. A J.D. Power and Associates report that surveyed 4,200 car buyers earlier this year about the tech features in their new vehicle revealed that at least 20 percent of respondents “never used” more than half of the vehicle technology features mentioned in the survey.

The reported also noted that the first 30 days of ownership are critical, and that car buyers’ “first-time experience with the technology is the make it or break it stage,” according to Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction research at J.D. Power. J.D. Power found that car dealers are partly to blame since new vehicle owners reported that if a feature wasn’t pointed out or if a dealer didn’t explain how it works, they’d probably never use it.

“Automakers need to explain the technology to dealership staff and train them on how to demonstrate it to owners,” Kolodge added. “While dealers are expected to play a key role in explaining the technology to consumers, the onus should be on automakers to design the technology to be intuitive for consumers,” she added.

As someone who tests more than 50 vehicles a year and is intimately familiar with car technology, some features even confound me. And I have to go digging for the owner’s manual to figure out how something works or what it does when it’s not intuitive.

BMW and Volvo vehicles include an electronic in-dash owner’s manual in addition to the paper variety. These allow searching alphabetically or by a section of the car to explain features, and even use animation to show how it works.

Now Hyundai has taken the concept one step further and out of the dashboard with its Virtual Guide app that allows owners to use a smartphone or tablet to get interactive information on vehicle features. User simply point their portable device to a part of the car they want to learn more about, and the app uses 2D and 3D tracking technology to highlight and deliver information on certain features.

The app offers six separate 3D overlay images for areas of a vehicle such as the engine compartment and dashboard. Included in the overlays are 50 individual informational guides, and the app also provides 82 separate how-to videos.

Read the rest here: http://www.cthreereport.com/hyundai-virtual-guide-app-teaches-car-owners-about-their-vehicle/?mc_cid=89873c5dbc&mc_eid=4c2ab888bb