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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 23 February 2017

Study: Technology trouble dents car and truck reliability

TOM KRISHER tems that link phones and
AP Auto Writer handle voice commands.
DETROIT (AP) — Technol- J.D. Power said the audio-
ogy glitches including Blue- communication-entertain-
tooth phone pairing and ment-navigation category
misunderstood voice com- caused the most problems
mands put a dent in car in the survey, accounting
and truck reliability scores for 22 percent of com-
in a major survey of auto- plaints. That’s up from 20
mobile owners. percent last year.
Lexus and Porsche tied The survey didn’t include
for the top spot, leading any vehicles with Apple
all brands for dependabil- CarPlay and Android Auto,
ity in the survey released which automakers have
Wednesday by the con- recently allowed into their
sulting firm J.D. Power. in-dash systems. Both mim-
But electronic problems ic the user’s phone on the
caused trouble across the car touch screen. Sargent
industry, pushing the aver- said he expects them to
age up to 156 problems cause more problems at
per 100 vehicles. That’s first as drivers become con-
four problems higher than In this Jan. 14, 2014 file photo, the Lexus RC F Coupe is unveiled at the at the North American In- fused about whether they
last year and the highest ternational Auto Show in Detroit. are using the phone system
number since J.D. Power Associated Press or the car’s electronics.
changed scoring methods Lexus and Porsche tied as
in 2015. on the engine, automakers brands, five are considered are less likely to buy a fu- the top brands with 110
Toyota, Buick and Mer- aren’t fully charging batter- mainstream. Besides Toyo- ture vehicle from the same problems per 100 vehicles.
cedes-Benz rounded out ies in some cases, Sargent ta and Buick, Hyundai (6th), brand. “We find buyers are Toyota moved up one po-
the top five most depend- said. “It seems like that Chevrolet (8th) and Honda increasingly avoiding mod- sition to third with 123 prob-
able brands, while Fiat, maybe isn’t going as well (9th) made the top 10. Lux- els with poor reputations for lems, followed by Buick at
Jeep and Infiniti were the as they would like,” he said. ury brands BMW (7th) and dependability, so manu- 126 and Mercedes-Benz at
least reliable, according to The study found that main- Jaguar (10th) also were facturers can’t afford to let 131. Hyundai was the most
the survey. The J.D. Power stream brands are catch- high in the rankings. quality slip,” Sargent said. improved brand, jumping
study, now in its 28th year, ing up with luxury and The scores are important, Automakers have strug- from 19th to sixth place,
questioned 35,186 owners niche brands with excel- because buyers who are gled for nearly a decade reducing problems per 100
of 2014 model-year vehi- lent reliability. Of the top-10 unhappy with their vehicles to perfect electronic sys- vehicles by 25 to 133.q
cles about issues they have
had in the last 12 months.
In addition to technol- Prefecture in China’s Xinjiang to track cars by satellite
ogy trouble, complaints
about battery failures BEIJING (AP) — A prefec-
jumped by 44 percent ture in China’s far western gram in Bayingolin will uti-
lize China’s homegrown
compared with last year. Xinjiang region is requir-
Batteries were the most fre- ing all vehicles to install a Beidou satellite system,
launched in recent years
quently replaced part not real-time GPS-like tracking
related to normal wear, system as part of an anti- to reduce China’s reliance
on U.S.-based GPS provid-
the study found. terror initiative.
That’s because people are Traffic police in Bayingo- ers for sensitive applica-
tions.
buying vehicles with more lin Mongol Autonomous
electric features such as Prefecture announced Authorities said they will
also track cars using RFID
power seats and high- the regulation on Sunday,
end audio systems, plus shortly after thousands of technology embedded in
license plates.
automakers are convert- heavily armed police pa-
ing mechanical devices raded in the Xinjiang capi- Xinjiang officials have
sharply increased surveil-
such as power steering to tal and Communist Party
electric power, said Dave officials vowed to ramp lance, street searches and
police patrols in recent
Sargent, J.D. Power’s vice up their campaign against In this Monday, Feb. 20, 2017 photo released by Xinhua News
president for global auto- separatists and Islamic mili- Agency, vehicles run on the snow-covered road in Urumqi, years amid attacks blamed
capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Re-
on militants from the native
motive. Also, in an effort to tants. gion.
save fuel by reducing drag The vehicle-tracking pro- Associated Press Uighur minority.q