- Hands-free driving is now among the most-wanted new car features
- As recently as last year, the same survey showed that few drivers wanted it
Americans are changing their mind about hands-free driving. The largest recurring study of what features new car shoppers desire has long shown that most car shoppers didn’t want a hands-free driving system.
This year, it tied for the title of most-wanted.
Related – Self-Driving Cars: Everything You Need to Know
AutoPacific asked nearly 18,000 people planning to shop for a new car soon what features they wanted most. Forty-three percent cited hands-free semi-autonomous highway driving. An equal number wanted reverse automatic emergency braking, which a study from last year found to be largely unreliable.
Just a year ago, hands-free driving didn’t make the top 10.
More shoppers wanted a hands-free highway driving system that let them drive most of the time than wanted a fully autonomous car. But even complete autonomy made the list after several years of shoppers mostly rejecting the idea.
Partial autonomy has grown more common, with systems like Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised), GM’s Super Cruise, and Ford’s BlueCruise able to take over some of the driving on highways as long as the driver stays alert.
In the U.S., only Mercedes sells a system that lets the driver look away from the road. The company’s Drive Pilot system is available only in Nevada and parts of California, and works only below highway speed.
The Most-Wanted Car Features
| Feature | Percentage Who Wanted It |
| Hands-off, semi-autonomous driving for highway use only, driver attention required | 43% |
| Rearward automatic emergency braking | 43% |
| Sunroof/moonroof | 42% |
| Driver profile settings | 40% |
| Lane-change assist | 40% |
| Special exterior colors | 40% |
| Sun shades for rear passengers | 39% |
| Lane change assist | 39% |
| Hands-off, fully autonomous driving for all speeds to a pre-specified destination (no steering wheel, no option to manually drive, driver attention not required) | 38% |
| Rear cross-traffic alert with automatic emergency braking | 38% |
| Heated steering wheel | 38% |
| Emergency evasive steering assist | 37% |
| Hands-off, fully autonomous highway and city (option to drive the vehicle if desired, driver attention not required) | 37% |
| Heated and ventilated/cooled front seats | 37% |
| Large animal detection | 36% |
