[EuraCarCar]"Smart Cars That Help You Drive: Consumers Are Willing to Pay More"

Boston Consulting Group Survey of 3,000 Drivers Worldwide
56% Say They Would Pay Extra for Better Assistance Features
For Global Carmakers, ADAS Trust and Usage Rates Will Decide the Outcome

The balance of competition in the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) market is shifting. There was a time when the core focus was on "technology showmanship," highlighting sensor precision and algorithm performance. Now, however, how frequently the system is used, and how much revenue it can generate, have emerged as the key criteria that determine success or failure.

According to a recent ADAS awareness survey conducted on around 3,000 vehicle owners across seven countries - Korea, the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France - by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Bosch on February 27, more than half of consumers responded that they are willing to pay an additional cost for the latest ADAS features.

However, actual usage rates were found to fall short of these expectations. As a result, in the complete vehicle industry, a key task going forward will be to ensure that consumers use each company’s ADAS features more frequently and more routinely in their everyday driving.

Looking at the results in detail, 56% of drivers worldwide answered "yes" to the question, "If a vehicle is equipped with the most advanced driver assistance functions, are you willing to pay more for it?" Neutral responses accounted for 24%, while 20% responded "no."

By country, in Korea 60% answered "yes," 26% were neutral, and 23% answered "no," a pattern similar to the global average. In contrast, in China, 85% of respondents answered "yes," far exceeding the global average. This suggests that, for automakers seeking to target the Chinese market, emphasizing ADAS features will become an important strategic pillar.

Actual ADAS usage patterns, however, were not as active as the level of interest might suggest. Many drivers tended to use ADAS not on a continuous basis, but only under specific conditions such as congestion on highways or long-distance driving. In other words, the typical pattern is "conditional usage," where the functions are installed but do not translate into everyday use.

BCG assessed this by stating that "ADAS has already entered a largely universal adoption phase, but the industry’s remaining challenge is how much everyday usage experience can be accumulated." Consumer awareness is high, but a lack of understanding of the functions, along with past malfunction experiences, are acting as factors that hinder always-on activation.

In particular, the report emphasized that the focus of competition is shifting from showcasing technical prowess to enhancing reliability. While the initial question was "who can implement more advanced functions," it is now "how stably does the system operate, and to what extent do consumers trust it" that is seen as directly linked to profitability.

In fact, some consumers who have experienced unnecessary interventions or system errors were found to have deactivated the functions altogether. The report views this not merely as a technical issue, but as a risk that can shake the very structure of monetization.

The Korean market is largely following the same trend. Interest in and expectations for advanced features are high, but there is a strong tendency to use them only in specific situations rather than on a continuous basis. At the same time, consumers are highly sensitive to price, meaning that the balance between perceived value and cost is expected to be a key variable in securing profitability.

The report predicts that strategies surrounding ADAS revenue models will be reshaped. Responses to the question, "When paying for ADAS, which payment method do you prefer?" differed by country, by purchase method, and by generation.

By country, in most markets a majority of respondents preferred a "lump-sum payment (included in the vehicle price)," but in Korea only 41% said they preferred a lump-sum payment. Instead, 27% answered that either a lump-sum payment or a monthly subscription was acceptable, 18% said "it depends on the function," and 14% preferred a "monthly subscription."

There was also a clear tendency for acceptance of monthly subscription models to increase among younger age groups. Among Baby Boomers aged 60 and above, only 7% said they preferred a monthly subscription, whereas 21% of Millennials answered that they prefer a monthly subscription.

Accordingly, the report forecasts that, going forward, enhanced customer education, intuitive user interface design, and transparent pricing and package structures will become major competitive factors. ADAS has now become a basic requirement in most vehicles. The remaining task for automakers is to devise monetization strategies built on trust.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.