J.D. Power and HARMAN Team up to Transform Connected Driving Experience

J.D. Power has announced that it would be collaborating with Harman with the goal of using vehicle data to help automakers to enhance the customer experience, and to proactively solve problems. Companies will be able to determine with greater accuracy what consumers want from their increasingly automated vehicles.

The two companies will work on integrating customer insights with connected car data. OEMs will be able to get more precise feedback from vehicle owners. J.D. Power is a global leader when it comes to consumer insights, data analytics and automotive advisory services while HARMAN International is a subsidiary of Samsung which is one of the key players on the global scene in the field of connected technologies including hardware, software, machine learning and services for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets.

The automotive industry is changing at a rapid pace and now it is more important than ever for automotive manufacturers to understand driver behavior and preferences within the vehicle. For more than half a century, J.D. Power has been providing automakers and the general public with automotive consumer insights. Now, the company will extend its services to help automakers across the globe measure and understand how their evolving products are catering to the needs of consumers in a better manner.

Commenting on the partnership, Doug Betts, Senior Vice President of Global Automotive at J.D. Power said that he had worked on the OEM side for many years and knows that this is something that the industry needs.

Betts added, “It was easy to dream, but getting it done takes a skill set that no single company has. The alliance of our two companies can credibly deliver the dream of merging consumer and vehicle data to provide a clear view of cause and effect.”

HARMAN Ignite, the industry’s award-winning automotive cloud solution, gives users unique insights into driver usage patterns. When the information from Harman Ignite is used in tandem with J.D. Power consumer data, OEM executives will get functional-level insights into how consumers are interacting with the systems and what they are looking for in terms of in-car experience. Using this service can help OEMs and suppliers to identify areas where there is room for improvement and they can thus bring the desired features and functions to market faster.

“J.D. Power has the most thorough understanding of automotive consumer satisfaction of any company in the industry,” said Sanjay Dhawan, President, HARMAN Connected Services & HARMAN Chief Technology Officer. “With HARMAN’s connected car, software and integration expertise, we are set to realize the exciting potential of connected cars, including enhanced safety, greater performance and more immersive and personalized experiences.”

The two companies will work with OEMs to collect data only from those consumers who opt in to share their data. This data will be anonymized and aggregated to protect consumer privacy.