Why Can’t It Just Work? Infotainment Accounts for 25% of Vehicle Problems
Infotainment remains the most problematic major vehicle category in 2026 and is the only category to deteriorate year over year, even as overall vehicle quality improves, according to JD Power’s 2026 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study.
Multimedia-related problems held essentially flat at 42.4 problems per 100 vehicles, but because other categories improved, infotainment’s share of total vehicle problems rose to 25% — and five of the industry’s most frequently reported problems are now infotainment-related, analysts say. The findings reinforce a pattern identified in JD Power’s 2026 Tech Experience Index, which found that owners are most satisfied with technology they barely notice and least satisfied with features that demand their attention.
“As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, quality issues are leaning less toward hardware failures and more toward system complexity, software performance and connectivity,” writes Lisa Boor, a director JD Power, in a release. “Customers expect these technologies to work seamlessly every day.”
Not all multimedia news is negative: Navigation satisfaction improved 17 points year over year to 933 on a 1,000-point scale, driven by reductions in usability and accuracy complaints, according to the study, which surveyed 78,514 purchasers and lessees of new 2026 model-year vehicles.
