In the connected car, the battle for attention isn’t between stations; it’s between systems. A newly released Automotive Infotainment Report provides a comprehensive overview of how drivers interact with in-car media, highlighting opportunities and urgency for radio.
According to the findings from Nielsen’s Gracenote division, 40% of vehicle owners are streaming more in the car than a year ago, while 75% say they use their in-dash systems more often than they mirror their phones. Despite the rise of streaming and connected features, AM/FM remains the most frequently used source of in-car audio.
In surveying over 3,200 US car owners in late 2024, Xperi found that 88% of drivers use their vehicles primarily for listening, and 62% said they would rule out buying a car without AM/FM reception. Video use in vehicles is also growing, climbing from 31% in 2022 to 47% in 2024, mostly for short-form content while parked, with longer viewing during road trips.
The Gracenote study shows that 60% of vehicle owners consider a car’s infotainment system a critical factor when purchasing or leasing, but nearly half feel those systems fall short. Forty-seven percent say they’d use in-dash systems more frequently if the experience were improved, and 21% admit they sometimes turn the media off entirely when they can’t find what they want.
Ease and safety of use are also top priorities for drivers.
Gracenote’s behavioral findings align with those from Quu’s 2025 In-Vehicle Visuals Report, which takes a more technical look at what’s happening inside dashboards. While all 100 of the best-selling 2025 vehicle models include terrestrial radio, only 26% have a dedicated physical radio button, down from 36% a year ago. Most new vehicles now bury AM/FM access behind touchscreen menus, making it less visible and less intuitive than streaming apps.
That loss of accessibility is compounded by what automakers call “last source memory.” The system defaults to whatever audio was last played when the engine restarts. In practice, that means if the last thing a driver listened to was Spotify or CarPlay, radio doesn’t reappear unless it’s manually selected from an increasingly confusing menu. The behavior Gracenote measures, frustration, distraction, and eventual disengagement, is built into the interface itself.
At the same time, Gracenote finds that 67% of drivers want infotainment systems that can organize all their content in one place, regardless of source, and two-thirds say they would explore new content if it were safe and easy to do so.
As automakers push deeper into connected ecosystems, radio’s visibility, metadata, and ease of access may determine the soundtrack of the American drive.
