How important is in-car GPS to global consumers?

Technology has made life far more convenient, but has it also made people too dependent on it? We ask consumers across 43 markets if they agree or disagree with the statement: I couldn’t live without a GPS in my car.

The latest data from YouGov Global Profiles – an audience intelligence tool – reveals that 48% of overall respondents say they couldn’t live without GPS in their car.

Individually, over three in five consumers in China (63%) say they wouldn’t be able to reach their destination without GPS, the highest number in all markets surveyed. Data suggests that over half of consumers in South Africa (57%) and a few MENA countries (53% in Saudi Arabia and 50% in UAE) are possibly entirely reliant on GPS.

Consumers in Singapore and India (48% each) are just as likely as global respondents to say that they need GPS in their car. Other markets in APAC are less likely to agree, with Australia registering 39% of consumers and Japan further down at 31%.

Over two in five Americans (43%) say they wouldn’t be able to navigate without GPS. Fewer Britons share the same opinion with 38% in agreement. However, an equal proportion of consumers in both markets believe that they don’t need GPS to find their way around (45% in US and 44% in Great Britain).

Consumers in Germany, which has the largest automotive industry, are mostly confident about reaching their destination without any help from technology. Over half of Germans (51%) disagree with the statement, second only to Austria (52%).

Less than a third of consumers in the Central European countries agree with the statement, the least of all markets in this survey. Consumers in most of these markets are nearly twice as likely as global respondents (23%) to disagree – Slovakia (41%), Czech Republic (44%).

Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ years in China and 18+ years in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.

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