My recent BMW X5 test vehicle was a lovely car, with a cushy tan leather interior and gorgeous green paint. But the infotainment system was frustrating. It features the ability to wave your hand in circles in front of the screen to mimic turning a volume knob to adjust the volume.

But this solution is imprecise and pointless when there is a volume knob and volume control buttons on the steering wheel. But the car regards the volume knob as a suggestion rather than a command, responding sluggishly and leaving the impression that it isn’t working.

However, while the knob is seemingly ignoring your input, the infotainment display flashes a hand-motion image to suggest that you try waving your hand in the air instead. Rather than making the effort to add this useless and unwanted gimmick, BMW would be better served by streamlining the software so that the radio responds appropriately to volume knob adjustments.

BMW isn’t the only culprit and I’m not the only dissatisfied driver, according to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study. This study looks at drivers’ experience with the high-tech gadgets in new cars to see which ones deliver benefits and which ones are answering questions nobody asked.

Interior gesture controls like the X5’s, facial recognition, and fingerprint scanners all got dinged by owners who haven’t found them helpful. Respondents singled out gesture control for not only being unresponsive but also providing an unneeded function.

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“A strong advanced tech strategy is crucial for all vehicle manufacturers, and many innovative technologies are answering customer needs,” said Kathleen Rizk, senior director of user experience benchmarking and technology at J.D. Power. “At the same time, this year’s study makes it clear that owners find some technologies of little use and/or are continually annoying.

In addition to gesture control, survey respondents singled out a few technologies for particular disregard:

• Driver Assistance Systems: The hands-on-the-wheel-type driving systems often seem to vie with the driver for the car’s direction, while constantly prompting them to keep their hands on the steering wheel. They often do this even when the driver’s hands are already on the wheel, causing further annoyance. As a result, these systems received the lowest perceived usefulness score of any safety technology. The hands-off systems like GM’s Super Cruise scored only slightly higher.

• Passenger Video Displays: Vehicle passengers carry a screen with them that probably provides them more of the functions they want than a display built into the passenger’s-side dashboard. Further, the passenger’s seat is only occupied 10 percent of the time, making any hardware dedicated to that vacant seat useless 90 percent of the time. Compounding the problem is the fact that adding another screen just leaves more things for the dealer to brief the buyer on how to use when they deliver the car.

• Tesla Has Jumped the Shark: Tesla was once revered for its leading-edge technology, but these days the EV pioneer is losing that advantage. Tesla drivers are giving the cars lower scores than in the past, in part because of problematic technologies such as direct driver monitoring.

Related:J.D. Power Names the Top 2024 Vehicles in Initial Quality

The 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study is based on responses from 81,926 owners of new 2024 model-year vehicles who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership. 

Providing drivers with technology that delivers on its promise and then gets out of the way has let Genesis take the top score for the fourth consecutive year. This despite a brief flirtation with alternative controls for fundamental systems like the radio volume and climate control temperature that we see corrected for 2025 in the G80 sedan.

Lexus and BMW finished second and third to Genesis in the premium category. Genesis parent Hyundai topped the mass-market brands for the fifth consecutive year, followed by corporate cousin Kia. This demonstrates the value of these companies’ more conservative approach to technology and the driver interface that has favored physical volume and tuning knobs and more traditional-style shifters. GMC grabbed third place.

Related:J.D. Power Names 2024 Residual Value Winners

J.D. Power also singled out some specific models for accolades for particularly notable technology executions. There are awards for both premium and mass-market brands in four different categories: Convenience, Emerging Automation, Energy and Sustainability, and Infotainment and Connectivity.

Theoretically, this should yield eight winners, but in some instances, there were not eligible candidates, producing a field of only six vehicles for 2024. Click through our gallery for a look at those winners. Spoiler: You will not find the BMW X5’s gesture control among them!