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The love affair that people have with their automobiles continues to flourish. The record prices consumers remain willing to pay for new vehicles in a supply-constrained environment offers indisputable evidence of the ongoing demand for cars and light trucks that feature the latest safety and infotainment technologies.

Rapidly evolving next-generation innovations — including advances in wireless networking, edge computing and intelligent imaging technologies, among many others — are elevating the driving experience while introducing opportunities to significantly enhance road safety.

Fulfilling the full potential of technology for safety and entertainment, however, will only be realized if drivers and passengers understand, trust and properly use the features and functions being made available. This is why it is so important to connect the dots between auto technology and human adoption. It is imperative as a growing number of consumers view their vehicles as …

What it is: A monthly forecast of the average new-vehicle price paid by U.S. consumers across 12 auto manufacturers. TrueCar also forecasts a monthly average across the industry. Current-month data is presented alongside a comparison with the previous and year-ago months to show the percentage increase or decrease in average prices paid.

Where it comes from: TrueCar uses data from its network of 10,000 dealers in the U.S. to calculate average transaction prices, or ATP. TrueCar also says its insights come from an analysis of industry sales trends and conditions.

How it's used: ATP data is used to show the threshold that consumers are willing to pay for a new vehicle during a given period of time, which could reflect external macroeconomic factors impacting the industry, including interest rates, inflation, income and unemployment levels. The microchip shortage coupled with the sharp increase in demand following the pandemic created an imbalance in supply and de…

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Dec. 26-28, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.

"I've heard from all three of the brands ... that they were all definitely disappointed — and some, you would say, irritated — by the rug that was pulled out from underneath them." -- Carly Schaffner, Automotive News reporter, on the reaction of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis' U.S. brands to being left out of new electric vehicle consumer tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act

"You can maybe invest $10 billion to get autonomous vehicles up and running, and maybe that's not enough. Maybe there's another $10 billion ahead right now. And not everybody wants to continue playing that game." -- Pete Bigelow, Automotive News director of tech and innovation coverage, on the ups and downs of the autonomous driving industry in 2022

What it is: U.S. new-vehicle registration data gathered by the financial services firm Experian. The data set provides greater detail than monthly or quarterly sales reports from automakers. Experian breaks down the new registrations by state, region, fuel type and other categories. The California New Car Dealers Association uses the Experian data in its quarterly sales report.

Where it comes from: Experian collects the new registrations filed with individual state departments of motor vehicles and other sources to feed its North American vehicle database. Experian says its database has information on more than 900 million current and out-of-operation vehicles.

How it's used: Registration data offers granular detail to identify sales trends and also provides a window into manufacturer sales activity. For example, Tesla does not break out its reported global sales numbers by individual country on a monthly basis, but the new registration data serves as a rough e…

What it is: A breakdown of how many new vehicles have been produced in North America — sorted by automaker, brand, model, country, plant and other categories.

Where it comes from: The production figures are pulled together from a combination of automaker reports, third-party input and Automotive News estimates. Automotive News does not disclose the third-party sources or how it calculates the estimates.

How it's used: The data can be useful in determining changes in factory production levels over a period of time. It is an especially helpful tool for tracking vehicle demand or for highlighting the operational impact of the global semiconductor shortage and other supply chain snarls and labor challenges in recent years. The data provides a general sense of what inventory levels or sales might be in a given month.

How it might be misused: Because some numbers are estimates, it can be hard to accurately compare production figures betwee…

What it is: A monthly look at how franchised dealerships' service departments are performing, measured by the number of repair orders and revenue received from those jobs.

Where it comes from: Cox Automotive's Xtime brand, which provides software for dealership service departments and extracts the information on repair order volume and revenue.

How it's used: Presented as an index, the metrics show how those areas have tracked since January 2019. A number greater than 100 means repair order volume and revenue in a given month increased compared with January 2019, while a number less than 100 means a decline. The charts can show how service departments' business is doing over time.

How it might be misused: An index can be interpreted incorrectly if the reader doesn't have context with which to draw comparisons. A figure less than 100 could still represent a year-over-year or month-over-month increase for a particular metric, for insta…