Even with the growth of the exciting technologies described above, issues remain. One of the biggest concerns is connectivity: While data networks are quite fast in urban areas, some rural locales are still far behind the curve. This is a problem for the connected car, as many in-vehicle features depend on a steady Internet connection.

Another problem is a lack of standards. With every car company rushing to add "smart" features to its cars, a lot of the functionality is proprietary. For example, you have no way to take your driving preferences from car to car, nor do you have a method to transfer data from one vehicle to another. Without clear standards, advancing technologies to the point where cars can talk to one another will be impossible.

Finally, price remains an issue. Although Ford has put smart functionality into its nonluxury cars, in most cases the connected car is only within reach of the affluent. As long as that situation stays unchanged, development of in-car technology will likely be slow, as the demand for such functionality will be light.

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