I'm not following your chain of reasoning here. Prices were climbing before the chip shortage, while "technology" (or specifically, features requiring computer

I'm not following your chain of reasoning here. Prices were climbing before the chip shortage, while "technology" (or specifically, features requiring computer chips) has increasingly been an important part of marketing strategy, differentiation and consumer focus in the automotive industry. (Anecdotally, I check reviews for how well they handle things like Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, and in-car software updates.) The pricing could reflect a lot of things, including inflation, growing consumer wealth (or credit), consumers prioritizing automotive due to a variety of reasons including marketing/image, increased time spent commuting, etc. What does this supply chain hiccup have to do with your hypothesis?