10 Stakes In Cars User Experience

Cars have been autonomous a long time before Google. Not autonomous in the way we think today. They were not driving alone. The were still relaying on the knowledge and reflexes of their driver. However, they were closed environments. Like bubbles isolated from the outside. Mobiles communication devices, and then smartphones and eventually, cars connectivity have opened a breach in this bubble. Waze for instance provides real time crowdsourced information on the road around. It changes dramatically the driving experience.

Cars cockpits are already multi-screens systems. The challenge however is that those screens are still provided by different manufacturers, based on several operating systems and above all are not connected each others. With the instrument panel, the inboard media screen, the mobile device of the driver, using 3 screens while driving is common. Some professional drivers like Uber affiliates can use some more. With smart-watches, even more screens are coming. Since a few years some standards as raised to fill the gaps between screens as MirroLink or appleCarPlay. There is still work to do in order to make the car multi-screen experience seamless.

In many countries, the car ownership model is changing. Moving from a individual transportation mean to a shared mobility tool. It has led to the rise of new services. Some based on fleets managed by organizations and some shaped as peer to peer services. Cars itself have to evolve in order to manage this new relationship with their drivers. Integrate services facilitating sharing and multi drivers use as geolocation, keyless access and start, user recognition and personalization.

The breach in the car’s driver bubble by allowing permanent connection with the world outside has opened the car experience to passengers, relatives, other road users and transportation means. A mobile application like Glympse already allows drivers to share in real time their location and their estimated arrival time. New cars lighting technology based on LED or LCD will also allow direct communication. The design of a new form of communication based on ethic and politeness between road users is a fascinating challenge.

Thanks to their connection to the Internet, cars can now be seen as data providers. This amount of information, based on real use will be a huge asset for car manufacturers. Allowing them to improve their products design and to create new services with fewer financial risks because they will be based on measurable insights. Data is also an opportunity to improve even more car reliability and security. It will help to identify more accurately the causes of their crash or failures and prevent them.

Cars have and will still play a central role in city. They have already shaped the eastern cities by allowing the development of suburbs. Seen alternatively as a vital blood or an enemy, cars will have to manage the constraints of reducing dramatically their pollutant emissions. In an other hand they can help the cities authorities to improve their public services through the data they will create. They will provide in real time information allowing to anticipate traffic congestion, identify dangerous areas or roads needing to be repaired, and eventually support city planning.

The automotive industry is emblematic of the first industrial revolution and could be a symbol of the disruptions created by the third one. The raise of 3D printing allows to build cars parts - if not the whole - outside of the industrial plants. The electric drive reduce the complexity of the traditional power train and could provide more flexibility and modularity to the cars makers than before. It may at least partially challenge the industrial vertical supply chain and led to the rise of a new generation of cars makers : smaller companies, communities dedicated on addressing the very specifics needs of some very specifics market segments.

As connected objects, cars may also be able to communicate with each others. It could led to the development of an ants like distributed intelligence dedicated to risks preventions and trafic fluidity making the road safer and more efficient. Tomorrows autonomous cars may behaves as swarms or migratory birds. As they may move as animals rather than machines, the relationship between drivers and their car has to be rethought.

Complexity is challenging the way cars have been designed since more than a century. Cars have now to integrate a huge amount of constraints to manage costs, security, environmental policies. By becoming smart and connected, they also have to manage their integration in a larger ecosystem of smart and connected objects. None of the automotive brands today, even the bigger, is able to manage alone all the car ecosystem. They have to be open to cross industries collaboration and integrate to co-design within their process.

Variable 1

– A technologic disruption with the electric power that will change dramatically the car design principles and the logistic built around the fuel powered car.

Variable 2 – A business model disruption with the

permanent connection to the Internet transforming the car in a smart and connected devices with the ability to receive and send information.

Variable 3 – An user experience disruption by gaining more

and more autonomy with the time.

Theses 3 disruption are related to each others and can produce an incredible amount of valid scenarios risks and opportunities. As designers, we have to be fast on our feet and keep in mind that each of them can be challenged at any time by the unpredictable rise of a new technology, innovative services or a radical cultural shift.