The state of automotive in-car user experience in 2020
Which brands are innovating in Automotive UX?
Since 2000, digitalization has changed the world in ways that most of us would have never thought possible. Now, we’re using our digital devices to carry out a wide range of tasks like working, shopping, ordering food or finding a hotel. In the background, vast amounts of data are collected and processed. Autonomous storage systems then deliver goods right to our doorstep. Tech companies are now some of the most valuable companies on the planet, and they’re gaining more and more power every day. The impact of this transformation is touching nearly every industry, and a lot of big companies have gone down by underestimating the importance of digital customer experience.
The Automotive industry is a perfect example of this. While our lives are getting centred around the screens we use, our cars still pretty-much work like they did 20 years ago. Digital interfaces are still tiny in most cars and most of them have a horrible usability and User Experience. Thankfully, some new players are shaking up one of the most traditional industries. The playing field has been set for the next 20 years, and it’s going to be one hell of a game.
In this article, I’m going to look at the current state of the Automotive industry (strategy), explain some parameters for great in-car UX (heuristics) and analyze some of the current in-car User Experiences. Those include both major players like Porsche and Mercedes as well as new players like Tesla and Polestar.
First, let’s start off with some context
For years, the traditional car manufacturing industry has been in a rather deep sleep. Combustion engines didn’t change dramatically, so other ways to generate revenue had to be found. Established manufacturers have turned to marketing campaigns and endless customization options that can be fitted to the vehicle. A business model has been created which pushes the buyer into paying extra for tech which would have been outdated 10 years ago.
And that worked out quite well until a few years ago. But for about five years, established brands have been struggling to create demand and stock prices have been declining.
Megatrends in the Automotive industry
- Emission targets & electrification: shift to alternative mobility solutions like EV’s.
- Autonomous driving: cars will get more autonomous, mobility will be less about driving itself but about how to use the time on the road
- Shared mobility: the younger generations don’t see the ROI of a vehicle like their parents or grandparents did
- Stagnating sales and difficulties even before COVID
- Stock value of traditional carmakers are plummeting since years
- Major brands are partnering up to share knowledge and manufacturing capacities
- Connected cars: communication with services or other vehicles
- Customer behavior: digital experiences are key to success
Those megatrends have been ignored for too long by some companies, they simply underestimated their impact on society and the markets. A few years ago, there was nobody to prove them wrong. Electric vehicles have been called a gimmic, “long live the combustion engine”.
Fast forward to 2020, Tesla is worth more than Mercedes Benz (Daimler), BMW and Volkswagen together. Now you might think: okay, stock value doesn’t mean a lot. Those brands still generate a lot more revenue.
But that’s just the problem:
Value on the stock markets is a projection of what investors think of the future. Of where they see that future happening. And they clearly don’t see it happening at the established brands.
In North America and China (the most important markets for car manufacturers), Tesla is catching up to the German manufacturers in a speed nobody would have ever thought possible. Yet, Tesla delivers too late and too little. Their manufacturing quality just can’t be compared to let’s say Porsche or Mercedes Benz. Some customers even got doors that weren’t completely painted and back seats which wouldn’t lock into position.
That’s one of the reasons why they laughed at Tesla in the beginning: Germans love perfection, details and luxury. Why would customers buy a vehicle that is so much less attractive and perfect for the same price, just because it’s a Tesla?
While other manufacturers were sleeping, Tesla has managed to combine a few extraordinary feats
- It has turned away from the options madness, cutting costs in manufacturing
- It’s software and technology seems to be much more advanced than everything else on the market
- It was able to build and run multiple giga factories in a record amount of time
- The range of it’s EVs is bigger than the one any competitor, which is an important criterium for mass adoption
- It has turned towards software as a service and over the air updates
- It’s EVs have a lower maintenance cost than combustion engine vehicles
- Their sales have stayed stable during the COVID-19 crisis, which is remarkable
Adding the diesel gate to these points, it’s clear to see that Tesla was able to address a lot of frustrations that car buyers have had for a long time. To put is short: they’ve managed to redefine innovation and luxury in the car industry.
Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster. — Elon Musk
Those trends have been there for years. And recently, the Covid-19 crisis acts like pouring gasoline on a fire: it’s accelerating those trends with an enormous speed. With their Covid-19 stimulus package, even the German government won’t support the unsustainable car industry anymore. That sent shockwaves through the country, as the Automotive industry is the largest employer and the pride of the nation.
So that’s the current state of the industry. With that in mind, let’s move on to the Automotive in-car User Experience. In order to be able to judge that experience, we have to discuss a few priorities and categories in which we’ll judge the brands.
Main goal of an Automotive interface
Driving is a high-input environment and hundreds of thousands of people die in car accidents each year. Humans are prone to error, i.e. we can’t even remember more that 6–9 items in most cases. That’s why safe driving should be the main goal of every car interface designer. In general, safety can be reached in two main ways: by minimizing distraction & by supporting the user.
As the Automotive market is immensely competitive and people aren’t always thinking rationally, other goals may include a strong brand image, a nice driving experience or a lovable car design. All of those are important priorities and should they be catered to, but safety should be the primary concern. It’s quite comical actually: you’re not allowed to use a smartphone during driving, but our car interfaces keep getting more and more distracting every year. Recently a Tesla driver even got fined for watching a movie while driving.
Categories for judgement
- OS / strategy: do they build their own system or cooperate with a tech company
- Screen arrangement: How many & where
- Input methods: physical vs digital controls
- Visual design: usability & desirability
- Amount & type of features: i.e. safety, entertainment, customization
First, we’re judging each of the experiences based on the different categories and then we’ll see if they actually reach the main goal.
Brand comparison
Tesla: Model 3
Let’s start off with the elephant in the room: Tesla. The brand is known for it’s tech-first approach, almost being a software company instead of a manufacturing company. Yet, when analyzing the Tesla Model 3’s interfaces, it seems like Tesla is living somewhere in the distant future. When cars will drive autonomously, the interface will be great but for the time being, it’s actually not that great.
OS / strategy
Tesla is building it’s own OS in-house. The advantages of this approach include staying in control of the whole process and adapting the experience to the brand. Disadvantages are the lack of used standards known from major systems like Android or IOS and the huge cost of developing their own OS.
Screen arrangement
The Model 3 only has one screen in the centre of the cockpit. Usually, this is done to cut down on costs and manual controls. There are no switches at all, everything is displayed on the huge centre display. That is actually the worst way to structure the information inside the car. For every control, the user has to reach over quite far. Additionally, the user has to take his eyes off the road for each interaction.
Input methods: physical vs digital controls
The main screen is controlled by touch. A voice assistant also understand a large amount of commands. Some functions can also be controlled using the scroll wheels on the steering wheel. The huge disadvantage of this approach is that when not using the voice control, the user has to navigate through a lot of sub menus to reach his goal. While driving, this can be utterly distracting. Also, many controls are located in weird spots or in multiple spots, so that finding the right menu is not always easy. The touchscreen has to be used even to open up the glove box, which is just ridiculous. In the end, touch controls are still not as good as physical controls for some elements. Sure, with a screen you can push updates to the car at a later moment in time, but things like climate controls or volume controls haven’t changed in ages.
Visual design
The design is leaning heavily towards IOS, which is an interesting approach. Tesla is building their own system but adapting it to known standards. As a result, the design looks modern, minimalistic and contrasty. Maybe, a collaboration with apple would have been an even better approach, but we’ll see that in the future anyway.
Amount & type of features
Tesla is the unrivalled feature king. Some of those features are just plain gimmicks and known nonsense. Others like autopilot, an entertainment integration with main providers like youtube and Netflix and the supercharger finder are just way ahead of most of the competition.
Main goal
All in all, it looks like Tesla is already preparing for autonomous driving. In the meantime, the user may have to live with a interface that doesn’t suit his needs. From a interface perspective, autopilot, having controls that work like IOS and collaborating with major tech players will be a key competitive advantage in the future.
Mercedes Benz
When the first version of Mercedes MBUX came out, it actually looked like an okay system. For such an old and traditional company, integrating multiple screens and a decent experience seemed quite forward-thinking. Okay, it was still much too complicated and too cluttered. Additionally, the visual style looked outdated, flashy and crowded if you compare it to other brands.
Then, a few weeks ago, they showed the world their second version of the MBUX system for the new 2021 S class. A lot of UX specialists were quite disappointed, but let’s dive into why the new version is a step in the wrong direction.
OS / strategy
Mercedes is building their own OS, called MBUX. The design and development is handled in-house and they’re starting a partnership with NVIDIA.
Screen arrangement
The interface is split up in a driver screen, a big centre console screen and a heads-up display (HUD). The driver screen uses 3D technology, and it’s fully customizable. On the centre console screen, a big map, the main menu and all infotainment and climate control elements are shown. In the HUD, main driving information and AR navigation are shown.
AR HUD navigation, a 3D display, OLED technology. All of this reads like a list of the trending tech topics of the recent years. And as well as those topics might work for marketing purposes, as distracting they may be for the user. Also, the big centre console screen is located quite below the driving horizon. As a user, I have to look down in order to access pretty much all controls. The interface also looks like it’s been copied from the Tesla model S. And currently, Tesla is even stepping away from the big centre console screens in it’s recent models.
In the back of the car, there are screens for each passenger with some kind of entertainment system. Those look like the ones we find in old, outdated airplanes.
Input methods: physical vs digital controls
The input methods also read like a tech trend list. All functions on the centre console screen are controlled by capacitive touch. The AI voice assistant got a little smarter and can now answer more questions. Gesture control is implemented for some elements. Yet some of the most important usability principles are: minimalism, clarity of control, awareness of the system status. A tech nerd might be able to remember all of those controls, but for the average user, all of this is just plain overkill. On the steering wheel, even more controls have been introduced.
Visual design
The topic of too much and too often continues in the visual styling. The interface is loaded with colours, shadows, gradients and icons. For a luxury brand, this is quite confusing from a visual standpoint as luxury is accompanied with some sort of minimalism in most cases. On top of the cluttered styling, there are multiple different styles available, and for each styles there are then multiple ways to configure screens. All in all, the visual design is quite outdated, complex and cluttered.
Amount & type of features
Customization madness has struck. Everything is now customizable, just like with the endless options you encounter when buying the car. It looks like Mercedes just took their options strategy and used it for MBUX. We get that people like to be seen as unique individuals, but how often will they change their car’s interface? Design lovers and car freaks will love those possibilities, but what portion of all Mercedes customers do those persons represent? Some great features include the enhanced voice assistant and the HUD. Those seem like smart, reasonable choices.
Main goal
So in the end, does the new MBUX simplify the driving experience, avoid distraction and support the user? In some ways it does, but for the most part it looks like a cluttered, almost dangerous experience which hasn’t learned a lot from other brands and most studies about usability. From a strategy perspective, Mercedes is pouring a lot of money into features which are non-essential. That will most likely hurt the brand in the mid-term future.
Porsche Taycan
With the Taycan, Porsche is directly attacking the Tesla Model S. The similar size, target group and range make those two cars direct competitors. And other than in price, the Taycan smashes the Tesla. It’s build quality is superior, it drives like a Porsche and Porsche’s brand image is really good. Let’s dive into why it’s such a great car.
OS / strategy
The Volkswagen group just recently started their own software unit which they want to scale up to 10.000 designers, analysts and engineers. The goal is to build one platform for all of it’s brands to reduce costs and standardize the User Experience. The centre of this will be the new VW.os, Volkswagen’s own operating system. This ambitious plan might work out in the future, but for the time being there are major issues with the delivery of the ID.3 and Golf 8 vehicles because the software is so bad the car won’t even drive properly. The Porsche Taycan still uses another system, which seems quite nicely done.
Screen arrangement
There’s a driver screen with touch controls for driving functions on each side, a main display next to the driver display and a display below the main display with climate, charging and media controls. Overall, the arrangement seems to work out quite fine.The most important displays are arranged close to the driving view. Maybe the main display could be tilted a little in order to have better visibility.
Input methods: physical vs digital controls
Most of the system is controlled by capacitive touch. As sad as it is to see that a heritage brand like Porsche is completely moving away from physical controls, it’s still done better than in the MBUX. Having to look down to change the temperature is still a let-down. What’s positive is that the menus are really well structured and there’s a clear structure of input controls. The user can get to know quite quickly how and where he can control certain features. The voice assistant looks handy and the steering wheel controls are clear and concise.
Visual design
The visual design is minimalistic, clear and crisp. It’s beautiful yet usable. It’s not cluttered, it uses dark mode and big font sizes. Icons are used where necessary and colours are clear and full of contrast. Subtle animations express the brand look & feel. Finally, a car brand that knows how to design interfaces.
Amount & type of features
As a luxury sports car brand, porsche is putting a lot of helpful features in it’s car. Track mode, digital assistants and a charge planner are just some of those features. All of those seem nicely integrated, they don’t distract yet support the user.
Main goal
The Taycan’s User Experience is one if maybe not the best available on the market today. The system supports the user, focuses on driving safety and the pleasure of driving. It’s not gimmicky at all. The only let down is that there are no physical controls any more which will distract users. But all in all, Porsche is set up to push the boundaries of the Automotive industry, combining tradition, quality and innovation. Hopefully, the rest of the Volkswagen group will use Porsche’s expertise to elevate their User Experience.
Polestar 2
The polestar 2 is the second car of Volvo’s former performance Brand. It’s a long-range electric vehicle stuffed with high-tech features. In a sense, it’s quite unique because of it’s operating system.
OS / strategy
The whole system is based on something entirely new: The Android Automotive OS. This system has been developed by Android in collaboration with car manufacturers like Volvo / Polestar. To collaborate with some of the tech giants is a great step for a car manufacturer. Leveraging the data and knowledge Google has will be a key differentiator for Volvo / Polestar in the future. In the interface, it’s clearly visible that Google’s experience in building interfaces has been used to create a usable, attractive User Experience.
Screen arrangement
There are two screens: a driver screen and a huge centre console screen. For the driver screen, there are pre-customized screen modes. The user doesn’t have to customize the experience himself. That’s the kind of thinking that we need for the future: supporting the user by limiting the possibilities. Apple is the best example of how that strategy works. The centre console screen looks somewhat slapped into the car, yet all touch targets seem big and well accessible also when not focussing on the screen. This may be the way to go when eliminating physical controls.
Input methods: physical vs digital controls
A lot of the functionality is controlled by touch using the main display. The google voice assistant is included and obviously this is maybe the best of the whole market. It leaves the other brand’s voice control far behind. There are also controls on the steering wheel, though the main control element stays the big touchscreen.
Visual design
All design elements are minimal and usable. The interface has the same visual quality as the one in the Porsche but all the power from the Android design and system.
Amount & type of features
The Android automotive OS offers everything that android has to offer. This includes market leading products and features like google maps, spotify, youtube and others. From an entertainment perspective, the Polestar is clearly the most future-proof.
Main goal
As most cars of the Volvo brands, the polestar does a great job at reducing distraction. Using Android automotive, it leverages the power of big tech. Apart from it’s range which is lower than the Tesla’s, this is maybe the single best car released in a long time. It even does a lot of thing even better than the Porsche.
The takeaway
- Today, it may seem utterly difficult to create the perfect in-car UX
- Car manufacturers should apply key usability principles to their User Experience Design
- The goal should be to create a safe, usable and enjoyable experience
- While Porsche is doing a good job, Polestar is having an innovative cooperation with Android automotive. Tesla is living far away in the future and the rest of the manufacturers are still living in the past
- If we look at it from a UX perspective, the perfect interface may look like some combination between the Porsche and the Polestar
- Megatrends will continue to shape the Automotive industry
- The following years sure will be one hell of a ride
The future will show where Automotive User Experience is headed, but the indicators are strong that tech will find it’s way into each aspect of mobility.
References
https://uxdesign.cc/11-heuristics-for-ux-in-automotive-ac6ab9a8783c in-car hmi heuristics
https://uxdesign.cc/automotive-ux-highlights-from-iaa-2019-31fc0d97ef19 IAA 2019
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/weekly-updates-covid-19-impact-global-automotive-industry/ covid impact on automotive industry
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/business/auto-industry-pandemic.html problems automotive industry
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/auto-industry-impact-during-coronavirus/ digital experience is key to success
https://www.infopulse.com/blog/why-automotive-leaders-cannot-ignore-the-case-megatrend/ industry trends
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812360_humanfactorsdesignguidance.pdf design guidelines
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tesla-big-touchscreen/ tesla s interface nielsen norman
https://uxdesign.cc/teslas-ux-is-too-far-ahead-to-make-sense-now-21d943db467f tesla ux
