Our next project was to design a UI for an autonomous vehicle. We started off by looking at what autonomous vehicles are, and how they are slowly becoming a reality in todays automobile world. I think the idea of being able to drive around while being able to work or relax is very promising, so this project will be very fun and interesting as it is something that is up and coming in the world of technology. As a designer, it is in my best interest to start thinking about how people will interact with these vehicles, and how we can make them accessible and enjoyable to use.
Autonomous vehicle is another word for a self-driving car. These self-driving cars don’t need a human driver which means that people can relax, work, or do tasks while the car takes them to their desired location. Due to cameras and sensors, they are able to react to the unpredictable roads that we drive on. They can adapt to route changes and real-life situations.
In class we done a workshop called ‘Sailboat’, where we had to write down on Miro what our goals are for the project, barriers for our goals, and what will drive us toward for the goals. It was helpful to think of the problems, opportunities, barriers with autonomous vehicles. It was also cool to see what other people were thinking and the different approaches that they took with this workshop.
From this exercise we were able to see that people generally thought that autonomous vehicles aren’t very safe and that was a major barrier. Apart from safety the other barriers that come with autonomous vehicles are ethical, because it could put a lot of taxi and Uber drivers out of jobs, and this is definitely something to consider. The goals of this project was to provide a product that was safe, and also one that had an accessible UX & UI for people who physically can’t drive because of various reasons.
I searched up some articles about autonomous vehicles to try and get an understanding of the industry and whether or not they are being received. Going into this project I had very little knowledge of autonomous vehicles, but I had an idea of some of the safety concerns and challenges that came with it. This article by Brookings says that by 2040 autonomous vehicles could compromise upwards of 25% of the car industry. It also talks about how making the physical cars isn’t the difficulty, but programming the software that is involved in each model which is difficult, as the car needs to be able to create new algorithms in real time with unpredictable road situations.
Securing the future of driverless cars
Another article by Forbes talks about 93% of people in their survey have safety concerns about self-driving cars. This is a very worrying statistic as if people can’t trust these vehicles then they simply wont get in them and wont use them, which would have very negative effects on the demand of the market. It even says how Tesla have recently recalled almost all of their autonomous vehicles, as they have had over 1,000 accidents when the autopilot was engaged. This shows that people have a valid reason to not trust these autonomous vehicles and I can see why people may not want to be in one, as I also wouldn’t feel completely comfortable in them.
93% Have Concerns About Self-Driving Cars According to New Forbes Legal Survey
One of the main autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service is Waymo. They recently brought out their ‘Waymo One’ vehicle which is a completely self-driving car that allows customers to be transported from one destination to another without having to interact with any other humans. At the minute the are only in LA, San Francisco, Phoenix or Austin so they are only available to a limited amount of customers. The user must download the Waymo app, which there they can select where they want to be picked up from and where their destination is. They will then request the car and it will turn up shortly. This is a very easy to use app, and it requires almost no effort on the users side. I love how simple this process and think it is a great way for people who are busy to travel to and from places with no hassle of having to phone a service or try and get a taxi.
Since the final piece of this project will be a car dashboard UI, I thought that it would be a great idea to research what other car manufacturers are doing with their UI’s, and what trends and patterns I can see that they have in common. Here I am looking to get a basic understanding of what should be included in a car dashboard UI, what elements are important, which ones aren’t important. I am also trying to see what design elements make up a car dashboard UI, such as colour, typography, hierarchy, and imagery and iconography.
Tesla have a very clean and functional UI. When driving, the UI shows two main sections. The larger of these two sections is a map of where the car is and also works as a sat-nav for the user. The left hand side shows the car from a third-person perspective, and this allows the user to see other cars that are nearby. Apart from their main home page they also have different media screens, with the example given below being a music player. Mean while the left side still shows the car and some key details, like how the doors are locked and the boot and bonnet are closed. Overall I think that this UI is one of the best in the market, but one thing that I would improve is that it isn’t very cool or futuristic. Since the Tesla is such a fast and cool car I would expect some options to make the UI look more futuristic and visually stand out more. I understand the approach of accessibility and putting user experience first, but I think there should be at least an option to be able to change the interface to make it more futuristic.
