The future of automotive isn’t speed, power or efficiency – It’s experience.
Here’s an important question to design future automotive: How do cars feel, respond and interact with us? EVs are redefining fueling habits, Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) are turning car dashboards into digital assistants and Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are inching towards reality. The automotive experience is undergoing its biggest transformation yet. With innovation comes some challenges affecting drivers’ and owners’ experiences – from issues in EV charging to confusing in-car interfaces and trust issues with self-driving tech.
In this article, we’ll break down the pain points in EVs, HMIs and AVs and explore UX solutions that are shaping the future of mobility.
- EV-UX: Fixes for charging troubles and payment friction
- HMI-UX: Crafting adaptive in-car touch-experiences
- AV-UX: Building trust in autonomous driving through transparency
1) EV-UX: Solving the Pain Points of Electric Driving
Electric vehicles are all the jazz now. I remember meeting an Uber driver in Sydney who had installed an EV charger at home, making it his routine to plug in the car for charging after a day’s work and be ready to ride in the morning. I suppose the future is already here. Who would have thought we would have car-chargers built-in to our homes? He goes on to say the EV charger will appraise the value of his home if he wished to sell the property in the future.
By 2030, China is said to account for 49% of the global EV market, with Europe at 27% and US at 14%. In my home country, India, EV growth is experiencing rapid growth not just through four-wheelers but also scooters, bikes, buses and e-rickshaws. In 2025, India will witness 18 new EV launches, surpassing the number of petrol and diesel car introductions. (Ref)
1A. Charging infrastructure and reliability:
The problem for uneven distribution of charging stations & unreliable chargers continues to persist. Currently, Tesla’s Supercharger network predicts charging needs and suggests optimal stops in real-time using AI-powered Smart Charging Assistants. There are also smart apps that predict charger availability, directing users to the least crowded station.
At Feelpixel, we created user experiences to support electric charging, check out our case studies below:
i) EV Car Control App inspired by Tesla
A car-control app that does it all – turn on car, check battery, distance driven, in-car settings for seat and temperature. Here’s how we focused on ease of remote control – integrated customisation functionalities in a mobile app.
ii) Ride Electric – EV Bikes on Demand
Urban commuters struggled to find convenient transportation options. We conceptualised a platform for on-demand access to electric bikes, promoting sustainable city travel.
iii) EV Pro Battery
EV owners lacked real-time insights into battery health and performance. Our approach – a comprehensive and easy to use fleet monitoring dashboard that also provides detailed battery usage analytics.
1B) Charging payment options are inconsistent & stations have different connectors:
Universal contactless payment systems – ChargePoint, Electrify America and Ionity are now supporting tap-to-pay functionality in the west. In India, several companies are dedicated to EV charging infrastructure, including Tata Power, Blink Charging, ChargeHub, ChargePoint, PlugShare, ChargeGrid and Magenta Power. While it is some time before payments for e-charging are centralized, a digital wallet (Amazon Pay, PayTM, etc) linked to the EV charging app is currently the most preferred payment method.
💡 Here’s a thought: If UPI apps integrated with e-charging apps, it can make charging payments and top-up’s a quicker and easier experience.
2) HMI-UX: Rethinking How We Interact With Cars
The evolution of in-car interfaces have been nothing short of revolutionary. I recall stepping into a friend’s Tesla Model S and being greeted by a massive touchscreen that controlled everything – from navigation to climate settings. Gone were the myriad of buttons; in their place, a smart and sleek touch-display. It’s fascinating how quickly we’ve adapted to these changes, embracing a future where our cars feel more like smartphones on wheels.
Modern vehicles are incorporating AR and VR to enhance the driving experience. For instance, the all-electric BMW iX features a large curved screen that displays animations from artist Cao Fei, utilizing lighting and sound to create an immersive and engaging environment (Ref).
2A. Lack of Personalized and Adaptive In-Car Interfaces:
Vehicles are increasingly capable of adapting to individual driver preferences. Features like seat positions, climate control and infotainment settings can now be personalised, enhancing the overall driving experience.
Most car interfaces are one-size-fits-all, failing to adapt to different users. Drivers must manually adjust seat positions, climate settings, and infotainment preferences every time they enter the car. UI designs often ignore cultural differences – what works for a Western driver may not be intuitive for an Indian or Chinese driver (Ref). Left-handed drivers vs right-handed drivers may also have different interaction needs with the touch panel.
Currently, the UX fixes include user profiles – Tesla and BMW allow multiple drivers to save settings for seats, mirrors, climate and infotainment. AI-driven recommendation systems are emerging, adjusting settings based on previous behavior.
💡Let’s imagine Biometric authentication (face/fingerprint recognition) will load a driver’s profile instantly when they enter. This could benefit a family of many drivers to share one car, perhaps facilitate sustainability too.
2B. Inconsistent and Clunky Voice Assistants:
While voice assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant are now commonplace in homes, car voice controls still struggle. Many in-car assistants misinterpret commands, leading to driver frustration. Poor integration with third-party apps like Spotify, Google Maps and WhatsApp is another cause for user-frustration.
At the moment, automakers are integrating Google Assistant and Alexa directly into infotainment systems, improving speech recognition. Some brands, like Mercedes and BMW, use AI-driven voice assistants that learn from user inputs.
💡In the future, advanced context-aware voice assistants may understand natural language better. Instead of saying “Set temperature to 21°C,” you could say, “It’s too hot in here,” and the car could adjust accordingly using behaviour data collected over time to support its solutions.
3) AV-UX: Trusting the Self-Driving Revolution
The dream of self-driving cars has been in the making for decades. I remember my dad telling me about the time he ordered an Uber in California and it was as if a ghost were steering the car, changing lanes and adjusting speed. It sounded like a sci-fi moment, yet also strangely unsettling. Trusting a machine with my safety and everyone else’s on the road?
As autonomous vehicles (AVs) inch closer to mainstream adoption, the user experience surrounding them is becoming just as important as the technology itself. The success of AVs hinges not just on their ability to drive, but also on whether users can trust and understand their behaviour.
The global autonomous vehicle market is expected to surpass $2.3 trillion by 2032, driven by advancements in AI, sensors and infrastructure (Ref). In India, AV adoption is still in early phases, but testing is underway in controlled environments, with companies like Tata Elxsi developing autonomous software solutions (Ref).
3A. Building Trust and Transparency:
AV passengers feel anxious or out of control when an AV makes driving decisions without clear explanations. Unpredictable behaviour – sudden braking, hesitation at intersections or confusion in unmarked roads – leave passengers feeling uneasy. The absence of a driver removes the human element of reassurance, making users skeptical.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta now displays real-time decision-making visuals to help users understand why the car is acting in a certain way. Waymo AVs use in-car audio and visual cues to inform passengers about upcoming maneuvers – “Turning left in 100 meters.”
💡What if we could select between “Cautious”, “Balanced” or “Assertive” driving modes to enable user-customization and control that mimics human-like driving.
3B. Pedestrian and Other Road-User Interactions:
AVs struggle to communicate intent with pedestrians and cyclists on the road. Without a driver to make eye contact or use hand signals, people often hesitate to cross. In unpredictable road environments like India, where pedestrians cross anywhere, AVs may drive too cautiously and get stuck for days, leading to frustrating traffic and extended delays.
External HMI (eHMI) systems are being tested. Waymo AVs now have LED text displays that say “Safe to cross”. Nissan has been exploring the use of light projections to communicate vehicle intentions to pedestrians, aiming to enhance safety and trust in autonomous vehicles (AVs). This approach involves projecting visual cues onto the road to indicate the vehicle’s intended path or actions, thereby informing pedestrians and other road users of its next moves (Ref).
💡We could also explore Smart crosswalks with vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication that alerts walkers when it’s safe to cross, reducing confusion.
💡It could be fun to have Holographic AI avatars on AV dashboards that interact with pedestrians, emulating the reassurance of a human driver.
The automotive revolution isn’t just happening under our car hoods – it’s happening inside the cabin, on the roads and in the minds of users. 🚀
From advanced EV-charging experiences to adaptive in-car interfaces and AVs that build trust through transparency, UX is the key to unlocking the future of mobility.
The question isn’t if we’ll get there – it’s how soon we’ll be designing a future where mobility is not just efficient but rather human-centered and delightful.
💬 What are your thoughts on EV-UX, HMI-UX, and AV-UX? What innovations do you think will redefine automotive experiences?
