Carmeleon: Reinventing the Traffic Jam Experience

We now live in a digital world. More and more people now own electronic devices, whether it’s a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet. We are now used to a new generation of technological interfaces, including touchscreens, keyboards, and many forms of ―smart‖ products. The cars of today are evolving to have capabilities of interacting with their user, exchange information with the road, and even talk to each other. Each day, the cars on the road continue to become more efficient, more secure and more fun to drive.

We are also becoming increasingly more dependent on our surrounding network. In our current world, few can afford to live without internet access anymore. Many people even experience the fear of missing out after just a few hours offline. People want to send and receive emails, text messages, and have access to their social networks everywhere on the go, at any given time. According to some of the interviews we’ve conducted, spending time in traffic jams would be bearable only if it doesn’t interrupt the flow of information where users exchange with the world.
At some point, this becomes a problem: Amongst other issues, texting while driving causes 1.6 million accident every year, and 6000 person lose their life. Unfortunately in the driver’s mind, sometimes putting his or her own life in danger could be more attractive than doing nothing.

In order to be more productive, we now have the habit to give the tasks we don’t want to do to the machines. They are in the process of replacing humans in many of the repetitive, dangerous or mundane jobs. It all started in the manufacturing industry, but now even our everyday life is impacted: just the pressing of a button and an espresso machine will prepare you the best coffee, while your hoover will turn itself on and cross your house searching for something to clean.
Valeo, a world leader in car supplies, understood that and brought automation to car driving. They started with Park4U, an iPhone app coupled with the car system that allows the driver to have the car do the parking operations by itself. And continuing with Park4U Valet, it would free the user from having to even search for an available parking place.
But Valeo is now thinking even further ahead, by working on a car that can drive itself autonomously at low speeds, enabling the driver fully focus on whatever he wants to do during tedious traffic jam situations. They will then be able to take hands their away from the wheel and keep their eyes off the road to do various activities from browsing the internet to even exercising. In turn, the space and functions of the cockpit will need to adapt to those new possibilities. That’s why our most important job is to define exactly what the future users of such cars will need or want.

But people aren’t totally ready yet: give over control of the wheel in a moving car is still psychologically difficult even if the system has been successfully tested. Developing trust in new machine technologies could be hard for people, especially when it is used in a potentially dangerous environment. And it could take years before laws and public minds to follow. In the meantime, in order for the Valeo’s technology to be widely accepted, we will need to design the user experience to allow the driver to fully understand what’s happening and feel in control of the situation and safe at all time.

And what can make you feel more in control of a product than knowing exactly how to use it at first sight? Apple’s legendary success in the past 20 years came hugely due to their revolutionary vision to drastically improve intuitivity of all their devices. They managed to turn an opaque world of computers into a line of sophisticated toys that even a 3-years-old kid can use.

While the telecommunication world is evolving at an ever-growing speed, the design of automotive seems to go around in circles. While phones keep getting simpler, faster, becoming more intuitive and customizable, the cockpit of the car are evolving to look more and more like airplane cockpits. The driver is being drawn under an avalanche of buttons, control panels, dashboard features and blinking screens, adding to the time they need to find what they truly want.
How can we invert this tendency? Possibly by making a car in a similar fashion as how we would make a smartphone:
A tangible device that reduces the number of interaction steps by deleting the unnecessary functions, and merges the physical and digital world together so that the actions we perform fit perfectly with the instinctive gestures that correspond to it.

A flexible platform that can evolve through app-like modules and adapt exactly to the user’s behaviors and preferences, displaying exactly what he or she needs and wants in times of convenience, and can be personalized to satisfy the ever-changing desires of the driver.