Shaping the Future of the Automotive User Experience: Design-for-Experience & the Last-Inch Problem

The communications and computing technologies underlying the future automotive user-experience are described in terms of what a typical consumer might see: built-in, beamed-in and brought-in services. A design-for-experience framework is proposed to translate desired experiences into underlying web-enabled services. To realize web-enabled services, the automobile needs to be defined as an information services platform, delivering communications and computing as services. Termed the last inch problem, the challenges associated with delivering this platform are outlined in the paper. Results from the development of engineering concepts and their application to demonstration vehicles are presented.