As part of my background research into autonomous vehicles for my latest project, I wanted to take a wider view of what cars mean to people and their attachment to them. This is because cars form an integral part of modern life and I believe that the move towards a future with Autonomous vehicles will change this relationship. I want to look at the current relationship to see if I can use the design of my UI to aid in making this transition easier and allaying any fears or worries people may have.
To this end I went to the library and got a book called “Car Cultures” this is a collection of essays written by different academic professionals around the relationship between people and cars in several diverse cultures around the world. From the First Nations people in South Australia to teenage car owners in Sweden, with stops to look at road rage and race relations.
These essays are mainly written from the viewpoint of sociologists who have joined these communities and studied their relationships with cars. They look at the good and bad things that cars have brought to the community as well as how people individually have reacted to cars. Some of these communities have long lasting traditions and ceremonies and it is very interesting to see how cars have changed these traditions, that in many cases have previously been unchanged for centuries.
While this book looks at cars and their effects for a social studies standpoint, I still found some very useful information about how cars have changed people’s lives and the huge impact they have had. This is useful for me as it provides evidence that my own assumption that people have a very strong attachment to cars and that some of that is to do with being in control, something people will need to give up during the transition to autonomous vehicles.
One of the most interesting pieces within this book was about the First Nations Australian group the Walpiri and how their culture has been affected by the ownership of cars. The Walpiri have really linked the car into their culture and lives. The car is now used for transportation across large distances to attend religious ceremonies as well as in hunting game for the community. Cars are normally seen as the preserve of men in the community and men are generally controlled by men in both driving and deciding how and what the car should be used for. What I found the most interesting is how cars are treated at the end of their useful lives where they are in many cases simply left in the bush where they are scavenged for spare parts. This is quite different to what happens when the owner of a car dies whereas the car is seen as almost untouchable and still carrying some of the spirit of the owner. Cars are linked to their owners in life as well as many cars are known by the name of the owner rather than by a make or model that I would be more used to in our culture. This link between person and car is extremely strong shown by how the link remains even after a person’s death and while an extreme case does show the power the car has over humanity across the world. Here we see people commonly seeing their car as part of their identity and having a nice car as a mark of success, some people can take this quite far and it is not always positive as shown by this quote from my user research survey:
“A guy owned a BMW who thought it made him a better person. It did not. When talking about selling the car he would often say ‘the car is me’ which is dramatic.”
I think this book has shown me the incredible impact the car has had on society all over the world in so many cultures, cultures which are totally different yet show the same level of dedication and in some cases reverence to the car.
For me, what this shows is that people may find it difficult to let go of personal ownership of cars, something that may be forced upon them by the cost and complexity of autonomous vehicles. I think this will have on impact on how autonomous vehicles are designed and probably explains why current autonomous vehicles look the same as other cars. They all have traditional layouts and apart for the company branding could easily be mistaken for just another normal car. I feel this will continue to be the case with autonomous vehicles for a long time until we have people who are used and comfortable with a new approach to personal transport.
I need to consider this in my design as I do believe both from my user survey and this book that people are not ready for a radical redesign of the car and its use. I need to really emphasise the benefits of autonomous vehicles for people to make them more acceptable before I can look at major redesigns and changes of how we use cars. This will be something I consider as I move forward with designing my UI for an autonomous vehicle.