Robotaxi Safety: How to Bring the Human Back Into the Loop
After decades of development and test deployments, have robotaxis lived up to their promise to provide safe and useful transport, especially for vulnerable users? This report dives into the history of robotaxis (including details of key on-road incidents), explores the risks of product-inward development, and provides recommendations for human-outward research practices.
Derek Viita
September 29, 2025
The Car as an Office: Are Consumers Finally Ready?
Mercedes-Benz recently announced its intention to integrate Microsoft Teams into its MB.OS platform. This report explores this and automakers' other attempts to bring productivity apps into the car, their potential use cases, and their future prospects.
Derek Viita
September 13, 2025
Is Simpler Better? A Closer Look at Stellantis's Connected Service Packages
In 2025, Stellantis revamped and simplified its connected service suite for car owners in the US and Canada. This report explores the new service tiers from a historic perspective, and analyzes them from an end-user's perspective.
Derek Viita
August 11, 2025
Exterior HMI: How Cars Will Communicate with the Outside World
This report examines exterior HMI use cases, publicly available demonstrations, and outlook for UX opportunities with exterior HMI, focusing on gesture/voice control, touchscreens / displays, ground light projection, and audio communication.
Chris Schreiner
August 8, 2025
2025 Volvo XC40 + Google Built-In
User Driven Strategies conducted a driver-and-passenger-focused evaluation of the infotainment system aboard a 2025 Volvo XC40, examining top tasks in media, satnav, communication, and climate. The evaluation also explores how Volvo's design strategy has changed since the 2010s, the role of Google Built-In, and what these developments could mean more broadly for the future of CarPlay and Android Auto.
Derek Viita
July 18, 2025
Ten Years of Carsharing UX: Lessons Learned, Lessons Ignored
The technical and UX maturity of station-based and free-floating carshare services (a.k.a. car clubs) have evolved quite a bit over the past decade. This report looks back on the historic investment in carsharing services, evaluates the user experience of 3 active carsharing services across the US and Europe, and considers the model's future prospects.
Derek Viita
July 18, 2025
The Demise of Smartphone Mirroring?
For over ten years, smartphone mirroring has dominated in-vehicle infotainment. But the industry is at a crossroads where embedded systems can meet or exceed customers' infotainment expectations. This report examines the main barrier holding back certain embedded systems and potential solutions to overcome.
Chris Schreiner
July 16, 2025
Haptic Feedback: Tactile Evolution’s Impact on Automotive UX
This report looks at the key factors optimizing haptic HMI, key providers of haptic interfaces and components, and a look at what we expect from the next generation of haptics.
Chris Schreiner
July 15, 2025
Impact of Large-Language Models on In-Vehicle UX
This report explores the potential of LLMs to meaningfully improve the in-vehicle experience. It investigates where these models offer incremental vs. transformative gains over current systems, identifies key future use cases, and unpacks the nuanced UX considerations that may not be immediately obvious to designers and product teams.
Chris Schreiner
June 12, 2025
The Path to *Real* Self-Driving Cars
For over a decade, the automotive industry has made bold promises about the imminent arrival of fully automated vehicles (a.k.a.robotaxis). OEMs alongside tech companies like have invested billions in the race to develop self-driving cars and driverless taxi services. This technology was heralded as a transformative leap — poised to reduce traffic accidents, eliminate congestion, increase mobility for all, and reshape urban landscapes. However, despite the early optimism and aggressive timelines, the reality has fallen far short of expectations.
Chris Schreiner
June 5, 2025
UX Overview: Apple CarPlay Ultra
Apple's CarPlay Ultra represents a potential next step forward in automotive infotainment, marking a transformative phase in the integration of mobile technology with vehicle systems. This report examines the positive aspects and potential issues of CarPlay Ultra’s user experience. Special attention is given to design elements, specific design choices made by Aston Martin, system reliability, multi-user environments, fallback behavior, and the implications of ceding display space to a third-party operating layer.
Chris Schreiner
June 4, 2025
Data is the New Oil and Automakers Keep Spilling It
It has become common for consumer-facing companies to collect as much usage data as possible, from as many of their users as possible, at all times. After collecting that data, these companies would then figure out how they might use it to extract more revenue for themselves. However, this often ignores the harm that can be done by collecting data/consent improperly, storing data improperly, or handling data improperly.
Derek Viita
May 13, 2025
UX Evaluation: Honda Prologue
User Driven Strategies conducted a driver-and-passenger-focused evaluation of the infotainment system aboard a 2024 Honda Prologue. Tasks evaluated included tuning the radio, playing a song from a streaming service, calling a contact, entering a destination, changing climate settings, and searching for a point of interest.
Derek Viita
April 3, 2025
