Exploring the Design Space for Drivers’ In-Vehicle Experience in Automated Vehicles

As automated vehicles (AVs) accumulate functions and information layers, integrating and orchestrating drivers’ in-vehicle experiences remain insufficiently understood design challenges. This study examines sensory, cognitive, hedonic, and social aspects of in-vehicle experience and how experiential values, functions, and interactions are linked over time. We conducted a systematic literature review of 128 papers and studied 27 AV owners using UX Curve elicitation and semi-structured interviews. Based on interview coding and UX Curve ratings, we propose a conceptual framework organizing ten experiential value dimensions across four experience phases: anticipation, familiarization, functional dependence, and practice & meaning transformation. These dimensions include aesthetic pleasure, comfort, efficiency, safety & security, economic sustainability, novelty, flexibility & control, emotional management, relatedness, and identity. We further derive five experience design patterns and articulate an experience-driven design space through four generative charts for future human–vehicle interaction (HVI) design exploration.