The Digital Driver of the Future—User Experience Research on Generation Z in Germany

Future vehicle drivers will use cars differently than today, since increasingly connected and automated cars will offer a totally new driving experience. Valeo tries to find out how a positive driving experience of tomorrow can look like, but the challenge is that users today are not always aware of what they will need, especially when it comes to situations they have never experienced before. This paper shows that it is not enough to ask people what they would want in their future cockpit in order to find out their possible needs. Instead, one needs to understand what might impact their way of driving such as their way of living in a digital age, commuting and communicating. Understanding the user experience of users being born and raised in a digital era and being part of a generation highly-connected such as the Generation Z will help to create intuitive vehicle cockpits for automated and connected cars. With this background, a UX research study of Generation Z was conducted including ethnographic research and classical qualitative market research methods, exposing the future digital driver’s needs.