Comparing user requirements for automated vehicle interiors in China and Germany

Automated vehicles (AVs) are a global trend. Thus, cultural differences in user preferences to create safe, trustworthy, usable and well-being enhancing AVs are likely. To investigate cultural differences in user preferences, a cross-cultural qualitative expert survey in China and Germany with focus on the AV interior was conducted. The study results indicate that similar features of the AV interior are important to fulfill the user needs for subjective well-being, trust, safety and usability. However, the importance of the features and their exact design differ. In general, the results indicate that Chinese users will prefer an AV interior with hedonic design while German users will prefer a pragmatic design.