A Design Space for External Displays on Cars

The exterior surfaces of cars provide so far unutilized opportunities for information display. The exploitation of this space is enabled by current advances in display technologies combined with increased sensor integration, computing power, and connectivity in vehicles. With this motivation, we present a framework, mapping the design space for external vehicle displays. The audience for the displayed information may be other road users, pedestrians, or autonomous systems. This design direction is particularly interesting in the future, as the current direction towards driverless vehicles may be an enabler for increased separation, redesign, and repurposing of vehicle interior and exterior surfaces.