Differentiated Driving Range

Abstract

Electric cars may be an important alternative to combustion engine cars in the process towards a more sustainable transportation system. However, the short and varying driving range communicated by what has become known as the "guess-o-meter" on the dashboard of current electric car models is known to sometimes cause confusion for electric car drivers. In this paper, we analyze this issue and propose alternative solutions to the current way of presenting the remaining driving range to the driver. We do this by exploring a concept that we call differentiated driving range. The concept aims to reveal the relationship between factors related to driving and the estimated driving range. Starting from this concept we explore different ways of giving it a concrete form and eventually reach a fully testable interactive design. We believe that this is of interest to a wider audience and reflect on some issues with our current instantiation and directions for future work.