APP FOR RENAULT SYMBIOZ 
AUTONOMOUS CAR 

Client
Renault

Sector
Automotive

Scope
Product, UX, UI

Brief: Renault wanted us to create smart solutions for their autonomous, electric and connected car concept, SYMBIOZ.

Problem: We found out that the average time to find a parking place in the city centers is 20 minutes which has big consequences on the people's quality of life, economy, environmental pollution and noise pollution. We decided to tackle this problem taking advantage of the capabilities of the SYMBIOZ car.  

 

Vision: We designed a scenario that in the context of self-driving cars, due to no-car zones in the cities (which are getting more and more common) and limited available parking spaces in the city centers, the future owners of the autonomous cars would use their cars in combination with public transportation. For example, an autonomous car would drop the passenger in the most convenient metro or bus station where it can park itself within close proximity while the passenger would go on with his/her journey in the fastest and most convenient way from that point onwards.

Solution Part-A: An efficient solution for the future would require a smart use of connected cars so we designed our proposed system to utilize exactly this. As each Renault autonomous car driving on the streets would simultaneously identify the empty parking spaces on the streets, they would continuously inform each other about the empty parking lots. This information would feed our navigation algorithm to make better choices when creating directions while helping cars searching for a place to park itself to find the closest empty parking slots as quickly as possible.

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Renault’s SYMBIOZ cars will be connected to a network where they can communicate to each other. 

Solution Part-B: We developed an algorithm to identify the best possible route for passengers to arrive in their destination. It is similar to google maps directions but adding in the calculation the mode of autonomous car and the intensity of the available parking spaces in different areas of the city that is fed by the Renault Network.

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I have designed the Renault SYMBIOZ App’s UX and UI parts for our solution. The mobile App has a navigation feature that integrates public transportation with autonomous capabilities of the SYMBIOZ car as well as information from the Renault Network such as the real time availability of the parking lots which are detected by the cars in the network.The app also has features for users to be able to follow up with their car after they are dropped off and separated from the car. In the app, they could remotely communicate with their car and see the status of their car such as the current location of the car, video of the surrounding and any self-detectable information about the car. They could also call them back / summon the car for their next journey.

Pain Point: With user interviews, I have identified that the car owners would like to know the location and the status of their car once they left the car and the car is acting in the autonomous mode.

 

Solution: The user could remotely follow in the app status of the car by viewing any self-detectable situation as well as with an ability to watch the surrounding of the car with the built-in video cameras on the car.

Status-

Pain Point: Another pain point I identified was that once the user calls his car back to pick him/her up at a certain time, there might be a delay in the time the user will be ready. If it is a location where it is not possible for the car to wait, this could be a problem once the car arrives.

Solution: In this case, the user could request a delay for the pick-up time.  In order to adjust its arrival time, the car would either 

- slow down on the way, 
- park in an available parking lot on the way,
- or make a detour. 

Process

Early sketch

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Wireframes

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User Journey Map

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