1 Introduction

1.1 Background

Private car ownership revealed a trend of dramatic increase. According to the official statistics of the Ministry of Public Security, China’s car ownership had reached 217 million vehicles by the end of 2017, an increase of 11.85%, 23.44 million vehicles compared with 2016. The total number of passenger cars is 185 million, of which 170 million are small and mini passenger cars registered in the name of individuals, accounting for 91.89% of passenger cars. With the growth of private car ownership, urban traffic congestion, parking difficulties and other issues are becoming increasingly serious.

The major city traffic analysis report, published by Gaode Map in 2017, shows that during commuting peak 26% of the cities in China fell into traffic congestion, 55% of the cities’ traffic are in slow-moving condition [1]. Statistics indicates that urban road congestion is serious and commuting time is wasted. Road congestion has spread from first-tier cities and some big cities to second-tier and third-tier small-mediumcities. The direct cause of traffic congestion is that the car ownership is far more than the capacity of roads.

Parking difficulties and low utilization of parking spaces lead to urban traffic congestion and waste of resources to a large extent. According to the “Big Data Report on China’s Intelligent Parking Industry 2017”, 30% of the traffic congestion problems are caused by parking difficulties, 48% of the vehicles have to queue in the parking yard; in 2017, the total number of traditional parking spaces reached more than 80 million, while the demand for parking spaces exceeded 280 million, and the contradiction between supply and demand further increased. However, the utilization rate of parking space is less than 50% in more than 90% of the cities in China [2].

These social problems caused by the high ownership and low utilization of private cars have greatly affected the efficiency of road transportation, resulting in serious economic losses and social costs, and the energy shortage and environmental pollution problems are highlighted. Automobile exhaust has caused serious environmental pollution, become the main source of air pollution in many cities, and has become a “killer” threatening the lives and health of urban residents.

1.2 Car-Sharing and Autonomous Driving

Car-sharing emerges as a sustainable mode of transportation. Car-sharing, referring to multiple people sharing a car, is a traffic innovation mode between private cars and public transport. Compared with the traditional private car, the car-sharing not only provides users with free and flexible travel, but also meets users’ needs of long-distance and fast travel and achieves resource sharing and full utilization. Car-sharing increases mobility for community members to reach destinations otherwise inaccessible by public transit, walking or biking, while increasing the citizens’ awareness about the social and environmental impact of using private cars [3]. As an advanced mode of car service, car-sharing can effectively reduce the amount of private cars, improve the utilization rate of the car and the road, and to alleviate the traffic congestion and environment pollution.

Autonomous vehicle relies on artificial intelligence, visual computing, radar, monitoring devices and GPS to cooperate with each other, so that the intelligent driving system can operate smoothly and safely without the initiative of the human driver. Autonomous driving technology can reduce traffic accidents and alleviate traffic congestion; it can effectively use road space, increase the capacity of roads, improve the efficiency of transportation system. Auto-driving technology improves people’s safety in the car, liberates drivers’ hands, and makes full use of driving time for social or leisure activities. It can also facilitate the travel of special groups.

The existing papers on car-sharing mainly include the study of the business model, operation model, sharing mode and user research of shared cars. Guido Perboli, Francesco Ferrero, Stefano Musso and Andrea Vesco finished the first comprehensive analysis of business models in car-sharing services and made a comparison of 4 car-sharing companies [4]. There are three specific modes of car sharing. Including Two-way (station based) mode, One-way (station based) mode and Free-floating mode. Richard Mounce and John D. Nelson believe one-way car-sharing has the potential to become important components of future city transport systems [5]. The study of Henrik Becker, Francesco Ciari and Axhausen shows that free-floating car-sharing both complements and competes with station-based car-sharing [6]. The research of Morency Catherine shows that users are segmented in two large groups: the regular and occasional ones, and most users belong to the occasional group [7].

The innovation of this study is to mine the pain points and user needs of shared cars at the present stage based on user experience research, and to propose new solutions for future travel.

2 Automobile Development Trend Analysis

With the application of artificial intelligence, big data, vehicle networking, new energy and other new generation technologies in the automotive field, tremendous changes will take place in the way people travel in the future. The future vehicles will develop rapidly in the direction of intellectualization, sharing, electrification and personalization.

  • Intellectualization. Developments of various driver assistance technologies, such as cruise control, onboard Wifi and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, drive the changes in mobility [5]. The application of big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and vehicle networking technology promotes the development of advanced driving assistance system and Intelligent Connected Vehicle products are constantly upgraded and iterated. In the future, a new generation of driverless travel mode may be formed, which simplifies the complexity of people’s operation and provides users with excellent comfort and safety.

  • Electrification. With the concept of “light assets” becoming more and more popular, automobile users will pay more attention to the right of use than ownership in the future. Car-sharing is being globally implanted in over 1,100 cities and has become an important part of the sharing economy [8]. People have a low utilization rate of automobiles in daily life, and sharing can make efficient use of idle social resources.

  • Electrification. Automobile electrification is one of the effective ways to cope with the depletion of petroleum resources. In the future, electric vehicles will become the main means of transportation. The rise of the all-electric vehicle (EVs) has a major influence on the future of the car, and the overall cost of EVs will be less [9]. Driven by policy incentives and industry competition, all major auto manufacturers are investing heavily in EVs and its charging systems [9]. The technology of new energy vehicles has been developed rapidly, and the construction of charging piles and other infrastructure supporting electric vehicles will also be greatly developed.

  • Personalization. Once people’s basic needs are met, higher-level needs will emerge. People begin to have the needs of respect and self-realization. Products become more and more information densely (i.e. smart) and personalized (i.e. low volume in high variety) to meet user’s individual requirements [10]. People’s high quality and personalized needs need to be met urgently. Therefore, personalization will become one of the development trends of automobiles in the future.

3 Aim

In view of the current unhealthy urban traffic situation, this study aims to explore a reasonable and sustainable way of urban residents’ travel in the future by analyzing the way of urban residents’ travel, the choice of means of transportation and the development of sharing economy. Taking the shared car as the carrier, we analyze the pain points and excitement points in the existing shared car use flow, excavates the travel needs and personalized expectations of the target population, seeks for the design points and innovation points of future shared car, and explores the feasible scheme of combining individual travel and sharing mode. Combining with the development trend of automobile industry, a future concept vehicle is designed, which not only improves the current situation of high private car ownership, but also provides excellent driving experience for target users.

4 Methodology

The study methods were (1) Survey and interview, (2) Persona model, (3) User Experience Map and (4) Kano model. Through surveys and interviews, we obtain the data such as the user preferences and user performances to explore users’ needs. Persona models are created to segment user groups and analyze the usage scenarios. User Experience Map is used to sort out the use flow of shared car and key touch points, analyze user experience and emotions at each stage, discover user’s pain points and satisfaction points, and look for design opportunities. The Kano model is used to classify the user’s needs. The analysis results are used to guide and improve the products and services of car-sharing at the present stage, and to provide innovative ideas for future shared car design.

4.1 Survey and Interview

Jiguang Data published a research report on car-sharing industry. The data shows that as of November 2018, 95.24 million users installed car-sharing apps, an increase of 1.4 times over the same period last year, and the industry penetration rate has not yet reached 1%. The proportion of males and females is 76.2% and 23.8%, and users aged 26–35 accounted for 71.9% and 18-25 accounted for 19.9%. The majority of users are in the first-tier and second-tier cities, and the top three cities are Shanghai, Chongqing and Chengdu. Overall, there are tide phenomena in the use of shared cars, including morning peak and evening peak [11].

This indicates that there is still a huge space for the development of car-sharing industry. At present, the first and second-tier cities are in the lead, and the user groups are relatively young. The main travel scenario is commuting to work.

According to the survey results, we recruited four typical users of shared cars in Shanghai for interviews. The basic information of the respondents is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Basic information of the respondents.
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Through interviews, we collected the specific experience information of the respondent in the process of using shared cars. Respondents’ words included some of the advantages of shared cars and pain points in using them. Here are some examples of their original interview fragments.

  • “… Driving 30 km, 50 min, the cost is 24-yuan, 20 yuan is deducted with coupons, and only 4 yuan is spent when paying…”

  • “… The subway is too crowded, and there are two transfers. It’s fast and don’t need to take a detour to drive a shared car…”

  • “… It feels like the air inside the car is not very good, the environment is also a little bad, and there are oil-rich plastic bags on the co-driver’s seat…”

  • “… The number of shared cars is relatively small. It’s too difficult to find cars… The last user left too little vehicle location information…”

We use text analysis to collate and summarize the content of user interviews. The advantages of car-sharing include energy saving, environmental protection, comfortable driving, economical cost, free parking space, flexible and free travel, etc. The summary of the main pain points is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of main pain points.
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4.2 Persona Model

Previous research results show that the scale of shared car users is growing, and its unique convenience and accessibility make more urban residents willing to try car-sharing as a way of travel. Car-sharing users are mainly young and middle-aged. They can accept new things quickly and earn considerable income. With the improvement of consumption level, people also have higher requirements for the quality of life. They are keen to pursue personalization and fashion and get self-satisfaction from it. The users of shared cars are subdivided into the following groups according to the specific travel scenarios.

  • White-collar workers. They have driver’s license but no car. They have a certain economic base and have a long commuting journey.

  • Urban short-distance travel. Use shared car to travel between business circles, go to the suburbs or nearby cities to play, achieve flexible self-driving travel.

  • College students. They are willing to try new things. They drive shared cars with friends to downtown shopping or entertainment (from remote campus).

  • Multiple travel. Travel/work trips require multiple turns.

User groupsare basically determined, so we create Persona models to elaborate in detail. Combined with specific scenarios, we analyze the reasons why different user groups choose car-sharing and the needs under different travel scenarios.

  • Persona A

Zhang Feng, a 26-year-old software engineer from a company in downtown Shanghai, has no car and rents a house in the suburbs (Jiading District). He likes playing video games with friends or relaxing at home after work. He usually commutes to work by subway, after the popularity of car-sharing, he chooses to use shared cars for about 1–2 times a week.

Travel Scene:

Feng Zhang woke up in the morning and found that he has overslept. He was late to take the subway and taxi was expensive. There was a shared car parking station downstairs of his apartment. Through simple operation, the car was rented immediately, He arrived at the company on time.

  • Persona B

Zhang Xi, a 27-year-old female civil servant, is married and lives in Beijing. On weekends and holidays, she likes to have small gatherings with her friends, or staying with her children and husband.

Travel Scene 1:

Zhang Xi made an appointment with his friend to go shopping at the weekend. They bought a lot of things and it is not convenient to take these things by bus or subway. There were many shared cars near the shopping mall, so Zhang Xi rented a shared car. They put the purchased goods in the trunk, Zhang Xi started the car, first sent her friend home, and then drove home by herself.

Travel Scene 2:

Zhang Xi and her family went to Nanjing for a trip on National Day holiday. It was 8 p.m. after a day’s trip, as a result of exhaustion, they planned to take a taxi back to the hotel, but it was still difficult to get a taxi after a long wait. Opening APP, they found that there was just an idle shared car nearby, they found and rented the shared car and quickly returned to the hotel.

  • Persona C

Xu Ye, 22 years old, is a graduate student in a university (far from the city center) in Shanghai, who has no car but has obtained a driver’s license. He is willing to try new things. He likes to socialize through Microblog and Instagram. On weekends, he and his friends occasionally go to design exhibitions, shop or eat in the city, or visit other interesting places in the city.

Travel Scene:

Xu Ye plans to go to the Exhibition Center with his classmates at the weekend, and after the exhibition they can eat and shop in the mall nearby. It’s more expensive to take a taxi or a DidiTaxi, the subway requires two transfers, and it’s hard to get a taxi when they come back. So, Xu Ye and his classmates discussed renting a shared car, which is less expensive and convenient, and they can stay in the city for a little longer and return to school later.

  • Persona D

Liu Yang, a 31-year-old photographer living in Shanghai, is fond of traveling. He often has multiple travels to collect local customs and finish photographic works at the same time.

Travel Scene:

Liu Yang needed to go to Hangzhou to complete his photographic work. His one-day journey included four destinations, which is time-consuming and laborious to travel by bus. When Liu Yang arrived in Hangzhou, he rented a shared car and drove flexibly between the four locations to complete the task efficiently.

4.3 User Experience Map

User experience map is used to decompose the use flow of shared cars. And the user satisfaction points, pain points, mood and opportunities are analyzed in each stage. Through research and interviews, we collect enough user behavior, experience, feelings in the process of using shared cars. We refine the key task flow of using shared cars, find the goals of users to accomplish each key task, and sort out the specific behavior paths and touch points in each stage. The next steps are sorting out the user pain points and satisfaction points obtained in the research process, judging the emotional level of each stage and connecting them to form emotional curve, and searching for opportunities behind satisfaction points and pain points.

The key task flow of using shared cars can be concisely refined into five stages: renting, finding, driving, returning and paying.

  • Renting. Set pick-up and return location in the APP and select the desired car.

  • Finding. Go to the pick-up location, check the vehicle and unlock it.

  • Driving. Drive the car to the destination from pick-up location to return location.

  • Returning. Arrive at the designated parking lot and return the car.

  • Paying. Finish payment after the vehicle is returned.

The “renting” and “finding” stages can be interchanged in different scenarios. Persona A and Persona B travel scenarios are to find the target shared car first, and then complete the rental; Persona C and Persona D travel scenarios are to reserve the vehicle in advance, and then go to the shared car pick-up station to rent the car.

The User Experience Map of car-sharing (see Fig. 1) reveals that the users are relatively satisfied in the renting and driving stages, while the user experience in the car-finding and car-returning stages is poor. User’s needs are analyzed and sorted out based on User Experience Maps, and the results are shown in Table 3.

Fig. 1.
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User Experience Map of car-sharing.

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Table 3. Summary of user’s needs in each stage.
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The opportunities we get from the user experience map are arranging pick-up stations and return stations reasonably, increasing vehicle scheduling frequency, reminding users of power shortage and recommending the nearest charging station, increasing vehicle cleaning frequency, providing vehicle specific location information, improving vehicle identifiability by flashing lights or body marks, designing around User’s “temporary leaving” behavior, etc.

4.4 Kano Model

Kano model was proposed by Professor Noriaki Kano. The Kano model of customer satisfaction is a useful tool to classify and prioritize customer needs based on how they affect customer’s satisfaction [12]. In his model, user’s needs for something are subdivided into five qualities (see Fig. 2): Must-be quality, One-dimensional quality, Attractive quality, Indifferent quality and Reverse quality.

Fig. 2.
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Kano model of user satisfaction (Kano, 1984).

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  • Attractive quality. Attractive Quality is the quality beyond user’s expectation. Users’ satisfaction level will be greatly improved if this quality is satisfied. Even if not, users will not be disappointed.

  • One-dimensional quality. Users are satisfied when this quality element is ample, and their satisfaction level is in liner relation with quality element adequacy [13].

  • Must-be quality. Optimizing this quality will not increase user satisfaction, but if it is not satisfied, user satisfaction will be greatly reduced.

  • Indifferent quality. Whether this quality is provided or not, it has no effect on user experience and satisfaction.

  • Reverse quality. Many users do not have this need, the level of user satisfaction will decrease after providing this quality.

We use Kano model to categorize and classify the user’s needs that were mined earlier. Both Indifferent quality and Reverse quality need to be avoided. Therefore, we mainly analyze Must-be quality, One-dimensional quality and Attractive quality, and the results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Summary of user’s needs in each stage.
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Must-be quality and One-dimensional quality will be used to guide the improvement of current car-sharing products and services, enhance user satisfaction and improve user experience.

We obtain new opportunities through Kano model analysis, such as simplifying driving operation with intelligent means, exploring more possibilities of car layout, providing personalized services and facilities for different users, etc.

5 Result and Design Practice

5.1 Result

In the previous section, we collected users’ behavior and experience information of car-sharing and used User Experience Map and Kano model to mine the pain points and opportunities. The application of auto-driving technology will effectively solve some of the main pain points of sharing automobile at current stage and improve user experience and satisfaction.

  • Solving the difficulties of finding and parking shared cars. The existing shared cars require users to pick up and return their cars by themselves. The location distribution of pick-up stations and return stations can not provide users with the greatest convenience, resulting in waste of time and vehicle resources. Auto-driving shared car can complete automatic cruise, arrive at the user’s designated boarding position and head for destination automatically.

  • Reducing the demand for parking spaces. After arriving at the destination, the autonomous shared car can directly navigate to the location of the next user, further reducing the idle time of the shared car.

  • Solving the difficulties of charging and relieving range anxiety. With the application of autonomous driving, users no longer worry about the lack of electricity during the journey. When the power is insufficient, the shared car will automatically cruise to the nearest charging station to recharge. When the power is full, it will resume its working state.

  • Regular vehicle cleaning. The auto-driving shared car can cruise to the maintenance center regularly and automatically for cleaning and maintenance by batch, which can effectively ensure the vehicle environment and improve the comfort of the car.

  • Completing vehicle dispatch automatically and scientifically. Shared cars can be dispatched automatically according to the demand for vehicles. Vehicles are more distributed in areas where the need is concentrated, so as to improve the utilization rate of vehicles.

The application of autonomous driving technology can effectively improve vehicle safety, making users no longer confined to the driving seat, providing more possibilities for vehicle layout and human-computer interaction. It also facilitates the travel of special groups (such as the elderly, the disabled, etc.).

According to the analysis of users’ needs, opportunities, and the future automobile development trend, the design concept of future automobile sharing is formed.

  • Making full use of the advantages of autonomous driving technology to optimize the operation mode of shared vehicles and completing the task of picking up and carrying passengers, charging, cleaning and dispatching by automatic cruise.

  • Expanding the interior space of the car and exploring new possibilities of in-car layout and human-computer interaction. The future shared cars will become mobile living space and interactive terminals.

  • Providing personalized services and facilities to meet the user’s personalized needs. Following the concept of environmental protection and improving the utilization of space in the car.

  • Improving the identifiability of shared vehicles to make users easily identify their reserved vehicles as soon as possible, which also improves the efficiency of using vehicles.

5.2 Design Practice

This design aims at making use of autonomous driving technology and sharing mode to make future cars become mobile living space and interactive terminals. It provides reasonable solutions to negative problems caused by urban cars while optimizing users’ travel experience. The design includes automobile styling, human-computer interaction and operation mode.

The styling of future autonomous sharing car is shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, simple and futuristic. According to Kano model analysis, One-dimensional quality includes adequate and spacious interior space. Therefore, the wheelbase of the car body is lengthened, the front and rear suspensions become shorter, which provides more space for passengers and can meet the travel needs of 5–6 people at the same time. Two sides of the body are embedded with parameterized LED display screen elements, which are used to display the personalized logo set by the user. It is convenient for car identification and solves the pain point of poor identification of the reserved vehicle. The layout and size of the shared car concept are shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 3.
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The future autonomous sharing car (a).

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Fig. 4.
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The future autonomous sharing car (b).

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Fig. 5.
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The future autonomous sharing car (c).

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Fig. 6.
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The layout and size of the shared car concept.

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The future shared car will become an intelligent interactive terminal and mobile living space. Users can interact with automobiles through the three-dimensional interactive interface of holographic projection, which helps to improve the interaction efficiency between users and automobiles and bring users a pleasant immersive experience. Users can enjoy entertainment, online social networking, online shopping, work and other forms of activities during the ride.

The analysis results of car-sharing User Experience Map and Kano model show that user pain points such as unreasonable distribution of pick-up and return stations, difficulties in finding charging piles and poor vehicle environment seriously affect user experience. Shared car operation mode based on autonomous driving technology can help users to improve their driving experience, enhance safety, comfort and utilization of shared cars. The vehicles can cruise automatically, realizing the automatic operation such as picking up and delivering passengers, charging, regular cleaning, short-distance connection of “the last kilometer” and vehicle dispatching. It can solve the user’s pain points while reducing human costs and improving operation efficiency.

Users reserve cars through APP on the mobile phone before travel. They are able to set the time, starting point, destination, number of peers and whether they are willing to carpool in this APP. The vehicle cruises automatically to the starting point, picks up the passengers and drives automatically to the destination. After the passengers get off safely, the vehicle automatically goes to the starting point of the next passenger. Vehicles regularly go to the maintenance center for cleaning and maintenance. When the power is insufficient, they automatically drive to the charging station to replenish the power.

Based on user’s needs for personalized services and facilities, this design focuses on personalization. Users set up their own personalized logos, and the car body shows the pre-designed logo when the vehicle arrives (see Fig. 7). To meet the special needs of users, modular seats and tools (such as children’s seats, barrier-free facilities, etc.) in the car can be flexibly combined and moved. Based on the user’s demand for the optimization of the interior layout, the car interior is wraparound layout. All passengers can face to the center, which facilitates the communication between passengers and their companions, and provides the possibility for the communication between carpool passengers as well.

Fig. 7.
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Example of personalized logo.

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The future autonomous shared car design based on user experience meets various needs of users and provides better personalized experience. It can also effectively alleviate urban problems and improve the utilization rate of shared vehicles and road transport efficiency.

6 Conclusion

In this paper, we study the user experience in the existing shared car use flow. We use survey and interview, Persona model, User Experience Map and Kano model to excavate user pain points, satisfaction points and user’s needs, find design opportunities and use them to guide creative design. The application of autonomous driving technology can solve many pain points of existing shared cars. By combining the future development trend of automobiles, we can provide users with more high-quality personalized travel experience and effectively improve user satisfaction. Making full use of autonomous driving can effectively solve users’ pain points such as range anxiety and difficulties in finding a car, parking and charging. The operating mode of shared cars based on autonomous driving will make it easier to realize automatic scheduling and regular cleaning, and improve the utilization rate of Shared vehicles and the comfort level of users in ride experience. In the future, cars will become mobile living space and interactive terminals. Shared vehicles will have personalized service and the interior layout and interaction will be more diverse.

The limitation of this paper is that there is no classification of shared vehicles with multiple operation modes in the research process. In the future research, we will further refine and study the user experience of Shared vehicles in various modes and vehicle scenarios, continue to explore the factors affecting the user experience, and improve the user satisfaction of Shared vehicles.