Using an electric car :
a situated, instrumented and emotional activity
Béatrice Cahour Claudine Nguyen
C.N.R.S. LTCI Renault/Tél.ParisTech
Télécom ParisTech Technocentre Renault
46 rue Barrault 1, av du Golf
75013 Paris FR 78288 Guyancourt
beatrice.cahour@teleco claudine.nguyen@renaul
m-paristech.fr t.com
ABSTRACT
Motivation – The objective of the study was to specify how
drivers deal with the autonomy of their car, be it traditional or
electric, how they plan the recharge and how they check it
while driving.
Research approach – For the first part of the study on
traditional cars use, we conducted 14 in-depth interviews and
344 questionnaires were filled. For the second part of the
study on electric cars use, we lend an electric car to 9 subjects
during two weeks; they filled a diary and videotaped the
interesting events during the driving activity. Then they had 3
self-confrontation interviews to document their lived
experience, based on the video and on the diaries.
Findings/Design – People may have various emotional
relations to the risk of breakdown, and it influences their
activity and how they deal with the risky situations, especially
in terms of anticipative conduct, reflexive instruments
interpretation and avoidance.
Research limitations – Qualitative study of VE use with 9
subjects
Originality/Value – The research highlights the link between
cognitive and affective aspects of situated activities.
Take away message – the management of a risk depends on
the affective relation to this risk, on the degree of uncertainty
and on the instruments available to cope with it.
Keywords
Electric vehicle, activity, autonomy, recharge, uncertainty,
worry, emotions, instruments, reflexivity, contextual situation.
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ECCE '12, August 28 - 31 2012, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1786-3/12/08…$15.00.
Jean-François Forzy Christian Licoppe
Renault SA/ DELT’A Télécom ParisTech
Technocentre Renault SES department
1, av du Golf 46 rue Barrault
78 288 Guyancourt 75013 Paris FR
jean.forzy@renault.com Christian.licoppe@telec
om-paristech.fr
1 INTRODUCTION1
Using an electric car is an activity which is different from
using a classical car, especially because the electric
“autonomy”2 is more limited, and drivers may then be afraid
of running out of energy. We will show here how this activity
of driving an electric car and dealing with its autonomy is a
cognitive but also emotional experience, highly dependent on
the situational context and with a decisive importance of the
instruments available during the activity.
We consider the driving activity as a user experience where
actions, cognitive activities, sensorial perceptions and
emotions are intimately mixed. “Experience can be seen as
the irreducible totality of people acting, sensing, thinking,
feeling and making sense in a setting, including their
perception and sensation of their own actions.” (McCarthy &
Wright, 2004, p.54). The cognition is then clearly embodied,
emotional feelings are constitutive of all activities, and we
will see how emotions can have a role of action orientation
which is still often ignored. Emotional states have a bodily
and a cognitive side and most authors studying the psychology
of emotions (Scherer & al, 1986) consider that they are
generally composed of (1) subjective feelings which can be
expressed verbally by the subjects, (2) expressive behaviours
such as mimics, postures, prosody, (3) physiological reactions
such as variations of blood pressure or cardiac rhythm. Lots of
studies indicate nowadays that emotions orient cognition and
social relations, and have an impact on memory processes,
judgments, creativity and cooperation (Cahour 2012). We will
show how the affective relation to a risk may impact the
activity, and how cognition and action are intimately tied to
emotions. The autonomy of a vehicle, especially when it is
electric (because of the possibility of gaining energy), is a
source of uncertainty since we cannot generally know the
exact distance that we can drive without running out of
energy. It depends on the precision of the petrol gauge and
other instruments. Different studies indicate that uncertainty
may be an intense source of worry for those who are intolerant
to it (Birrel & al, 2011, Burh & Dugas, 2006).
We will also show how the management of the risk of
breakdown with an electric vehicle is intimately linked to the
situational context (Suchman 1987) and on the way drivers
interpret and react to the reflexive instruments which are
available.
1
This study has been financed by Renault Department of
Research (PhD of C.Nguyen).
2
We use the term « autonomy » in the sense of the amount of
power available (petrol or battery range).
22
The objective of the study was to specify how drivers deal
with the autonomy of their car. It is not a central part of the
driving activity most of the time, but it is a prerequisite and
preoccupation which is more or less in the background, and
may become a central focus at some moments. It becomes a
central issue for the use of electric vehicles which have a more
limited capacity of ‘autonomy’. No studies being available on
this issue, in a first step we began studying this activity of
managing the energy with traditional cars and in a second
step we studied the drivers experience with electric cars.

2 METHODOLOGY
Our methodological approach is mostly based on “re-
situating” interviews, that is interviews limiting the
rationalisations and reconstructions by getting the subjects to
remember precisely the situation (Cahour & Salembier, 2012).
We helped the subject remembering as vividly as possible
specific situations (and not describe general situations), (1)
with specific techniques of questioning developed by
Vermersch (1994), such as recalling the context, avoiding
inductive questioning, keeping near the subject’s description,
avoiding “why” questions (2) and also with the video support
for the second part of the study.
For the first part of the study on traditional cars use, we
conducted 14 in-depth interviews (7 men, 7 women, 23 to 63
years old). After a general description of how they tend to
manage the autonomy (“could you describe how you manage
the petrol refilling? do you wait until a certain point to go to
the station or not? Does it depend on the circumstances? Have
you ever run out of petrol? ... all this sort of situations”), we
asked them to remember and describe the lived experiences of
specific moments of this type.
We then analysed the interviews, and from the analysis we
constructed a questionnaire of 7 items (described later in the
text) to get quantitative data on specific points, filled by 344
drivers of 21 to 65 years old.
For the second part of the study on electric vehicles (EV)
use, we lend an electric car to 9 subjects during two weeks (7
men, 2 women, 24 to 55 years old, of the four styles); the lend
cars are of three different types and trends, their official
electric range is from 150 km to 160 km and the time needed
to fully charge the battery is 7-8 hours.
(1) we gave them a diary to describe:
- The journeys : destination, planification, unexpected events,
renunciations and motivations;
- The recharge : mode, place, impressions and other remarks
- Other impressions or specific events with the VE
(2) they had an in-car system to videotape the driving scene,
the dashboard and the face of the subject, when they thought
that something noticeable happened about their driving. At the
end of days 1, 8 and 14 we had self-confrontation interviews,
based on the video of what the subject was seeing during the
driving, and based also on the diaries. The mode of
questioning is largely based on the Explicitation Interview
developed by Vermersch (1994) to produce “re-situating
interviews” where the subjects remember vividly the situation
and describe their phenomenological experience of it, with or
without the trace of the activity (Cahour & Salembier 2012,
Light 2006). The objective was to help them describe the way
they dealt with the question of the limited autonomy when
using the electric car.
Figure 1 : In-car system to videotape and video-based
interview.
3 RESULTS3
In this section we present firstly the results concerning how
drivers deal with their petrol autonomy using a traditional car,
and secondly how they deal with the limited autonomy of an
electric vehicle.
3.1 Managing the autonomy of traditional
cars
The analysis of the 14 in-depth interviews indicates that this
experience of managing the autonomy of a car is variable and
we could identify different styles of reactions: some drivers
are more apprehensive than others towards the risk of running
out of petrol and tend to anticipate more the refill in a station,
whereas some others will wait until the last moment to go and
refill the vehicle.
3.1.1 Contextual and personal determinants:
From the analysis of the 14 interviews we could identify the
elements which determine such or such type of reaction
concerning the refilling of the car are the following. They are
a mix of personal tendencies (such as the affective relation to
the risk of breakdown or to the stations) and of contextual
elements such as the reliability of the instruments, the
temporal priorities, the familiarity with such or such journey
and the persons who may share the car.
- The affective relation to the risk of breakdown: here the
risk is to run out of energy, to be stopped in the middle of
nowhere, maybe in a dangerous place, to loose time, look
stupid, and/or have to wait. For some persons it is a risk that
they absolutely want to avoid because it frightens them, it is a
source of worry; for others it is not such a terrible situation,
not enough to avoid it absolutely. We have here an example of
a driver who clearly anticipates the refilling not to feel
anxious:
Ana : “ I’ve never broken down. And I’m only very, very
occasionally low on fuel (...) I don’t want any trouble. I

3
This study has been financed by Renault Department of
Research (PhD of C.Nguyen).

23
 don’t want to feel anxious because of it. So really, I plan
things ahead to avoid finding myself in a stressful
situation (…). So I mean, well, I reassure myself from the
start. I don’t have to deal with that constraint. I’ve sorted
it out, so I can concentrate on the road, and on enjoying
the drive. When I don’t have that constraint anymore, then
I can drive along peacefully”.
It is probable that this relation to the risk of breakdown will
not change much with EV.
- Disgust of the stations : Drivers may also be reluctant to
stop in a filling station because they dislike the smell, the fact
to have petrol on the hands, or even the possibilities of
explosion with the mobile phones. They consequently delay
the re-supplying. The agreeability of the place where the
person has to stop impacts the management of the autonomy.
Lise : “It’s always a little grotty, so, um I mean it often is.
Every time there were some plastic gloves available, I
would grab a pair. But sometimes there aren’t any, so …
Your hands are filthy, so if you want to go shopping or
anything... Even after using it, you put your hands back on
the wheel, and it’s, it’s not very nice. Or sometimes you
walk right into the fuel. That side of it, it’s not … I didn’t
like … well, it wasn’t the nicest thing».
Noé : « It stinks. It sucks».
For EV situations, it puts into light the importance of
designing pleasant places for the electricity charge, especially
if the persons need to wait.
- The reliability of the reflexive instruments to evaluate the
remaining autonomy: the available instruments may be the
gauge, the indicator of remaining kilometres, and the
ecometer when one wants to drive in an economic way, more
slowly and smoothly. After entering in the reserve, the
knowledge of the remaining kilometres is generally vague,
and some instruments may be unreliable or ambiguous in their
meaning.
Chloé : « It’s quite random, because, um … My fuel level
lowers a lot faster in the second half of the tank than it does in
the first. Say, I might do 400 km on the first half of the tank,
and 300 on the second half. Hence the fact that I have run out
on occasion, thinking I might finish the journey with a single
full tank. »
When the instruments are reliable and precise, then the drivers
feel safer for avoiding the risk of a failure. Some users who
prefer to anticipate also use internet services before the
journey to know how long they will drive, how much petrol
they will consume, and where are the station sites ; this
anticipation is also a way for being less worried. We will see
how this point is crucial for EV design.
- Temporal priorities : some drivers say that the re-supplying
in petrol is often not their priority, and even if they know that
they should stop in a station, they can sometimes forget it,
because they are late to go to a meeting for instance ; that is
the case of Mireille who often runs out of petrol.
Mireille : “I was doing long days. In the evening, I was dead
tired: Oh, I’ll do it (fill the tank) tomorrow, when I leave. In
the morning, when you want to fill the tank and arrive on
time, I probably had an appointment on that particular
morning. So I take the car. I hear that little sound, you know,
out of fuel. And I say to myself: Rats, I’m going to run out of
time. I’ll try and go to work. Then I’ll do it after the
meeting. ».
This should work more or less the same for EV drivers.
- Familiarity with journeys and station sites: even if the
drivers can generally say if they tend to anticipate or not, it
also depends on the situational context. For instance most of
them anticipate more the re-supplying before a long trip or
when they go in unfamiliar sites. The EV use will probably be
still more sensitive to the length and familiarity of the
journeys.
- Collective influence: the tendency of a driver to anticipate
or not may be also transformed by the fact that he/she shares
the vehicle with someone else, the spouse or the parents for
instance, but also the colleagues in the case of shared
professional vehicle. The others then influence the way the
driver will manage the vehicle autonomy.
This variation between the drivers’ ways of managing the
vehicle’s autonomy can be schematised through profiles; these
styles are based on the tendency of anticipation of the re-
filling activity before or after the signal alerting that the
reserve has been reached and on the perceived risk.
In order to get a quantitative idea of how this variation of the
relation to the breakdown risk and refilling activity was
distributed among a population larger than our 14 interviewed
drivers, we built a short questionnaire which has been filled
by 344 drivers. It provides quantitative information about the
styles of reactions.
3.1.2 Different styles of activity and feelings
regarding the non-autonomy risk:
With the questionnaire we specify the quantitative repartition
of the styles found in the qualitative interviews, and look
more precisely at the link between the anticipation tendency
and the worry concerning the limit of the vehicle autonomy.
• To the question of the questionaire “In general, in your
daily life, you go and take some gasoline...”, the
“anticipators” (17,4% of our population) responds “far
before the signal of energy stock”. Clearly they are pro-
active to avoid the stress of the failure risk since, to the
question “when the stock signal comes on, do you feel:
very serene, rather serene, nor serene nor worry, rather
worried, very worried”, 48,3% of them say “rather
worried” or very worried”.
• The “moderate anticipators” (36,6% of the population)
tend to re-supply the vehicle “just before the stock
signal”. The autonomy management is more serene since
22,2% of them are “rather worried” or “very worried”
when the stock signal lights on.
• The drivers who are “reactive to the signal” (29,9%)
generally wait “right after the stock signal (1 to 15 km)”
for re-supplying. Only 6,9 % declare to be “rather
worried” or “very worried” when it lights on.
• The “late refillers” (16,3%) who get some energy “far
after the signal (more than 15 km)” are also only 7,1%
feeling “rather worried” or “very worried” when the
signal lights on. They run out of gasoline sometimes.
Two results are surprising:
(1) The important diversity of reactions, some with a lot of
anticipation and some without much anticipation, with 16%
and 17% at the more extreme profiles. This means that drivers
really have different relations to this type of risk.
Consequently we cannot generalise too quickly by saying that
drivers have globally such or such conduct regarding this
issue of their vehicle autonomy. It is necessary to refine the
description according to contextual elements but also to
personal affective reactions. These individual tendencies to
avoid any risk of breakdown or to be tolerant to this
possibility is of course relevant for the use of an electric
vehicle.
24
(2) The fact that the emotional relation to the risk of running
out of gasoline appears to be clearly linked to the
proactive/reactive behaviour: the more drivers are anxious
regarding the risk of breakdown, the more they anticipate the
action of refilling. The moment when one runs out of energy
is not totally controlled, there is always some uncertainty
regarding this risk. Several studies show that people who are
not tolerant to uncertainty are more worried during uncertain
situations (Birrel & al, 2011, Burh & Dugas, 2006). Though
most of the models of risk existing in ergonomics do not take
into account this dimension (e.g. Wilde, 2002 ; Fuller, 1988):
dealing with a risk is supposed to depend on a compromise
between costs/capabilities and performance but the emotional
relations that each person can have towards such or such risk
is not taken into account. We show here how the subjective
worry or indifference towards this risk, the personal construct
that each driver has elaborated according to his fears,
priorities, disgusts etc, is an important part of his experience
which influences the way he takes decision and acts.
3.1.3 Using various instruments to avoid the
risk or to adapt to it
Some drivers who anticipate and are afraid of the risk of
breakdown use instruments before the journey like web sites
(such as Mappy or Michelin) to have a clearer idea of the
journey, the number of kilometres and the places of the filling
stations on the way. They compare it with the remaining
kilometres on their gauge and evaluate if they need to refill
before the departure. They calculate as much as they can to
avoid any risk.
Yann : “a quick look on Mappy and I look at how many
kilometres I will have to travel, and then, depending on my
petrol tank and its capacity, well I look if I need to refill or not
to go to the place”.
Anticipation can also be based on GPS visual information
during the drive.
Yann : “It’s true that with the GPS I knew that there was a
station later, so I could stop at the next one (...) I knew that
with the next one it was cheaper, it was at 25 km so I didn’t
hesitate since I had the autonomy”.
The drivers who do not anticipate much, can use “reflexive”
instruments, which give them a dynamic feedback on their
situation state, when they have few petrol left:
Maelle : “when I am in a situation where I begin to be in the
red zone, yes I switch on the instantaneous consumption to try
to, actually, consume a bit less but um, it’s more with the
objective to force me to drive a bit slower”.
Some “late refillers”, such as Marie for whom the breakdown
is considered as a repetitive fate, use instruments not to limit
the risk of breakdown but to cope with the breakdown
situation itself : a can in the trunk and a pipe.
Marie : “So, since we break down all the time, now we have a
can in the trunk and well we thought : well so we’re going to
find some petrol you know, we have a can of five or six liters,
so we thought: we’re going to get petrol with the car of my
friend’s parents.”
The situation is then de-dramatized; the risk becomes
predictable.
3.2 Managing the autonomy of Electric
Vehicles
Once we had a clearer idea of the way drivers manage their
autonomy with traditional vehicles and of the contextual and
personal determinants explaining an anticipative or late
decision of refilling, we analysed the real use of electric
vehicles and the link with the styles.
The issue was to know how drivers manage the limited
autonomy of EV (around 150 km) in their daily use. The style
of affective relation to the risk of breakdown (from strong
worry to more indifference) should also play a role in the
activity and especially in the process of limiting or not the
type of journeys that they plan to do, and the risk they take
concerning their autonomy. This issue of the autonomy is
especially tricky for the EV use because it is more limited,
and some drivers can be worried about that. It is still more
difficult to have precise estimations of the remaining
autonomy with an EV than it is already for traditional cars,
because the consumption depends more on the topography
(going up and down hill), and because the user may regain
energy back, when they decelerate for instance.
Electric cars have been lent to nine subjects (of the four styles
with traditional cars). They used this car freely, as they
wished, filled a diary every day and videotaped the driving
(see above); then we had self-confrontation interviews with
them at day 1, 8 and 14 in order to see the evolution of the
appropriation of the new type of vehicle concerning the
autonomy.
3.2.1 Limiting the risky journeys
We observe that the subjects, especially the “anticipators”,
generally use the EV for well-known journeys, mainly from
home to the workplace, for visiting friends or for usual
shopping.
Few of them took the risk to improvise, or only for small
detours of some kilometres, for dropping a friend or for
shopping. Those who tried unknown journeys prepared and
planned them carefully, for instance one “anticipator” who
had checked the distance to cover and the possibility to
recharge when arriving, and one “late refiller” who had
checked the itinerary in advance.
One of the subjects, “reactive to the signal”, preferred to
abandon the plan to go and visit different real estate agencies
because he did not know the precise distance he would have to
cover, and preferred car-pooling.
Only two subjects with the profile “late refillers” have taken
the risk of driving the EV with very limited autonomy. This
indicates that the styles of reactions with traditional car are
similar with EV.
3.2.2. The description of Omar’s journey: driving the
Electric Vehicle with the risk of breakdown
We develop here a specific journey of Omar, one of those two
subjects who are “late refillers” and who took the risk to drive
with limited autonomy . This example indicates how the
driving experience is situated and anchored in the context, and
how it is emotionally embodied. We will show how the
activity and feelings of the driver depend on:
- The reflexive instruments available and their
interpretation (gauge, econometer, other signals) ; the
construction of their meaning depends on the style of
anticipation and worry,
- The geographic context (hills, proximity of the arrival);
the driver constructs a representation of it to anticipate
the evolution of his autonomy,
- The other participants’ reactions.
Unsurprisingly Omar has a profile of “late refiller”, he
generally waits until the last moment to go and refill his
25
traditional vehicle. The interview took place at day 8 of the
lending, two days after the journey. We summarize the
journey with some extracts of the interview.
On a Sunday, Omar decided to go in a shopping area which
was about 15 km from his home place, with his wife. He tells
us during the interview: “I had estimated that there was 15 km
but that, potentially, I could do the round trip (...) I was rather
confident”. But then “at about half of the journey, a little bit
before, I saw that the last bars of the gauge were
disappearing in a rather fast way (...) I realize that finally
there is a risk relatively important that I cannot do the return
journey without breaking down”.
We can note that the activity and feeling of confidence is
largely based on the reflexive instruments which reflect the
state of the vehicle: here it is first the bars of the gauge which
give an indication of the autonomy left, and of course Omar is
reactive to their evolution.
Bars Recharge symbol blinking
Place where the tortoise appears
Figure 2 : Reflexive instruments on the instrument panel
of Omar’s electric vehicle. On the left side, the gauge of
electric autonomy with the number of black bars which
decrease or increase (if energy gaining). The charge symbol
is blinking when a limited charge threshold is passed; a
turtle appears when the remaining charge is very limited. On
the right side, the number of remaining kilometres (130
here). On the centre, the econometer which indicates the
consumption : the more the red needle is in the white zone
on the right, the more the immediate consumption is high ;
in the green zone, it is correct; in the blue zone, the driver is
regaining energy.
When they see that the bars disappear rapidly, his wife
proposes him to go back home, he thinks about it but decides
to go on. Here we see that Omar’s rather serene style about
the risk of breakdown impacts the action decision; someone
more worried about this risk, such as his wife, would have
avoided the risk.
He goes on: “there was 2 or 3 km to arrive at the commercial
zone (...) clearly I adopt a mode of driving which is more
fluent and much more eco (...) I take my foot a bit off the
accelerator (“pied léger” in French), consequently my speed
is reduced (...) it was totally constraining (...) I tried, with the
econometer, to look at what happened and not to pass the
vertical position of the needle, you see, to keep in the eco zone
(...) then I am less and less sure to be able to come back home
(...) here I had cut off everything (radio, air-conditioning)”
Here Omar, who feels less confident, finds solutions to limit
the risk : eco-driving and gazes at the econometer to check
that he remains in the zone of limited consumption ; he also
cuts off the instruments which consume electric energy: the
radio and the air-conditioning.
He then imagines the possibility of a breakdown and the
possible actions he could produce: “I would call a breakdown
truck and they come to catch us on the side of the road (...) I
call my assistance”.
He arrives in the commercial zone and thinks about finding an
electric plug but abandons the idea. He also remembers that a
member of his family is leaving in a city nearby: “I wondered
also if I wouldn’t stop at their place”. But finally he decides to
try to come back home with the energy left. He has 15 km to
drive, with two bars left in the gauge but he is still optimistic
and wants to believe that he can do it.
“When I parked, there were still two bars (on the gauge) (...) I
thought: well ok let’s go, with the foot a bit off (“pied léger”),
it should be possible to come back home (...) I played a little
bit, to know the limits of the vehicle (...) but it is very risky
nevertheless, it was not very comfortable”
Omar only makes the manoeuvre to go out of the parking
place and he sees that he has lost one of the two bars: “I was
far less confident, it was far less comfortable”. But still he
decides to try to come back home, slowly : “very clearly then,
my speed was inferior to the traffic speed, I was the one who
plugged the traffic on the road (...) and I try also to imagine
progressively, um, to remember a bit the topology of the
journey, to know more particularly if I had to go up or down
hills, where I could gain a bit of energy, and I even try to see
globally the altitude between this point here and my place”.
Only one of the thirteen bars is remaining and Omar feels far
less confident and comfortable; he then develops a mental
activity for estimating if he could gain energy when going
down hills and tries to remember the topology of the future
journey. This is a mental activity to anticipate the following
states since the topography is important for the EV driving.
His wife then proposes to take a forbidden shortcut instead of
taking a roundabout but he refuses. Then he says “on the seat
behind there is the PC with all the instruments so, pof! , I cut
it off; I preferred coming back than recording!”. Here again,
the wife looks more anxious to breakdown, and she is ready to
take other types of risks for avoiding the breakdown risk.
Even the material of the researchers (to record the journeys) is
finally cut off.
Later on: “the little symbol (of the electric plug), there is a
problem, okay, it is blinking but I don’t know, well, I don’t
know what I can do, that is... I understand that I am now in
the reserve but well, the reserve it is how many kilometres, I
don’t know at all, it’s a bit adventurous (...) it is stressful, not
even the obligation to pay attention to the driving, but mainly
the fact to be uncertain of being able to come back home”.
Omar’s stress is growing when the symbol is blinking; he
does not know the exact meaning of this signal but, as he says,
it is the growing uncertainty to reach his place which is
stressful. Omar could have interpreted it in a more dramatic
way and thought that it was the really end of the journey.
Though he ignores the meaning of this visual signal in terms
of kilometres.
He then has to go up hill and “I really wondered before this
going uphill if I was not going to stop in the middle of it (...)
phew! First release (after it) and behind it I had to go
downhill and also phew! Because progressively I get nearer
my house (...) when I am a few kilometres before my place I
can accept more easily to let the vehicle on the side of the
road (...) then I go downhill for the second time (...) then here
in a way I am a bit released because I am not far from home
26
(...) there was an hill to go down, a straight line, and two
kilometres with the village at the end”
The release expressed by Omar when he went up the hills and
arrive rather near his village, indicates the tension that he felt
during the journey.
“When I arrive in the village clearly I saw the symbol with the
tortoise lit, the last straight line I did it full charge, to see a bit
how was the vehicle reacting and it was still accelerating ; it
was euphoria, um, euphoria so to speak”.
A last symbol which appears is the one of a tortoise (which
meaning is also uncertain: you should drive very slowly or the
speed will be automatically reduced?) but then Omar is not
afraid anymore because he is very near his place, and he
cannot avoid the pleasure to finish by an acceleration to test if
the car was still accelerating.
This example of Omar’s journey describes clearly how:
(1) the reflexive instruments are parts of the cognitive system
of the drivers (Hutchins 1994) but also how the interpretation
of the signals (bars disappearing, recharge symbol blinking,
tortoise) depends on the worry of the driver concerning the
risk of breakdown. Also the tendency to stay optimistic or the
willing to abandon depends on these styles of reaction to the
risky situation: we can see how Omar and his wife react
differently and would not have taken the same decisions since
she would have abandoned before reaching the destination.
(2) The activity depends on the evolution of the situational
context, and especially here the geographical context (hills,
proximity of the arrival) since there is a possibility of
recharging under certain conditions; the driver constructs a
representation of this context to anticipate the evolution of his
autonomy and it is especially important for the EV since the
driver may regain energy when decelerating.
(3) The activity may depend also on the social context, the
other participant’s reactions. We do not know much about the
wife’s comments during the journey (Omar did not want to
say much about it) and he has not been influenced by her
suggestions, probably because he is not that afraid of risking a
breakdown. Someone who does not tolerate risks such as
Omar would have probably considered the wife’s proposal of
abandoning the project.
This Omar case is in itself very informative on the on-going
processes of driving an EV in risky situations and it shows
how it a situated, instrumented and emotional activity.
In a complementary study, we are going to present this case to
the others participants who used an EV, and ask them at
different points of the story how they would have reacted
(actions, emotions, thoughts,...) if they were in this situation.
We will then see if their style (anticipative-reactive) impacts
on the way they manage a risky situation.
3.3 Last step: exploring new and adapted
instruments for managing the
autonomy
To conclude this study, we asked the 9 subjects who used an
EV during two weeks to propose ideas of instrumentations for
helping them to anticipate and cope with the management of
the autonomy. As a base for reflexion, we proposed them two
types of instruments which are developed by Renault, to
specify the remaining autonomy in kilometres, the dynamic
consumption, the points to recharge the battery, a map of the
autonomy zone etc. These are used as supports for expressing
the new needs relative to this issue of autonomy which
becomes critic in the context of the EV. The results of these
interviews based on existing help systems are being analysed
and will be used for innovative design of appropriate systems
of information.
4 DISCUSSION
The autonomy of a vehicle cannot be calculated with a high
precision and consequently it produces some uncertainty,
especially with the EV, but also with the traditional cars. We
observed that the zone of extension of the worrying
uncertainty may be very different from one driver to another.
Some anticipate and/or calculate a lot to avoid the risk of
breakdown, whereas others are more confident, less
preoccupied by this issue, and come very close to breakdown.
Their affective relation to this risk is different and their
activity and decisions are consequently different. Ergonomic
models of risk should take into account this important
dimension of the affects lived during the situation.
We observed that most of our EV users take the vehicle for
well-known and short journeys or calculate a lot to limit the
risk. The only two drivers who drove with a very limited
autonomy were of the “late-refiller” style. We also saw that
the interpretation of the alerts and instruments depends on this
style: Omar and his wife do not react the same to the loss of
bars. In another situation, an “anticipator” told us that for him,
one of the alarms was appearing too late.
Consequently, the need of the different users regarding the
risk of a limited autonomy is variable and one of the proposed
improvements is to design flexible alarms and adaptable tools
for knowing the level of autonomy, so that each user have
some choice about when and how they appear. An indication
of the range of possible kilometres is also most reassuring for
the drivers (maybe more than just one number which is not
reliable). At least the maps indicating the distances and the
places where it is possible to charge are most helpful. 4
The methodology presented here, particularly with Omar’s
case, focuses on the lived experience during the driving
situation and it shows all the developments of the situated
activity, the role of the instruments and of the topography
which sustain the feelings and the driving activity of the
driver. One interest of the qualitative approach based on re-
situating interviews such as the “explicitation interview” or
self-confrontation interview (based on the video) is the
richness of the details of the on-going activity from the point
of view of the subject. We obtain data on the
phenomenological experience including actions, thoughts,
emotions and sensorial perceptions. One limit is that these in-
depth approaches are time-consuming and it may be difficult
to generalise the results obtained with a limited number of
subjects.
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More specific information about the design cannot be
developed here.
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