ABSTRACT
This chapter examines research relevant to cross-regional automotive human–machine interface (HMI) design. Limited research specific to cross-regional automotive HMI issues currently exists. It identifies a number of important cultural factors that may impact upon automotive HMI design. This chapter also examines the influence of cultural characteristics on in-vehicle technology design, with a particular emphasis on its influence on user acceptance of technology. Various aspects of culture are identified and how they impact upon technology design and, in turn, acceptability is discussed. Cross-cultural design issues for automotive technology are likely to be particularly pertinent in developing regions, such as China and India, where there exist enormous markets characterised by notably different user needs and preferences to the major vehicle manufacturing countries in the West. A role for device design procedures that include cross-cultural considerations to limit the likelihood of behavioural adaptation has been proposed.
