Advancing electric vehicle range displays for enhanced user experience: the relevance of trust and adaptability

Advancing range-information user interfaces towards enhanced usability is a continuous task in electric vehicle development. The objective of the present research was (1) to examine experienced trustworthiness of a typical range-information user interface, (2) to test a newly constructed trustworthiness scale, (3) to examine the relationship of experienced trustworthiness to individual usable range (i.e., comfortable range), and (4) to identify possibilities for further improvement of range-information user interfaces. Data from N = 74 participants of a large-scale electric vehicle field trial were analyzed. Results show that experienced trustworthiness of the range estimation system is related to a higher comfortable range. Moreover, users developed several suggestions on how to further improve the user interface. The results imply that perceived trustworthiness should be considered as a benchmark for evaluating range-information user interfaces and that users should have flexible options to adjust the parameters of the range estimation system.

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