Talk or Panel Stop Designing Cars Like Phones

The auto industry is racing to make cars feel like smartphones – bigger screens, constant updates, app ecosystems. A phone distracting you is annoying. But a car distracting you can kill. In my talk I will show how Human-Machine Interface design and app design are fundamentally different disciplines, and that treating them the same is a costly mistake – organizationally, culturally, and physically.
Drawing on my experience as a UX designer working across design and engineering teams, I’ll trace the evolution from horse-drawn carriages to software-defined vehicles, unpack why automakers structurally struggle to become software companies, and explore why nostalgia for analog objects is surging even as screens multiply. I’ll close with a case for why designers – not engineers or software teams – should be the owners of the holistic vehicle experience, and why the industry needs a Chief Experience Officer to make that happen.

About the Host

Ben Kuhn