Distributing In-Vehicle Interactions Across Devices with Insights into Drivers’ Behavior, Preferences, and Usability

Presented at MobileHCI '25: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3737821.3749565
Connecting personal devices to the in-vehicle infotainment system has become mainstream in modern vehicles, contouring a distinctive context of use characterized by the user interface being distributed across multiple interactive systems, including those in the vehicle and the users’ personal digital devices, likely involving different input and output modalities. However, distributed user interfaces (DUIs), despite extensively studied in other application domains, have not been addressed to the same extent for in-vehicle interactions. In this context, we examine in-vehicle DUIs and report the results of an exploratory study conducted with twenty-four drivers, who shared their preferences regarding digital device use inside the vehicle. To complement our findings, we also present a demonstrative application featuring a user interface with interaction modalities distributed across the in-vehicle infotainment system and the driver’s smartwatch.

1. MobileHCI2025
The 27th ACM International Conferenceon Mobile Human-Computer Interaction
SharmEl-Sheikh, Egypt, 22 September-25 September2025
Distributing In-Vehicle Interactions Across Devices with Insights
into Drivers’ Behavior, Preferences, and Usability
Laura-Bianca Bilius, Mihail Terenti, Radu-Daniel Vatavu, Jean Vanderdonckt
Stefan celMare Univ. of Suceava, Romania & Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
How to distribute UIs, such as in a car for Vehicule-2-UI interaction?
Scan our paper for
more (video,
examples)
Results
8.3%
(2 par.)
50.0%
(12par.)
16.7%
(4 par.)
33.3%
(8 par.)
8.3%
(2par.)
33.3%
(8 par.)
45.8%
(11par.)
4.2%
(1 par.)
16.7%
(4 par.)
4.2%
(1 par.)
g.SmartphoneandSmartwatch
InteractionTechniques
Customized
commands
ThroughIS
Voice
Touch
Notuse
Smartphone
a.FrequentUseof
PersonalDevices
4.2%
(1 par.)
4.2%
(1 par.)
25%
(6 par.)
100%
(24 par.)
c.FrequentUseof
SmartwatchFunctions
29.2%
(7 par.)
29.2%
(7 par.)
41.7%
(10 par.)
25.0%
(6 par.)
16.7%(4 par.)
16.7%(4 par.)
33.3%(8 par.)
41.7%(10 par.)
45.8%(11 par.)
83.3%(20 par.)
95.8%(23 par.)
100.0%(24 par.)
0.0%
0% 50% 100%
Multimedia
Air conditioning
Window control
Calls
GPS
Aerator mouth
HDD
Mirror adjustment
HUD
b.FrequentUseofCar
Functions
I don't
controlIS
4.2%
(1 par.)
e.InfotainmentSystem(IS)
InteractionTechniques
IStouchscreen
16.7%
(4 par.)
Steeringwheel
buttons
66.7%
(16 par.)
ISbuttons
79.2%
(19 par.)
62.5%(15 par.)
41.7%(10 par.)
25.0%(6 par.)
16.7%(4 par.)
45.8%(11 par.)
0.0%
8.3%(2 par.)
50.0%(12 par.)
Driving
Work
Not use
f.
Mainpurposeinusing
SmartphoneandSmartwatch
Smartwatch
a.DriverBehaviorRelatedtoPhoneCalls
4.2%
(1par.)
75%
(18par.)
8.3%
(2par.)
12.5%
(3par.)
Ianswerandcontinue
talkingwhiledriving
Idonotanswer
Ianswerandtellthe
callerIwillcallback
Ianswerandpull
overtoanswer
b.ContextsofPersonalDeviceUse
Waiting traffic light to change at intersection
Traffic jam
When driving slowly through the city
When driving with no other vehicles around
I use smart devices regardless of the situation
When driving on highways
Performing maneuvers such as overtaking
and lane changes
0.0%
4.2%(1 par.)
8.3%(2 par.)
12.5%(3 par.)
33.3%(8 par.)
62.5%(15 par.)
87.5%(21 par.)
0% 50%
100%
c.ImpactofDeviceUsageon
ReactionTime
M=4.67 (SD=0.55)
1 2 3 4 5
d.SafetyofPersonalDevice
UsageComparedtoIS
M=2.25 (SD=1.09)
4 51 2 3