Let me talk about the user experience (UX) of fully autonomous driving. During my visit to CES, the world’s largest tech event held in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year, I had two different riding experiences.

One is about the demonstration run of an unmanned bus with conditional automation that’s equivalent to the so-called level-4 autonomous driving. It has started operations on public roads in China. The other is about the Vegas Loop (V.L.), an underground transportation system Elon Musk developed by using a tunnel dug in Las Vegas.

The unmanned bus gave me a comfortable ride with no fear of accident. I felt that this vehicle wouldn’t cause any feelings of strangeness if it actually operates on local streets. Tesla’s V.L. vehicle is driven by manned operations at the moment, but the underground tube roadway provides enough sense of safety that it seems ready to operate by autonomous driving. With the help of excellent design and its presentation, the underground tube system outweighs other vehicles in terms of futuristic excitement it provides. Take as an example the gate with a huge QR code beckoning. As if overwhelmed by its presence, I took a picture of it to buy a ticket. Then I used the acquired image to enter the exhibition site. The Tesla car emerging from the tube took me through the tunnel to arrive at the exhibition site all too quickly. I felt comfortable with these smoothly paced riding experiences.

These experiences gave me a glimpse into the public mobility infrastructure in the future. The possibility of autonomous personal mobility will likely open up in the years to come. My experiences in Las Vegas proved to be exciting enough to stimulate my desire to create more dream-inspiring UX.

Hiroshi Sakagame

Product Design Dept.

Design Director