10 Cars. 10 Mental Models. Why In-Car UX Is Becoming a Safety Problem.

This month, I sat in more cars than I had hoped for. EVs. SUVs. Sedans. Hatchbacks. Luxury. Uber. You name it.

No, I wasn’t car shopping; I was just observing.

Around car number three, something clicked.

I realised I wasn’t just switching vehicles. I was switching the entire interface, the entire experience and most importantly, the entire mental model.

And as a UX designer, that somewhat scared me.

The Most Unsafe Thing Inside a Car Might Just Be The Screen

We talk endlessly about seatbelts, airbags, brakes, mileage and things I don’t even know of, but nobody is talking about this one thing your hand touches the most while driving: The infotainment screen.

A screen that asks you to look away from the road, the screen you use to play music, take calls, and most importantly, navigate your way back home (or anywhere for that matter)

I sat in 10+ cars this month and every time, the most basic action “go back home” moved.

Bottom left. Top right. Hidden between two icons in the top header. Floating somewhere Or better yet, tucked away next to the gear box.

Same human, Same action. Multiple mental models.

And that is when I realised, this is no longer a UX inconvenience. This is a safety problem.

“But I’m Tech Savvy” and That’s Exactly When This Hit Me

I’m a designer. I think in wireframes. I breathe mental models.

If I; someone whose full-time job is navigating interfaces, needed 3–5 extra seconds to figure out where something is, that got me wondering

What about:

• A tired driver doing a 12-hour shift • A learning driver on a highway • A parent with a crying toddler • An elderly person driving alone • A human simply just having a bad day

Sometimes distraction doesn’t come from chaos; it comes from a beautiful UI that forgot it was inside a moving vehicle.

Phones, Laptops, Watches: They are all Structured Well

When you pick up a random phone, you know where apps live. In the case of a Laptop, you know where the dock sits. And with a smart watch, you know swipe left = something, swipe right = something else.

Different brands. Different philosophies. Same base skeleton.

But with cars? Why are we making it our playground for innovation?

Innovation cannot do justice when it takes away the focus of a person inside a moving vehicle.

both of action bars are placed at the bottom of the desktop

The India Context Makes This an Even Bigger Issue

In India, the person using the infotainment is NOT always the owner. We are the world of: drivers, chauffeurs, rentals, borrowed cars, family cars.

One driver might sit in:

a Hyundai at 9am, a Kia at 2pm, a Nexon at 7pm, and/or a Mercedes at 9pm

Four cars. Four screens. Four layouts. Four different ways to simply “go back.”

Who designs for them? Who thinks about their safety?

Who remembers that the person behind the wheel isn’t just navigating through this screen, but is also navigating roads, potholes, loud traffic, and life?

UI isn’t just pixels. In India, UI is a responsibility.

What Needs To Change, and It’s Not the Colour Palette

I’m not saying brands should look identical. What we need is a shared foundation, a baseline skeleton.

Where:

• “Home” consistently lives in one region
• Navigation is always a primary action
• Critical controls match instinct, not branding
• And most importantly, interfaces don’t need to look the same, they need to think the same.

Here’s my Closing Thought

We often say UX is about delight. But inside a moving vehicle, UX is a duty.

A designer’s mind doesn’t switch off, once we notice something, it’s impossible to unsee it.

So I’m curious; have you ever switched cars and suddenly felt lost inside the screen?

If yes, I’d love to hear it.

Thank you for reading till the end.