Automotive UX design and data-driven development: Narrowing the gap to support practitioners

The development and evaluation of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVISs) is strongly based on insights from qualitative studies conducted in artificial contexts (e.g., driving simulators or lab experiments). However, the growing complexity of the systems and the uncertainty about the context in which they are used, create a need to augment qualitative data with quantitative data, collected during real-world driving. In contrast to many digital companies that are already successfully using data-driven methods, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are not yet succeeding in releasing the potentials such methods offer. We aim to understand what prevents automotive OEMs from applying data-driven methods, what needs practitioners formulate, and how collecting and analyzing usage data from vehicles can enhance UX activities. We adopted a Multiphase Mixed Methods approach comprising two interview studies with more than 15 UX practitioners and two action research studies conducted with two different OEMs. From the four studies, we synthesize the needs of UX designers, extract limitations within the domain that hinder the application of data-driven methods, elaborate on unleveraged potentials, and formulate recommendations to improve the usage of vehicle data. We conclude that, in addition to modernizing the legal, technical, and organizational infrastructure, UX and Data Science must be brought closer together by reducing silo mentality and increasing interdisciplinary collaboration. New tools and methods need to be developed and UX experts must be empowered to make data-based evidence an integral part of the UX design process

Bat Activity at a Small Wind Turbine in the Baltic Sea

Activity of bats at an old wind park four km off the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea was monitored during 50 nights from August to October 2013, using an automatic bat detector (Pettersson D500-X) mounted on one of the turbines. Single individuals or pairs of common noctules Nyctalus noctula were recorded on five occasions only (26 and 27 August), all in calm weather and when little or no rotor movement occurred. Since such conditions were unusual (five of 50 nights of observation) the visits by the bats were unlikely to be chance events (migrating bats passing the turbine), but more likely involved bats attracted to the turbines. However, no feeding buzzes were recorded and the bats never stayed near the turbine more than one minute. The turbines studied are lit by 250 W white lights and this could have been the reason why bats visited the turbines, because such lights potentially attract insects. The bats could not have been attracted to the turbines by any factor related of the movement of the rotor or the generator, such as Doppler-effects, noise, heat or electric fields

Effect of Fe, Ga, Ti and Nb substitution in approximate to SbVO4 for propane ammoxidation

Substitution in rutile-type approximate to SbVO4 was made with Fe3+ and Ga3+ replacing V3+, and Nb5+ replacing Sb5+. Moreover, preparations with Ti were synthesised where Ti4+ ions substitute for both V4+ and V3+/Sb5+ pairs approximate to SbVO4-related phases containing Ti together with Fe and Ga were also prepared. The samples were characterised using X-ray diffraction, DRIFT and Raman spectroscopy. The characterisations show the formation of a cation deficient single rutile-type phase. Use of the samples in propane ammoxidation to produce acrylonitrile reveals, compared with the pure approximate to SbVO4 phase, that Fe, Ga and Ti substitution in approximate to SbVO4 results in lower activity but considerably higher selectivity to acrylonitrile at the same level of propane conversion. Niobium substitution, on the contrary, gives no improved catalytic properties. Correlations are presented between the catalytic and structural properties of the catalysts. It is demonstrated that isolation in the structure of the propane activating V-O. sites in a surrounding of nitrogen inserting Sb-sites results in improved selectivity for acrylonitrile formation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A Study of Customers\u27 and the Automotive Industry\u27s Attitude Regarding Visual Quality Appearance of Split-Lines

The exterior design of an assembled car body consists of a number of components, which are in spatial relation to each other. These relationships have a significant impact on the overall perceived Visual Quality Appearance, (VQA) of a car body exteriorly. The automotive industry has the ambition to produce products with high VQA. For companies, which are producing products composed of several components, it is costly and time consuming to consider and control the impact of geometric variation. This paper investigates the industrys and the customers attitude regarding VQA of split lines, by use of an emperical study. It also investigates if there is a correrlation between the car brand that customers think possesses the best VQA regarding split lines and measurement data of the geometrical variation of split lines of those car brands

Modeling mass transport with microkinetics in monolithic NOx storage and reduction catalyst

A 2D axisymetric model of a NOx storage and reduction catalyst monolith channel combining mass transport with a detailed kinetic model was created to evaluate the importance of mass transport in a Pt/BaO/Al2O3 washcoat. Results show that there are small radial gradients in stored species concentration early during transients. The Sherwood number calculated during the transient storage phase will not be constant in time nor space as a film correlation would predict, but instead shows a region of higher Sherwood number propagating through the channel as the storage reaches completion. It is concluded that incorporating detailed mass transport provides a better spatially resolved picture of the dynamics of the proposed reaction mechanism and minimises the risk of arriving at false intrinsic kinetics during the development of a microkinetic model

Modelling Mass Transport with Microkinetics in Monolithic NOX Storage and Reduction Catalyst

A 2D axisymetric model of a NOx storage and reduction catalyst monolith channel combining mass transport with a detailed kinetic model was created to evaluate the importance of mass transport in a Pt/BaO/Al2O3 washcoat. Results show that there are small radial gradients in stored species concentration early during transients. The Sherwood number calculated during the transient storage phase will not be constant in time nor space as a film correlation would predict, but instead shows a region of higher Sherwood number propagating through the channel as the storage reaches completion. It is concluded that incorporating detailed mass transport provides a better spatially resolved picture of the dynamics of the proposed reaction mechanism and minimises the risk of arriving at false intrinsic kinetics during the development of a microkinetic model

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The first Swedish offshore wind farm Bockstigen is operating since March 1998 near the coast of Gotland. It was built as a demonstration project by the Swedish wind farm developer Vindkompaniet, the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Wind World and the British offshore construction company Seacore and partly funded under the EU-THERMIE program. Bockstigen is the fourth offshore wind farm world-wide