As OEMs continue to pursue the SDV, they are increasing both the number of technologies in the vehicle and their significance to the overall user experience. However, the success of these technologies will ultimately rely on their ability to ensure that this experience is delivered in a seamless and satisfactory manner. In doing so, OEMs, developers, and suppliers can ensure successful product launches, while securing long-term customer loyalty with the vehicle and its ecosystem of digital services.
Recognizing the ways in which HMI features can positively or negatively contribute to the in-vehicle user experience is our In-Car HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking report series. Representing one of our best-selling, longest running, reports, it provides a comprehensive, analytical, assessment of the latest HMI systems launched globally. Across 2024, our UX experts will review and benchmark the systems provided in six recently released vehicles to understand who is leading in the space, and who is falling behind.
Following our article on the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus HMI UX report, this Insight covers the newest edition of the series, which analyzes the systems offered in the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric. While sharing its IVI and UX highlights, we will also be outlining the strengths and weaknesses posed by some of the car’s most interesting technologies and more deeply analyzing their implications on the end user experience.
A Closer Look at the Hyundai KONA
Inside, the new Kona Electric offers an infotainment system spearheaded by dual 12.3-inch panoramic display screens integrated into the audio-video navigation system that together enable a widescreen digital experience. Further along the interior are two USB-C ports for the front row occupants, as well as a 12V power outlet, and a further two USB-C ports for the rear passengers.
Alongside map and multimedia software, over-the-air technology sits at the core of the new Kona Electric’s connectivity offering. While allowing the owner to continuously improve the operation and experience of its key connected features, updates can also be delivered to the firmware of the EV’s various control units to strength their overall performance and functionality.
This offering more broadly enables many of the Kona Electric’s key technologies, such as Digital Key 2 Touch. Leveraging an NFC connection between the vehicle and a compatible smartphone or smart watch, this feature allows the user’s smart device to lock, unlock, and start the vehicle. The vehicle owner can create up to three additional digital keys to share with friends and family that can be revoked at their discretion.
Key Takeaways
During their testing of the Kona Electric, our UX experts were impressed by its wide range of delight features – an offering they found to be unique and convenient for a volume brand EV.
One of the features they highlighted was Hyundai Pay, the OEM’s in-vehicle payment system that launched with the 2024 Kona range and allows users to pay for charging and parking through the central infotainment screen, without the need for them to leave the vehicle. On this screen, users can also view participating parking and charging providers and compare pricing information. While they appreciated the conveniency it bought to common EV driving experiences, our experts felt that Hyundai Pay did have some room for improvement, particularly when considering its potential when paired with Plug&Charge.
In its current implementation, Hyundai Pay requires charging (and parking) payments to be initiated by the user on the infotainment screen. However, integrating it with Plug&Charge would automate this step of the process – with the payment made automatically at the end of a charging session. Our experts felt that such an integration would not only make the user experience of Hyundai Pay more seamless, but also build on the convenience it already offers.
Another feature that stood out to our UX team was the Kona Electric’s remote parking capability, which they felt set the vehicle apart from others occupying both the volume and premium segments. Controlled by a set of buttons on the upper-right edge of the key fob, the feature can be used from either inside or outside the vehicle. When testing it, our experts found that this capability could be very useful for drivers maneuvering into tight parking spots and reduce the risk of damaging the vehicle doors while making such a maneuver. At the same time, they recognized the benefits of this capability for parents, who could use it to move the car from outside and open a door wide enough to place their child in a car seat.
However, while they appreciated the broad mixture of features offered with the Kona Electric, our UX team felt that many of them were poorly integrated. The EV’s navigation system was at the forefront of this issue, combining autosuggested destination results with results for parts of the infotainment system unrelated to navigation. Those results not related to navigation were similarly inconsistent when selecting ‘OK’ on the infotainment screen. Here, our experts concluded that these inconsistencies made the user experience of the navigation system feel both confusing and unexpected.
These integration issues were similarly prominent in the testing of the vehicle’s voice assistant. Despite displaying a text readout of the user’s spoken command, it often failed to process the requests submitted by our experts correctly or misunderstood them altogether. When encountering this problem, the system repeated a set of three responses which our experts did not feel were supportive enough to fulfil the request.
Analysis
A deeper analysis of the Kona Electric by our UX team uncovered further strengths and weaknesses across the user experience of its various features and technologies. Within this analysis, our experts found a key strength in the level of customizability offered throughout the vehicle, from the arrangement of the infotainment system’s home widgets (which the driver can then save to their user profile) to the range of color options offered by the ambient lighting system. Although, it was a fully customizable ‘star’ button featured on both the center console and the steering wheel that stood out to our experts the most, with the button itself able to be tethered to a function of the user’s choosing in the settings menu.
Although, while enjoying the customizability it offered, our UX team found weaknesses in the implementation of the Kona Electric’s ADAS features. On the steering wheel, a series of buttons control these features, although one button simultaneously hosts the controls for two different ADAS functions: Smart Cruise Control and Highway Driving Assist. Our experts also felt that the icons featured on each of these buttons did not always communicate their functions in a clear, distinct manner. The team concluded that the combination of these issues could result in a steep learning curve for the vehicle’s ADAS, making it difficult for the user to understand, learn, and control them.
Next Steps
Overall, the new Hyundai Kona Electric offers a technology-centric user experience through its array of standard connectivity and convenience features. Across their testing and analysis of the EV, our UX experts were impressed by the usefulness and convenience provided by its delight features, with some accounting for domains beyond infotainment that play equally important roles in the EV ownership experience. However, our experts felt that the way many of these features were integrated caused them to fall short. Manifesting across different domains, these integration issues ultimately led the user experience of these features to feel inconsistent, confusing and, in some cases, difficult.
While we have highlighted some of the strengths and weaknesses presented in its overall user experience, the insights shared in this article represent only a portion of the knowledge shared in the full Hyundai Kona Electric HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking report. Spanning more than 150 pages, it provides even deeper insights into the user experience of the model’s features across several key domains, including ADAS, infotainment, navigation, and voice recognition. While scoring these features and functions against our proven evaluation methodologies, the report also benchmarks the new Kona Electric against the vehicles reviewed in our 2023 HMI UX reports, and those reviewed in our 2024 HMI UX reports to date.
Want to learn more about the latest in-vehicle HMI solutions, their impacts on the end user experience, and which vehicle offers the best user experience? Then be sure to secure your copy of our In-Car HMI UX Evaluation & Benchmarking series!
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