In this edition, our experts test the all-new Audi Q6 e-tron. The team praised the EV’s interior and exterior lighting systems – both of which enhanced the usability of features in domains like safety and personalization. These advancements were, however, held back by some poorly implemented elements within the Q6 e-tron’s navigation system that our experts felt could lead some users to resort to using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

SBD’s HMI UX Evaluation Report Series provides a comprehensive assessment of the latest systems released globally. Over the course of this year, our team of HMI and UX experts will benchmark vehicles from Europe, the US, China, and Japan to understand who is leading in the space, and who is falling behind. Each report helps provide an indication of what the final customer experience of each vehicle should be. In doing so, the team thoroughly scores and analyses them across several HMI domains.

These include the vehicle’s ADAS, infotainment, navigation, voice recognition, connected feature, and convenience capabilities. Our experts assess the reliability of each domain - testing their repeated usability, evaluating whether their solutions provide the features that customers expect and need, and gauging how easy these features are to learn. Likewise, the potential perceived quality of individual HMI components is measured against its impact on the overall customer experience.