Exploring the Future Experience of Automated “Valet Parking” – a User Enactment

While the general debate about the potential of automated vehicles is pervasive, less is known about how people experience those vehicles in everyday life. To this end, we studied the experiential consequences of a speculative automated "valet parking" service. We designed three variants and confronted participants "in the wild." The automation replaced practical worries about how to navigate a parking garage with unease about the safety of the car, which clearly limited potential gains in positive experiences. The unease could be counteracted by providing feedback about the car itself and the process. This created the impression that the car is properly cared for. In addition, while parking in garages in itself was not especially enjoyable, it played an important role in a number of related positive practices (e.g., shopping routines). To ensure acceptance, automated systems need to carefully address the question of how those systems become embedded in everyday life.