Mercedes Convoy

About the Project

Mercedes Convoy is a mobility concept designed to support groups travelling together in multiple vehicles. While road trips are often shared experiences, travellers become separated once distributed across different cars, making communication, coordination, and decision-making difficult.

The project explores how a connected ecosystem could help groups plan routes, discover destinations, coordinate stops, and travel together without sacrificing flexibility or independence.

Project type	Role	Industry	Tools	Duration	Other info
UX/UI Design, Service Design	UX/UI Designer	Mobility	Figma, FigJam	February 2025 - May 2025	This project was part of the Mercedes – In-Car UX Design course, where we had the opportunity to consult with designers from Mercedes and receive feedback on our concept. My teammates were Hajnal Mészáros and Virág Tibenszki.

The Challenge

Travelling together in multiple vehicles requires constant coordination. Existing navigation tools help people reach destinations, but they do not support the social aspects of travelling together.

Communication becomes fragmented across messaging apps and calls.
Coordinating breaks and meeting points is difficult.
Passengers miss opportunities to contribute to the journey.
Groups struggle to make decisions while on the road.
Vehicles become isolated despite sharing the same trip.

“How might we help people travelling in multiple cars still feel like they are travelling together?”

Research

To better understand the challenges of travelling together in multiple vehicles, we combined quantitative research, user modelling, journey mapping, competitor analysis, and service design methods. This process helped us identify recurring coordination challenges and uncover opportunities for creating a more connected travel experience.

Survey

We began with a survey exploring travel habits, coordination challenges, and expectations when travelling in multiple cars. The results highlighted recurring frustrations around communication, decision-making, and maintaining awareness of other convoy members. (80 participants, mostly from Europe, with a mix of ages and travel experiences)

Personas

Based on the survey findings, we created nine personas representing different travel behaviours, motivations, and responsibilities within a convoy. These personas helped us understand the diverse needs of drivers and passengers throughout the journey.

User Journey Map

Using the personas, we mapped the convoy experience from planning to arrival. This allowed us to identify critical moments where communication breaks down and coordination becomes difficult.

Desktop Research & Value Proposition Canvas

In parallel, we analyzed existing travel planning and navigation solutions to understand how current products support group travel. We synthesized these findings using a Value Proposition Canvas to connect user needs, frustrations, and opportunities for intervention.

Key Insights

Our research revealed four recurring challenges that shape the convoy travel experience.

Fragmented Communication

Information scattered across multiple channels.
Important decisions easily missed.

Difficult Decision-Making

Choosing stops requires constant negotiation.
Drivers have limited attention while travelling.

Lack of Awareness

Limited visibility of convoy members.
Hard to know who is ahead or behind.

Lost Shared Experience

Passengers become passive travellers.
The journey itself becomes secondary.

"Travelling together should be about more than reaching the same destination."

Design Opportunity

Our findings suggested that convoy travel is not primarily a navigation problem. Instead, groups struggle with coordination, participation, and maintaining a sense of togetherness while physically separated across multiple vehicles.

"How might we help people travelling in multiple cars still feel like they are travelling together?"

The Solution

Mercedes Convoy is a connected travel ecosystem that allows groups to collaboratively shape their journey. Instead of focusing only on navigation, the concept supports communication, participation, discovery, and coordination throughout the trip.

Shared Route Planning

Create and manage journeys together.
Everyone has visibility over the route.

Collective Decisions

Suggest locations and activities.
Vote on stops and destinations.

Local Discovery

Explore attractions along the route.
Find scenic and cultural experiences.

Convoy Awareness

Track convoy members in real time.
Coordinate charging and fuel stops.

User Flow

The experience was designed with option for the passengers to actively participate in shaping the journey while allowing drivers to maintain focus on the road. The user flow supports collaborative planning before and during the trip and real-time coordination during the journey.

Final Design

The final concept was designed as a connected ecosystem supporting different participants throughout the journey. Rather than creating a single interface, we developed three interconnected touchpoints tailored to the needs and responsibilities of passengers and drivers.

Passenger Mobile Application

Passengers can actively contribute to the journey by suggesting destinations, discovering nearby attractions, voting on stops, and coordinating with other convoy members. The mobile application transforms passengers from passive travellers into active participants of the shared experience.

Central Vehicle Display

The central display acts as the primary coordination hub during the trip. It provides access to route information, convoy status, group decisions, and points of interest while maintaining awareness of the broader travel experience.

Driver Cluster

To minimize distraction, the driver cluster presents only the most essential information required during driving. Complex interactions remain on the passenger application and central display, while the cluster focuses on navigation, convoy awareness, and critical travel updates.

My Contribution

My primary focus was defining the logical structure of the ecosystem and ensuring a coherent experience across the different touchpoints. I contributed to user research, persona creation, journey mapping, user flow, interaction logic, and rapid prototyping. I was particularly involved in exploring how passengers, drivers, and vehicles connect within the system and how information should be prioritized across the mobile application, central display, and driver cluster.

Takeaways

This project challenged me to design for an ecosystem rather than a single interface. It highlighted the importance of information prioritization across different contexts, balancing engagement with safety, and designing interactions that support collaboration without increasing cognitive load. It also strengthened my ability to rapidly prototype complex service concepts and communicate them through interactive demonstrations.

It was a pleasure to consult with designers from Mercedes to get their insights and feedback on the project.