Changing mobility demands like the increase of car sharing especially in cities and among the Generation Y accompanied by blurring boundaries of product capabilities pose new challenges for the automotive industry. Automotive customization can be a possibility to even consider opposing needs, in either aesthetic or functional customization and thus create wellbeing. Adaptive customization enables cars to adapt to user preferences continuously. Hence, value can be created beyond product-evoked wellbeing such as an increase of feeling of safety due to a reduction of secondary, or tertiary tasks.@en

Evolving multimodal mobility needs influences established human–product relationships and requires a deeper insight into color preferences for car interiors. Hence, a study was conducted in which 204 members of a web contest created 1,265 designs. After a peer-evaluation process, 53 most-appreciated and 34 least-preferred interior color compositions were identified and compared to identify patterns in color choices. Besides, visual lightweight design by layering of large interior components such as the seat, a modest use of color and patterns accompanied by repetition and the framing of the entire interior to create a feeling of spaciousness were found. Additionally, differences in the type of color between most and least favored color designs were found. Brown and beige occur more frequently among the top- than the worst-rated designs. Larger surfaces are favored in lighter hues and smaller components in darker hues.

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Today's cars offer a variety of possible setting options which have to be chosen by the driver. In order to examine the psychological effect of automatic adjustments in comparison to manual adjustments of the chassis and drive train while driving, a test vehicle was built up and tested in a naturalistic field operation test (nFOT) through various development stages. 207 BMW employees participated in the study focusing on emotional feedback and flow experience. The results were used to improve the function and to start the test scenario again. The automatic adjustment of the car's setting (driving mode) due to the detection of the intended driving style of the subjects was preferred to the manual adjustments. Additionally, the feeling of safety increased while the level of distraction decreased. Our findings show that in addition to the positive technical aspects of an automatic adjustment, there is also an increase in driving experience, measured by the flow experience and the feeling of safety.@en

Structural, defect and magnetic properties of the TiO2:Co films are investigated. We varied the maximum Co+-implantation concentration from 0.5 at.% up to 5 at.%. A concentration window, which is considered as a threshold for the formation of metallic secondary phases is found. At this concentration it is also observed that the majority of the dopant atoms are incorporated into the host lattice.@en