Ever considered reserving a self-driving “car-ference room” to host your business meeting on the road? How about getting picked up in a “cafe on wheels” to eat lunch while admiring views of the city? We think you should, and we’re working toward making it possible.

2018 was a busy year for our team at May Mobility as we became the first company to launch commercial deployments of self-driving vehicles in the market. In the months leading up to launching May Shuttles in Detroit, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio, we worked relentlessly to ensure the safety, reliability, and performance of our self-driving technology. Since launching, the May Shuttles have also become a valuable platform for us to learn from hundreds of riders every day about their perspectives, preferences, and needs in self-driving vehicles. In our six months of service in 2018, we gave over 30,000 rides to a diverse group of riders and gathered plenty of insights to shape our vision of how we’d like people to experience autonomous vehicles in the future.

Today, most self-driving vehicles are built on top of “traditional” vehicle platforms originally designed for scenarios where humans are driving themselves. They still rely on steering wheels, forward-facing seats, and interfaces to control various aspects of vehicle function. We want to understand and define how this should change as we transition to a truly driverless future. Building on our learnings over the past six months, we’ve re-imagined the experience in our self-driving shuttles. This week at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, we are presenting “Myla 2.0” a new May Shuttle prototype that demonstrates our initial vision for the experience a self-driving vehicle should offer to its passengers.

A motivating design principle for our team was: “Once a person no longer has to worry about driving a car, what else will they want to do in the vehicle?” Talk to their friends? Admire the scenery? Get some work done? Unplug and relax? So, we set out to investigate this further. We took advantage of the flexible Polaris GEM vehicle platform, upon which our shuttles are built, and began experimenting with rapid iterations of new features including seating, door, and interface layouts.

In an early demo ride with a group of local business executives in downtown Detroit, we noticed the conversation shifted quickly from observations about the technology such as “I couldn’t even tell that Mimi [the car] was driving herself,” to comments about their experience in the vehicle including ideas like “It would be nice to have a little table and play Euchre in here.” A few minutes into the demo, one executive turned to another and began a conversation unrelated to their ride: “So, I was on a site visit…you know, the PGA tour is coming there… Wait! We’re talking about normal work stuff; I completely forgot I was in a self driving car!” The group laughed, and they concluded, “This is a great place to have a meeting. We are facing each other and can really pay attention.”

Countless observations like this lead us to creating the Myla 2.0 vision vehicle which accommodates four passengers in a 2-facing-2 “campfire” seating configuration to encourage social interaction within the cabin. A panoramic glass roof overhead and large windows allow passengers to enjoy scenic views of the cityscape above and better connect with the world around them. Two immersive 49” curved touch-screen displays ensure passengers have easy, interactive access to useful information about the vehicle and the ride.

For Myla’s UI on display at CES, we enlisted the help of Detroit-based UX designer Sam Derian (samderian.com) and software consultancy Integral (integral.io) to create an engaging kiosk-style experience customized for our 49” touch-screen display. The team crafted content to help introduce show attendees to the May Shuttle and learn about the services we offer. Visitors can take a virtual 360-degree tour of the vehicle and explore all of its features; experience a video ridealong in Detroit or Columbus; meet May Shuttle riders and see their stories; and learn more about the routes we operate today.

Getting a car to drive itself has been said by many to be one of this generation’s most important technical challenges to solve. Automotive industry visionary and autonomous vehicle advocate Larry Burns said in an interview: “The benefits are tremendous. We see better experiences — door-to-door travel where you don’t spend your time traveling, getting out of the car feeling better than when you got into it — at lower cost in terms of your out-of-pocket and time cost and [the cost] for society. That’s what’s so exciting. I would say that any vehicle that moves on the surface on the Earth and has a driver could be transformed by what we’re talking about.” While our team works tirelessly every day towards solving this very difficult problem, we are also very excited about using human-centered design to explore ways we can make riding in a self-driving vehicle reliable, useful, and delightful. Myla 2.0 is a step forward for us on this journey, and we’re eager to share our vision on the road for people to experience and give us feedback.

We hope you will visit us at CES (TechEast, Westgate Booth 2401 with our sensor partner Cepton) and let us know what you think!