Paper short abstract:

This paper presents development of a mobile application that helps reducing CO2 emissions via the adoption of so-called ecodriving. R&D team, which includes anthropologists, takes into account socio-cultural factors, the understanding of which is important for designing a user-friendly application.

Paper long abstract:

How do we motivate people to change their driving habits, such as rapid acceleration, sudden braking, idling and speeding, which increase CO2 emissions? In this paper it is argued that simple and user-friendly mobile solutions provide a promising answer to these questions and promote the so-called ecodriving. The advantages of such a "green" driving style go beyond ecological initiatives - they include reducing driving costs and producing safety benefits.

This paper presents a co-creation of such a mobile application, developed in an interdisciplinary team of the telematics solution provider, headquartered in Slovenia. Since its R&D team, which includes anthropologists, believes a single approach to altering driving practices cannot be used in all socio-cultural settings, the application is cross-culturally oriented. Important part of its development is ethnographic research, combined with quantitative measurements of driving styles. By such "quanlitative" approach it is established which elements of the application should be adapted to specific driving practices, traffic infrastructure, number of vehicles on roads and other socio-cultural and technological factors.

Such R&D process is significant for several reasons: 1. Its main relevance is in its social impact, since the developed application contributes to the transition into a low-carbon society. 2. It brings several theoretical outputs about driving habits to the academic community and adds new findings to the emerging subfield of anthropology of traffic. 3. It establishes new synergies between anthropology, engineering and industry. 4. It broadens the spectrum of activities in R&D departments and adds "people-centric" design to the list of relevant approaches for development of new technologies.