Science & Tech

Science & Tech Conjecture: Trip Timeline

Lincoln Ahn

30 Sep 2025 — 1 min read

Background photo of Honda Odyssey 2019 from Gunn Honda, Android Auto UI from Lofi Alpaca on Youtube

One issue that cropped up when researching children in cars was the framing of time. As explained by Ruth Ogden, "a five-hour car journey may feel longer to a five-year-old than to a 50-year-old, simply because it is a greater proportion of the five-year-old’s life" (Ogden, 2022). A function that reframes and contextualizes the length of a car trip could make the wait for the destination more bareable.

Screenshot background from Lofi Alpaca on Youtube

The Trip Timeline allows passengers to see the overall progress of a trip without needing to bug the driver. The length of the trip is represented by an interact-able timeline with highlighted stops. Additionally, the main icon for the car will be animated to reflect the environment it is in. For the example above, as the car is driving through a mountain pass the icon will bob up and down over hills. This creates a small graphic to entertain the user without being too distracting as the animation is isolated to a single icon.

References

"Reasons to Make the 2019 Honda Odyessy Your Choice". Gunn Honda. 2019. https://www.gunnhonda.com/blogs/2496/reasons-to-make-the-2019-honda-odyssey-your-choice/

"How to take a screenshot on Android Auto". Lofi Alpaca. Youtube. 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3D2U1ZpyXE

Ogden, Ruth. 2022. The Conversation. "‘Are we nearly there yet?’: why long car journeys are so excruciating for your kids". https://theconversation.com/are-we-nearly-there-yet-why-long-car-journeys-are-so-excruciating-for-your-kids-189347

All original works in this article were done without the assistance of AI tools.

Survey

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References

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Survey

WonderView

Ambient Drive Control

Sensory Seam