EV Life: A Counterfactual Dashboard Towards Reducing Carbon Emissions of Automotive Behaviors

ABSTRACT Adopting electric vehicles (EVs) is an important step towards meeting climate change targets. Despite the increased availability of electric vehicles (EVs), many individuals are unfamiliar with the environmental and cost savings and how their driving behaviors might change (e.g., where and how to charge) when switching from a conventional fuel vehicle. While behavioral science research can identify what factors are barriers to EV adoption, there is a struggle to identify interventions that can help mitigate these barriers. We introduce EV Life, a mobile app for showing a counterfactual view of people’s automotive behaviors which introduces two functions. First, the app monitors a person’s driving trips in their current vehicle and provides a counterfactual dashboard that highlights what their trip would be like with an EV, including information about cost savings, reduction in carbon emissions, and charging locations. Second, the app provides a research platform for testing interventions for belief change using rule based or machine learning notification delivery.