Observed behaviour
AI is becoming the reflex for planning a trip, at the expense of dedicated apps and operators' services.
⚠ The direct operator-traveller relationship is captured upstream.
Sector expertise, Individual Mobility & Transport
People aren't looking
for a means of
transport. They want
to control their journey.
From the private car to the TGV, from car sharing to station spaces, for 10 years we've been studying how people really get around. Not self-reported habits: the concrete trade-offs, the moments of anxiety, the coping strategies that rarely come to light.
Signal · 10 years of mobility & transport fieldwork
4
proprietary knowledge domains: individual mobility, shared mobility, mobility as work, attitudes to electric.
unknowns knowledge base
2
fundamentally different booking grammars in vehicle rental: under a day vs. over a day. It's not one journey to design, but two distinct decision logics.
unknowns × Renault Mobilize study
50+
traveller interviews in 5 major French stations to understand why service areas generate frustration.
unknowns × SNCF study
Our experience
Individual
and collective mobility;
before, during, after.
We cover mobility in all its complexity: the intimate relationship with the car and its maintenance rituals, how people choose between modes of shared transport, the anxiety surrounding electric vehicles, the experience of long-distance travel.
- SNCF
- Renault / Mobilize
- Transport operators
- Shared mobility players
10+
Social science studies on mobility and travel behaviour
100+
Ethnographic interviews with drivers, travellers and public transport users
5
Major French stations covered through observation and traveller interviews
3
Successive engagements with SNCF: from the TGV experience to station spaces
AI Observatory, Mobility module
A dedicated module on “travel, navigation and trip planning”.
Part of our long-term research programme. Data updated twice a year.
What we know
Getting around means
managing uncertainty,
not consuming
a service.
Our mobility research has built a proprietary knowledge base covering everything from the private car to public transport.
Our core conviction
Being in control of the journey trumps every other expectation.
Whether they drive their own car, rent a vehicle or take the TGV, people are looking for the same thing: the certainty that it'll go smoothly. Missing information, unpredictability they have to put up with, loss of control: those are the real irritants. Not price, not comfort.
Our 4 domainsIndividual mobility (the car, maintenance practices, tech fatigue) · shared mobility (how people choose between modes, the role of the “captain”, the unpredictability of public transport) · mobility as work · attitudes to electric (risk management, new driving behaviours).
Examples of insights from our research
Behaviours the industry doesn't see, and that our studies have documented.
Individual mobility
The car isn't a means of transport, it's a space for living and autonomy.
Our relationship with the car goes beyond function. It's a personal territory, an object of technical mastery, a marker of identity. Innovations that ignore this dimension run into resistance that self-reported studies fail to detect.
Transport & operators
By the time a traveller reaches the service desk, they've already tried everything on their own.
Filtering out this request for human help only deepens dissatisfaction. Organising it intelligently creates a lasting competitive edge, at a time when AI agents are capturing more and more queries upstream.
We share our full knowledge base on mobility in a dedicated presentation.
Request a presentation →AI & getting around
AI plans
the journey.
It can't handle
the unexpected.
AI is becoming the default travel assistant. But what creates value in mobility is precisely what AI can't yet do: handle the human uncertainty of the real journey.
Product tension
AI gives optimal routes, but no answers to travel anxiety.
⚠ The experience of the unexpected is still territory to win.
Opportunity, Individual
AI can finally personalise the switch to electric, addressing real anxieties rather than technical arguments.
✦ Personalised support for going electric becomes scalable.
Opportunity, Operators
Operators' AI agents can finally offer the level of human-like service that kiosks never could.
✦ A service AI agent can replace the kiosk, but not the human.
Case studies
Two engagements.
Two different
players. One shared
conviction.
Renault / Mobilize
One app, two grammars: designing a unified experience for opposing rental logics.
“The booking process isn't linear, it forks. Rental duration creates two fundamentally distinct decision logics. It's not one journey that needs designing, but two experience grammars. And in both cases, trust, not functionality, is the primary driver of engagement.”
12 in-depth individual interviews + 3 focus groups (18 participants) covering every renter profile. Reconstruction of the mental decision process at the moment of booking, rather than from desired features.
Outcome
6-step Decision Map, 4 actionable Persona Situations, 2 Digital Challenge Maps covering 20+ challenges built directly into the Mobilize Share 2.0 product process.SNCF
From the TGV experience to station spaces: a long-term collaboration to put travellers back at the heart of every moment of the journey.
“Travellers don't want the train explained to them. They want help staying in control of their journey. The real problem isn't missing information, it's unpredictability they have to put up with. For example, counter-intuitive as it may seem: when a traveller arrives at a station service area, they have very often already tried everything on their own.”
3 successive engagements over several years: TGV ethnography (20+ travellers in real situations) + core/business/family experience promises + predictability engagement (pre-trip communications, MVP deployed) + station spaces study (50 traveller interviews, 5 stations, 5 staff interviews).
Outcome
New TGV promises defined and equipped · pre-trip communications system prototyped with MVP deployed · body of insights translated into design challenges for the redesign of station service areas.Opportunities
Four possible engagements
with your team.
- 01Traveller experience & serviceIdentify the real moments of discomfort in your journey and design responses that put people back in control.
- 02Mobility product & appDesign the app or digital service that addresses real decisions, not wish-list features.
- 03Electric transitionSupport the switch to electric by tackling the real resistance, which is behavioural, not rational.
- 04AI agent & customer serviceDesign the mobility AI agent that truly understands users' situations, not just their questions.
Frequently asked questions
What we're asked
most often.
By starting from how people really travel, not from the technology. unknowns designs solutions that support concrete uses: service AI agents that finally deliver the level of human support kiosks never could, personalised support for going electric based on real anxieties, services designed to handle the unexpected on a journey. All rooted in a detailed understanding of how people actually get around.
AI has become the first reflex for planning a trip, ahead of dedicated apps and operator websites: the direct operator-traveller relationship is captured upstream. But it gives optimal routes, not answers to the anxiety of the real journey. For players in the sector, differentiation now hinges on the ability to handle the unexpected and give people a sense of control, an area unknowns has been working on for ten years.
Not a means of transport, but control over their journey: the certainty that it'll go smoothly. Whether they drive, rent a vehicle or take the train, the real irritant isn't price or comfort, it's missing information and unpredictability they have to put up with. unknowns has documented these behaviours through ten years of ethnographic research, from the private car to station spaces. This is the asset that makes it possible to design services that meet real expectations.
unknowns is neither a communications agency nor a market research institute. We combine social sciences, design and generative AI to start from how people really travel, not what users say they do. This field knowledge, built up over ten years with drivers, travellers and operators, is what makes our recommendations actionable.