Hiding in Plain Sight: Understanding the Everyday Practices and Challenges of Car Dwellers

2026-02-17

AI Summary

This study addresses the often-overlooked complexity of vehicle dwelling as a form of housing insecurity and its unique constraints within confined spaces. Through qualitative analysis of posts and comments from online communities of vehicle dwellers, the research systematically codes their everyday practices and identity negotiations shaped by social, spatial, and infrastructural limitations. Findings reveal that vehicle dwellers occupy an ambiguous position between homelessness and digital nomadism, with infrastructural capacity playing a pivotal role in their identity construction. Building on these insights, the work proposes design recommendations for technologies that accommodate diverse and context-specific needs. By foregrounding the lived experiences of this marginalized group, the study contributes a novel perspective and empirical foundation to inclusive human-computer interaction (HCI) research.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Vehicle dwelling has increased significantly in recent years. While HCI research has explored vehicle dwelling through the lens of digital nomadism and vanlife, it has largely overlooked the complexities of vehicle dwelling as a form of housing insecurity, as well as the unique constraints of living in smaller vehicles. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of posts and comments from an online community, we examine car dwellers' infrastructuring work to manage daily life under social, spatial, and infrastructural constraints. We further explore the motivations and identity negotiations of car dwellers, whose experiences fall between homelessness and nomadism, and highlight how developing infrastructural competence can shape identity. We discuss implications for future HCI research on mobility and dwelling under conditions of uneven access to infrastructure and provide design recommendations for technologies that better account for car dwellers' diverse needs, circumstances, and identities.

Problem

• vehicle dwelling
• housing insecurity
• infrastructural constraints
• identity negotiation
• homelessness

Innovation

• car dwelling
• housing insecurity
• infrastructuring
• identity negotiation
• HCI