Offroad vehicles often get stuck with varying degrees of severity. From rollovers to deep mud, the situations encountered on and off trail can get drastic quickly. From our user interviews, we found that these situations typically arise from inexperience or difficulty with spotting/visibility. Additionally, some of the more experienced users stated concerns with being out of cell service and unable to call for help in severe situations. A satellite phone is very expensive for the frequency of use. 

Spotting can be difficult when riding in atypical conditions or alone, our users mentioned this being a pain point when they are off-roading at night as an example. Existing solutions for this involve a $1,400 camera system [1] mounted under the vehicle which requires extensive user installation and is unaffordable. Additionally, modern vehicles incorporate factory cameras that offer 360-degree vehicle by superimposing camera angles. This creates the illusion that the driver can see under the vehicle. However, possible obstacles can already be past the vehicle out of view of the driver. Many off roaders that we spoke to are unequipped with this technology and utilize older vehicles that they have customized and developed trust in. 

Another pain point that seemed to come up frequently with all user groups was the hassle of installing chains on their tires. One user even said that he had chains in his car, they would have helped him, and still he decided to push the car instead. For winter off-roading and normal ice-driving, an easier solution for quick traction potentially exists. Maxtrax can slip out from the car during use because of the smooth bottom surface. Additionally, a lack of anchor points can be the end of the road for most off-roaders. A quote from Summit Daily states that “Jeeps without an anchor like a tree around are kind of useless because they don’t weigh enough to anchor” [2]. This highlights the need for a stable anchoring point when no trees or other vehicles are available.

Additionally, all users voiced annoyances with digging vehicles out, with some situations lasting up to 3-4 hours before the vehicle was able to move. While these users deemed the methods they had "sufficient", they certainly weren't comfortable or fun. There is room for improvement in terms of freeing up the wheels of the vehicle, especially with too few/only one person available. 

Finally, experienced users suffered to winch themselves out of areas without winch points. This was frequently seen as a struggle for users when trees were sparse in the off-road area. Some users have become stuck in the past and when needing to self-rescue alone, there are no options for hooking up a tow winch to other vehicles to use as an anchor point so they instead bury a spare tire to get themselves out. This was a key sticking point for both the Randy and Chad personas.