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This paper describes a comparative study aimed at identifying cultural differences in automotive-HMI usability. This was part of a larger research to investigate in depth the problems users experience with vehicle-HMI in emerging-regions and help in the development of HMI design guidelines to include cultural consideration. Culture is recognised as a significant influence on user behaviour, as it correlates with certain preferences and abilities. A system may be fully usable for one group of users and environmental conditions but totally unsuitable for another. Even if a conscientious engineer designs a proper human-machine-interface for use in a given environment, the designer is often unable to foresee effects of a different culture on vehicle's HMI usability. Culture has different patterns of social behaviour and interaction which have led many researchers to develop cultural-models to describe these differences.