Effective interaction design for automated vehicles is a challenging matter. Be it interacting with the vehicle from a driver/operator position or being interacted with by the vehicle as a part of its road environment, the challenge lies with how to integrate the new contents or address the novel challenges brought about by the vehicle being (partially) automated. This typically takes the form of additional indicators (e.g., external displays) or exploration into different interaction modalities. In this paper, I want to share my view on how many automation challenges might be better addressed using minimal additional indicators or re-using already existing indicators and techniques as much as possible. Based on experiences from recent studies(specifically, one study on external HMI designs and one on an in-vehicle HMI), I argue for a more frugal approach to automation interaction design.