A Dronyx Solarino, dressed up as municipal robot, for Museum of the Future 2015

Shepherd, sheepdog

Robots may force us to confront how we treat the people that currently make our cities tick

This is a version of my latest column for Dezeen, which addresses robotics and cities. Despite posting in December 2015, I’d started writing this months before, and some of the examples betray that. Still, it took me that long — usually on planes, trains but not yet autonomous automobiles — to find the time to edit it. You can read the longer original cut below; the tighter Dezeen version is over here.

This one emerged from several conversations over the last year or two, so thanks to matthewward and his brilliant team and class at Goldsmiths College for helping me develop the ‘shepherd, sheepdog’ idea. Thanks to Noah Raford and Matt Cottam and his brilliant team at Tellart for making that manifest at Museum of the Future. Thanks also to conversations with Indy Johar, on- and off-stage at MakeCity Berlin, for helping me realise the implicit slavery angle a little more directly. Thanks also to Chris Green for the conversations about drones, rooftops and more besides.

Shepherd, sheepdog; on people, robots and cities

The image of a standard-issue bus driving through a standard-issue Chinese city flitted across Twitter. Utterly unremarkable at first glance, a closer look revealed the driver was kicking back, arms outstretched above his head as the bus rolled forward by itself. The image was of a trial of self-driving buses developed by the Yutong corporation, due to be running in Chinese cities within the next few years. Perhaps the driver was day-dreaming about whether he’d have a job this time next year.

A few days later, the Singapore government announced a similar programme of autonomous buses, due to be on the city’s roads by middle of next year. A Swiss self-driving bus will also be trundling around Sion next year.

Yutong Corp self-driving bus prototype (2015)

These are welcome moments amidst the ever-increasing noise around autonomous vehicles, shifting the narrative away from different forms of private car and towards the idea of on-demand, shared autonomous…