The Societal Impact of Autonomous Driving: A Whiteboard Discussion

The future of autonomous driving is almost here — bringing tremendous social upheaval and opportunity. Do we have the vision and will at this rare historical moment to design a greener, safer, more human(e) world for all?

The future of autonomous driving is almost here — bringing tremendous social upheaval and opportunity. Do we have the vision and will at this rare historical moment to design a greener, safer, more human(e) world for all?

Of course we didn’t come up with solutions at our recent whiteboard discussion about the matter, but we did articulate substantive unanswered questions, ranging from life-and-death moral/ethical decisions to be written into software, potential effects on family dynamics, and changing streetscapes.

Clearly autonomous driving will impact individual behavior and interpersonal relationships, infrastructure, and multiple societal institutions. This is evident not only from our humble discussion and numerous articles contemplating our very near transportation future — but also from looking back to when we first transitioned to gas-powered cars. Autonomous driving will likely have a similar scale of impact.

The transition from horses to horsepower in the early 20th century initiated societal changes far beyond steering a wheel instead of holding the reins:

• The concept (and offense) of jaywalking was invented — largely created by the auto industry
• The movement to create playgrounds was given urgency by the need to keep children off of ever-more-dangerous streets
• Dating and courtship rituals moved from “front porch to back seat”
• “Family and unity” diminished as values and practices, as individuals had the means to go where they wished, independently, and away from the company (or watchful eye) of their families
• Coupled with the invention of the tractor, the horse population plummeted, as did the basic horse skills most people knew (cities also smelled a lot nicer…)

Autonomous driving portends changes similar in sweep and scope:

What kinds of behaviors will people choose to engage in if relieved from operating a car and from paying perpetual attention to the traffic and surrounding environment? What are the possibilities for car interior redesign?

Will streets become again — as they have been for most of human history — places for pedestrians, play, socializing — and for bicycles and public transportation?

What will become of the tremendous amount of urban space devoted to parking lots and spaces that will no longer be necessary — parks? Urban farms? Homeless shelters?

Our most recent whiteboard session was a lively, thoughtful discussion focused on just these questions. Our determined attendees braved formidable parking and public transportation challenges (due to a Giants home game) to make our chat substantive and engaging — thank you to all who attended from the worlds of design, research, academia and the car industry itself.

Our discussion ultimately gelled around three areas of interest: the family, streetscapes, and emergent ethics. Though we generated no answers, these are some of the most pressing questions that will need to be answered as autonomous driving slowly becomes our reality.

Family

• How will the dynamics of the “family road trip” evolve — will it be a collective experience or rather an atomized “alone together” time?
• What technologies will emerge to allow parents to use car trips (near or far) to allow them to engage with children safely during the drive?
• Will “family traincars” emerge in which families take collective road trips together and communicate with each other during the drive?
• What kinds of family work can be done during an autonomous drive?

Streetscapes

• What kinds of tensions might emerge among “car” factions and “community” factions?
• To whom will/do neighborhoods belong?
• Will seamless artifacts of traffic control emerge?
• What kinds of centralized services might evolve (government, corporate); what might their effect on small businesses be?
• How might we form communities on the road?

Ethics/Morality

• How might Issac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics apply to autonomous driving?
• How are ethics a reflection of normative society?
• Whose ethics will prevail in autonomous vehicles and systems?

Drawing on our own engagement in crafting the user experience of autonomous driving, we have learned that the industry is primarily focused on discovering and defining behaviors and design attributes within and surrounding the vehicles themselves. However, considering that autonomous driving will have a profound impact on communities great and small, there is a need to establish a continuous and evolving dialogue between the community and the industry to consider the impact of autonomous driving on families, neighborhoods, streetscapes and the ethical/moral fabric of society. Though we of course did not expect our whiteboard session to produce answers, our compilation of questions, we believe, will trigger a healthy dialogue between the community and the industry and force conceptualization of design ideas that integrate societal considerations.

Marie Mika is a sociologist and Senior Design Researcher at SonicRim