The attachments of 'autonomous' vehicles

The ideal of the self-driving car replaces an error-prone human with an infallible, artificially intelligent driver. This narrative of autonomy promises liberation from the downsides of automobility, even if that means taking control away from autonomous, free-moving individuals. The authors look behind this narrative to understand the attachments that so-called 'autonomous' vehicles (AVs) are likely to have to the world. Drawing on 50 interviews with AV developers, researchers and other stakeholders, the authors explore the social and technological attachments that stakeholders see inside the vehicle, on the road and with the wider world. These range from software and hardware to the behaviours of other road users and the material, social and economic infrastructure that supports driving and self-driving. The authors describe how innovators understand, engage with or seek to escape from these attachments in three categories: 'brute force', which sees attachments as problems to be solved with more data, 'solve the world one place at a time', which sees attachments as limits on the technology's reach and 'reduce the complexity of the space', which sees attachments as solutions to the problems encountered by technology developers. Understanding attachments provides a powerful way to anticipate various possible constitutions for the technology.

• Record URL:
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03063127211038752
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/49976340
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2021Chris Tennant and Jack Stilgoe.
• Authors:
  • Tennant, Chris
  • Stilgoe, Jack
• Publication Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 846-870
• Serial:
  • Social Studies of Science
  • Volume: 51
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0306-3127
  • EISSN: 1460-3659
  • Serial URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sss

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Autonomous vehicles; Governance; Innovation; Social factors; Stakeholders
• Subject Areas: Highways; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01845081
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 10 2022 2:35PM