The Myth of the Autonomous Vehicle
featuring Dr. Jack Stilgoe, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies, University College London
About the lecture
Self-driving cars or ‘autonomous’ vehicles promise to change the world in profound ways. The suggested benefits include safety, efficiency, accessibility and improved urban environments. However, questions are being raised about responsibility for crashes, safe testing and possible wider ramifications for transport systems.
In a discussion that has been dominated by science, engineering and narrow questions of ethics, there is a need to draw attention to wider questions - Who wins? Who loses? Who decides? Who pays?
In this lecture, Dr. Stilgoe discusses these aspects of seemingly autonomous technologies. He aims to drive home the point that their development, while steered by human interests and expectations and future socio-technical systems, will also be entangled in social infrastructures, rules and institutions, in complex and possibly unpredictable ways.
About the speaker
Dr. Jack Stilgoe is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at University College London, where he works on the governance of emerging technologies. He runs the Driverless Futures project, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and is a fellow of the Turing Institute.
About the University
University College London (UCL) is one of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary universities, with more than 11,000 staff and 39,000 students from 150 different countries. Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL became one of the two founding institutions of the University of London. UCL was the first university in England to welcome students of any religion and the first to welcome women on equal terms with men.
Also see Dr. Stilgoe's latest book: Who’s driving Innovation? New technologies and the collaborative state