The social and ethical implications of autonomous vehicles Richard Morton This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2020 Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) Declaration This thesis has not been submitted in support of an application for another degree at this or any other university. It is the result of my own work and includes nothing that is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated. Many of the ideas in this thesis were the product of discussion with my supervisors Nick Dunn, Daniel Richards and Paul Coulton. Excerpts of this thesis have been published in the following conference manuscripts and academic publications: Morton, R., Dunn, N. S., Coulton, P., & Richards, D. C. (2017). ‘Smart’ Autonomous vehicles in cities of the future. Paper presented at Mobile Utopia, Lancaster, United Kingdom. Morton, R., Richards, D. C., Dunn, N. S., & Coulton, P. (2019). Questioning the social and ethical implications of autonomous vehicle technologies on professional drivers. The Design Journal, 22(Suppl. 1), 2061- 2071. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1594930 Richard Morton BA, B.Arch, MA Lancaster University, UK Acknowledgements I would like to say a big thank you to my supervisors, Professor Nick Dunn, Dr Daniel Richards and Professor Paul Coulton for their guidance and support throughout the course of my PhD. I would also like to thank my colleagues and students at the Manchester School of Architecture, especially Dr Laura Coucill and Professor Tom Jefferies for acting as a sounding board for my ideas. Thank you to everyone who supported this research, especially the participants on TruckNet and at Haywood truck stop. I would particularly like to mention Dave at TruckNet and Sue at Haywood truck stop without whom this research could not have happened. I would like to thank my family, especially my partner Rebecca for their continued support and patience throughout the past few years, their encouragement has been unwavering throughout. Lastly a big thank you to all those people I am unable to name individually. Everyone who I spoke to within the academic community, all those people who said well done or just shared their experiences and advice with me at a conference or over a coffee. Thank you. Abstract The current discourse surrounding vehicle autonomy focuses on the safe decision making of these machines, and the optimisation of traffic flow. It seems unquestionable that driverless vehicles will have far reaching effects on the way we live our lives yet to date, the social and ethical implications of driverless technologies on the user have largely been ignored. Using a multimethods approach incorporating speculative design and qualitative methods, this thesis explores the social and ethical implications of autonomous technologies on everyday life. Speculative design methods were used to question the autonomous vehicle concepts published by manufacturers. This identified user groups who appear unlikely to adopt such technologies, due to infrastructural and logistical constraints. HGV drivers emerged as a pioneering user group, who by law, had been using early driverless technologies since November 2015 with mixed success. The views of HGV drivers were explored through qualitative methods, using semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the industries developing autonomous technologies are all too often focused on a single user, the urban commuter. As a result, HGV drivers felt that they were being burdened with technology which they see as imposed on them and which is unhelpful or even detrimental to their lives and working practices. This is leading to increased resistance and a questioning of the future role of the professional driver. Building on the emerging field of data comics and using HGV drivers as a case study, this thesis proposes methods of visualising futures that could help designers and academics to explore, challenge and influence how we want emergent technologies to shape our daily lives in the future. This thesis highlights that the trajectory of autonomous technology development is not towards the experience of the driver or user but instead, is focused on the pursuit of the advancement of technology. Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research question ................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Autonomous vehicles ............................................................................................ 3 1.3 Technology, policy and vehicle development ........................................................ 6 1.3.1 The introduction of the horseless carriage ..................................................... 7 1.3.2 1885-1900 ....................................................................................................... 9 1.3.3 1900-1945 ..................................................................................................... 10 1.3.4 1945-2000 ..................................................................................................... 16 1.3.5 2000-today ................................................................................................... 22 1.4 The changing automotive world .......................................................................... 24 1.5 The social and physical impact of the automobile .............................................. 25 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................. 34 Driverless vehicles; the ethics of the mundane ......................................................... 34 2.1 Future Mobility .................................................................................................... 34 2.2 Driverless vehicles - Automation or autonomy? ................................................. 41 2.3 What is a driverless, autonomous, self-driving and driver assisted vehicle? ...... 43 2.4 The drive for vehicle autonomy ........................................................................... 50 2.5 Developers of driverless vehicles and their concepts .......................................... 57 2.6 Autonomy in the past .......................................................................................... 61 2.7 Autonomy today .................................................................................................. 63 2.8 The drive for efficiency ........................................................................................ 65 2.9 The ethics of autonomy ....................................................................................... 69 2.10 The shape of the network .................................................................................. 71 2.11 The shape of the city ......................................................................................... 74 2.12 Smart Cities ........................................................................................................ 80 2.13 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 83 3 METHODS AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 85 3.1 Outline ................................................................................................................. 85 3.2 Research objectives ............................................................................................. 86 3.3 Literature review ................................................................................................. 86 3.4 Rationale .............................................................................................................. 88 3.5 Methodological approach .................................................................................... 89 3.6 Ontology and Epistemology ................................................................................. 91 3.7 Study design ........................................................................................................ 93 3.7.1 Phase one ..................................................................................................... 94 3.7.2 Phase two ..................................................................................................... 96 3.7.3 Phase three ................................................................................................... 96 3.8 Qualitative methods, phases one and two .......................................................... 97 3.8.1 Step 1 ............................................................................................................ 98 3.8.2 Step 2 ............................................................................................................ 98 3.8.3 Step 3 ............................................................................................................ 99 3.8.4 Step 4 ............................................................................................................ 99 3.8.5 Step 5 .......................................................................................................... 100 3.8.6 Step 6 .......................................................................................................... 100 3.9 Qualitative rigour ............................................................................................... 100 3.10 Participatory