Autonomous Humans Unite!
Will Autonomous Vehicles deplete human autonomy?
There were two articles on autonomous vehicles (or self-driving cars) in the media this morning. The first was the announcement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, that he intends to have autonomous vehicles on British roads by 2021. The other came from Jeremy Clarkson, who revealed that he had used such a vehicle. He reported that the car’s abilities were greatly oversold and that the one unnamed vehicle he had been testing made two life-threatening errors within 50 miles. His conclusion was that a genuinely autonomous vehicle was decades away.
I do not write as an engineer or AI expert as I am neither. My experience of technology and working with engineers and computer scientists is sufficient to listen to them when they express genuinely held doubts about the viability of this technology. There are legitimate uses for autonomous vehicle technology in controlled spaces. It is another thing entirely to let loose a hoard of autonomous vehicles onto the road, transporting people. This article, however, is not about whether the autonomous vehicle could be possible, but whether it should be built at all.
We are currently being sold a vision of a future where we will no longer have to bother driving our cars. The car can be like another room where we will be able to relax, read, watch movies or do your office work as you travel. There will be no need to watch the road or bother yourself with the pesky task of acquiring the skills to drive a car. There is a problem with this vision.
These autonomous vehicles need connectivity to work. They will be complicated computer operated machines that will require constant maintenance. They will take time to maintain and keep up to date. It is not hard to see that in the future, perhaps in a generation or two, car ownership will be the preserve only of the very wealthy. Everyone else will may well just summon an autonomous vehicle when they need one, using an app on their phone or whatever technology we will be using then. One vehicle for taking us to the office. Another takes us to the gym or the shops. A larger one comes to take us on family outings. It decides when we go, which route we take. It may yet decide where we go, and it is not too difficult to imagine a society where the autonomous vehicle company or controlling authority decides if you can go.
The motor car has many problems. Some of these are big problems that need addressing. They pollute and if the driver loses control, they can kill. On the other hand, they have enabled the ordinary human being living on this planet the opportunity to travel where they want, when they want. It has given us unprecedented freedom of movement; with that comes a freedom of mind and imagination. We now face a future where that freedom is taken away from us. The skills needed to drive a car will die out. Our personal horizons will be limited.
The sad thing is that the technology involved in this industry has the potential not to trap us in our homes but to enable us to be better drivers with broader horizons. In an article for LinkedIn entitled “Technology cannot replace Pilots”, Captain Sullenberger concluded “When we design our systems, we need to assign appropriate roles to the human and technical components. It is best for humans to be the doers and the technology to be the monitors, providing decision aids and safeguards.” A different application of the same technology could bring unprecedented safety advances whilst enhancing the skills of the driver, not reducing them to passiveness in the face of overwhelming technology.
We are in a new industrial age where Artificial Intelligence plays an ever-increasing role in our lives. We have the choice to use this technology to enhance the lives of everyone by giving them control as well as freedom or we can succumb to a kind of technological tyranny thrust upon us by technology companies. Autonomous vehicles were not asked for by the general public; they were announced as inevitable. The ethics of taking skills away from human beings and disempowering them is not on the agenda. It needs to be. Although I am a person who is always looking to technology for new possibilities, it is not possible for me to see the development of autonomous vehicles with any joy as I cannot imagine the end result being beneficial or benign. For me they fail the dignity test in that they reduce humanity, not enhance it. They take away a fundamental dignity of being an autonomous human.
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About the author
Clare Topic is a director of The Tropical Group Ltd. She welcomes contract enquiries to define new, competitive products, design them and deliver them.
Disclaimer
The opinions offered in this article are intended to describe common scenarios that sometimes occur in general product management practice. They are in no way intended to be read as referring to any particular employer, past or present.
