Paper short abstract:

In this paper we propose and demonstrate a design anthropological approach to the question of trust in Autonomous Driving (AD) cars (sometimes called self driving cars).

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we propose and demonstrate a design anthropological approach to the question of trust in Autonomous Driving (AD) cars (sometimes called self driving cars). Mobilising a design anthropological theory of trust (Pink et al 2018), we propose an understanding how and why people will trust in AD cars which takes three novel moves to: go beyond psychological theories of trust that are conventionally applied in Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) and User Experience (UX) research and practice by understanding the social, material and sensory circumstances through which trust emerges; rethink how the car is conceptualised as a product; imagine new relationships between designers, companies and users. These moves are related to three analytical steps that we explain in full below, but now preface by highlighting that they involve: moving beyond the transactional and interactional theories of trust and towards understanding trust in technologies as a contingent outcome of ongoingly emergent circumstances; understanding the car (and technologies more generally) as an always incomplete and unfinished 'thing', always in progress, and always likely to assemble with other things in unanticipated ways; and considering therefore how these new understandings of trust and technologies imply new relationships between designers, companies and users which would be responsive to the contingencies that surround people's relationships with AD cars and services, and to the car as an ongoingly emergent and changing product rather than as a finished object.