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Short abstract:

'Autonomy' promises independence: the reality for 'autonomous' vehicles is different. Drawing on 50 interviews with developers, researchers and other stakeholders, we explore the social and technological attachments that stakeholders see inside the vehicle, on the road and with the wider world.

Long abstract:

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. We 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, we 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. We 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. Attachments that reduce complexity are likely to include progressive changes to the rules of the road to facilitate 'autonomous' mobility. Understanding attachments provides a powerful way to anticipate various possible constitutions for the technology.