[Air-L] Event - Autonomous Vehicles: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

[Jake Goldenfein]

Dear AoIR Community

If you are in the New York City area on March 13, Cornell Tech is hosting an event – Autonomous Vehicles: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Please visit the event website to register your interest in attending: https://www.dli.tech.cornell.edu/autonomousvehicles (We are still accepting registrations).

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As public perceptions of autonomous vehicles waver, rigorous ethical and political analysis of the future of transport has never been more important. Looking beyond questions of driver and pedestrian safety, this workshop will investigate other possible dark sides of autonomous vehicle deployments to expose and understand societal consequences.

Different stakeholders pursue different visions for the development of autonomous transport, each with different business models, technological configurations, governance structures, and policy outcomes. Each vision generates different social, ethical, and political implications that often escape ethical analyses focused exclusively on safety. However, autonomous vehicles systems also have the potential to cause economic exploitation, anti-democratic public governance, environmental degradation, and the dehumanization of public space. Now is the time to identify and avoid the worst that could happen, and to ensure these complex systems are oriented towards the improvement of individual, social and civic life.
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Workshop Overview | This single day event will bring together experts from engineering, policy, and industry to discuss the social implications of autonomous transport from different perspectives. We plan to explore questions such as:


  *   How different vehicle deployments change how human occupants are identified and defined, and how that may affect questions of privacy and autonomy.
  *   How different business models like passenger ride-sharing, fleet management, or private vehicle ownership require different technological configurations, and what they require in terms of data flows and public accountability.
  *   How different vehicle systems require changes to public space or re-instrumenting of roadways, and who has the power to determine the shape of those new urban environments.
  *   How business decisions, and the technologies required to implement them, interact with broader policy questions around public life, the environment, and international geopolitics.

Confirmed speakers include:


  *   Jane Lappin (Toyota Research Institute)
  *   Andrew Kun (University of New Hampshire)
  *   Li Jin (New York University)
  *   Alain L. Kornhauser (Princeton University)
  *   Ignacio Alvarez (Intel)
  *   Nahom Byene (Rand Corporation)
  *   Janet Vertesi (Princeton University)
  *   Luke Fletcher (Toyota Research Institute)
  *   Nikolas Martelaro (Carnegie Mellon University)
  *   Bill Horrey (AAA Traffic Safety Foundation)

Many thanks!

--
Dr Jake Goldenfein
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Digital Life Initiative<http://www.dli.tech.cornell.edu/>
Cornell Tech | Cornell University
2 West Loop Rd, New York, NY 10044
SSRN<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2722511>