Marres, Noortje (2020) What if nothing happens? Street trials of intelligent cars as experiments in participation. In: Maassen, S. and Dickel, S. and Schneider, C., (eds.) TechnoScienceSociety : Technological Reconfigurations of Science and Society. Sociology of the sciences (30). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, pp. 111-130. ISBN 9783030439644

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Abstract

This chapter evaluates an emerging paradigm for testing intelligent technology in society through the analysis of recent street trials of self-driving cars. Moving beyond laboratory based test protocols, street trials of intelligent automotive technology evaluate their performance in social environments, on public roads. As such, they appear to exemplify an experimental approach to the introduction of technology to society, which extends "betatesting" procedures from technical to social, ethical and political aspects of technology (Jackson et al, 2014). I examine this hypothesis through a discussion of several street trials of intelligent automotive technology: the roll-out of driver-assist by Tesla; an emission test of a VW diesel car in Germany; the Gateway trial in Greenwich (UK). Each of these street tests puts in place arrangements for social engagement with intelligent automotive technology, but they do not enable an experimental approach to the societal evaluation of
technology. While these projects tend to pursue the societal acceptance of technology, they do not curate experimental situations in society in which the proposition of self-driving cars can be examined from a societal point of view. However, the contribution of social research
should not be limited to diagnosing methodological limitations of current tests of intelligent technology in society. We should examine if street tests can be re-purposed to enable the elicitation of societal aspects of innovation. I then conclude with a description of an 'experiment in participation' (Lezaun, Marres, Tironi, 2016) in which our team deployed
creative methods to elicit social issues raised by driverless cars, by way of a group exercise conducted in the Driver-in-the-loop simulator at the University of Warwick (Marres, Kimbell, Cain et al, 2017). The explication of social aspects of inteligent technology requires the deliberate adaptation of test environments in society.

Item Type:	Book Item
Subjects:	T Technology > TE Highway engineering. Roads and pavements T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Intelligent control systems , Automobiles -- Automatic control, Intelligent transportation systems, Automated vehicles
Series Name:	Sociology of the sciences
Publisher:	Springer Nature
Place of Publication:	Cham, Switzerland
ISBN:	9783030439644
Book Title:	TechnoScienceSociety : Technological Reconfigurations of Science and Society
Editor:	Maassen, S. and Dickel, S. and Schneider, C.
Official Date:	2020
Dates:	Date Event 2020 Published 7 February 2018 Accepted 24 November 2017 Submitted
Number:	30
Number of Pages:	306
Page Range:	pp. 111-130
DOI:	10.1007/978-3-030-43965-1
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Copyright Holders:	© 2020
Related URLs:	Other

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