Marres, Noortje (2020) Co-existence or displacement : do street trials of intelligent vehicles test society? British Journal of Sociology, 71 (3). pp. 537-555. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12730

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Abstract

This paper examines recent street tests of autonomous vehicles (AV) in the UK and makes the case for an experimental approach in the sociology of intelligent technology. In recent years intelligent vehicle testing has moved from the laboratory to the street, raising the question of whether technology trials equally constitute tests of society. To adequately address this question, I argue, we need to move beyond analytic frameworks developed in 1990s Science and Technology Studies, which stipulated "a social deficit" of both intelligent technology and technology testing. This diagnosis no longer provides an effective starting point for sociological analysis, as real-world tests of intelligent technology explicitly seek to bring social phenomena within the remit of technology testing. I propose that we examine instead whether and how the introduction of intelligent vehicles into the street involves the qualification and re-qualification of relations and dynamics between social actors. I develop this proposal through a discussion of a field study of AV street trials in three cities in the UK - London, Milton Keynes and Coventry. These urban trials were accompanied by the claim that automotive testing on the open road will enable cars to operate in tune with the social environment, and I show how iterations of street testing undo this proposition and compel its reformulation. Current test designs are limited by their narrow conception of sociality in terms of interaction between cars and other road users. They exclude from consideration the relational capacities of vehicles and human road users alike - their ability to co-exist on the open road. I conclude by making the case for methodological innovation in social studies of intelligent technology: by combining social research and design methods, we can re-purpose real-world test environments in order to elucidate social issues and dynamics raised by intelligent vehicles in society by experimental means, and, possibly, test society.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology T Technology > TE Highway engineering. Roads and pavements T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Automated vehicles, Automated vehicles -- Testing, Automated vehicles -- Social aspects, Intelligent transportation systems, Transportation -- Social aspects, Intelligent control systems -- Social aspects
Journal or Publication Title:	British Journal of Sociology
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN:	0007-1315
Official Date:	June 2020
Dates:	Date Event June 2020 Published 14 January 2020 Available 18 December 2019 Accepted
Date of first compliant deposit:	15 January 2020
Volume:	71
Number:	3
Page Range:	pp. 537-555
DOI:	10.1111/1468-4446.12730
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Publisher Statement:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Marres, N. Co‐existence or displacement: Marres, N. Co‐existence or displacement: Do street trials of intelligent vehicles test society?. Br J Sociol. 2020; 71: 537– 555. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12730. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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