Where Are Autonomous Vehicles Taking Us?

Abstract

New transportation or mobility technologies have the power to disrupt the social, economic, and political landscape, exemplified by the introduction of the automobile over a century ago (Brown et al., 2009). The resultant and accumulated impacts had significantly changed how and where people lived, worked and gathered. As cities shape, and are shaped by, prevailing transportation options, the arrival of autonomous vehicles suggests a new era of mobility and therefore new influences on urban society and form. To date, most of the research on autonomous vehicles has addressed the engineering challenges of vehicle design, while the social implications have been largely ignored (Yurtsever et al., 2020). Often, the new mobility technologies are launched before the social context has been analyzed and implications understood (Butler et al., 2020a; Kassens-Noor et al. 2020). This special issue of the Journal of Urban Technology presents current research on these new autonomous driving technologies and how they interact with urban society. Currently, autonomous vehicles fit Schrodinger’s thought experiment by being both positive and negative depending on the observer’s perspective (Moore, 2015). Advantages include safety, potential for reduced travel, access for young, old, and those with disabilities, and parking spaces returned for more productive use (Butler et al., 2020b). In contrast, disadvantages may include increased travel, marginalization and exclusion if not all areas are served equally, and a preoccupation with vehicles as the core mode instead of a broad definition encompassing walking to autonomous vehicles (Yigitcanlar et al., 2019). The outcome of the use of autonomous vehicles depends on people and policy, and how individuals and institutions react to the opportunities autonomous vehicles provide (Kassens-Noor et al., 2021). Cities with similar characteristics may well result in different urban landscapes depending on their autonomous vehicle policies. Our call for papers was broad in scope and has resulted in nine articles that present several themes emergent in the current literature. The sections of this issue represent the language and literature of autonomous vehicles, lessons from pilot programs in the United States and Europe, and the policy response and implications of new forms of mobility.