Autonomous Futures: Implications for Smart Cities

“But the great promise of autonomous technology is that it allows the adoption of a more people-centered outlook and asks how we should reorganize mobility in our cities to serve people better. Such a reprioritization is necessary for navigating autonomous futures while simultaneously giving shape to them.” Autonomous Futures: Implications for Smart Cities As researchers studying how to design human interaction with automation, we are frequently asked to prognosticate the future of autonomous vehicles: When are they coming? How will they work? How will cities, societies, information systems, and lifestyles adapt around them? Our role as design researchers is to help people understand that no future is inevitable. In this essay, we outline how the different ways that our future with autonomous vehicles can unfold, the role that designers play in that unfolding, and the importance of people exercising their agency to influence designers and outcomes.