Autonomous Vehicles and the Automobility Imaginary

• In Event: Autonomous Vehicles - II: Visions and Imaginaries for Autonomous Systems

Abstract

The visions and discourses surrounding electric autonomous automobiles are an exemplary instance of a sociotechnical imaginary of the type described by Jasanoff and Kim: visions of a future technology that has yet to be developed or is in the process of development. This assumes a distinction can be made between: 1) actually existing automobility, consisting of the sum of its material, technological components; 2) representations of a future automobility which, once materialized, would enter the ontological domain of the real and thenceforth cease to be imaginary. What is most significant about the visions and discourses surrounding electric autonomous automobiles is not their ostensible temporal referent in the future but their significance for the present. Visions and prototypes of electric autonomous automobiles represent, we argue, one moment in the history of a single, enduring automobility imaginary that has continually undergone transformation. Within that imaginary, electric autonomous automobiles are presented as the solution to public concern regarding automobility related death, injury and climate change; as desirable, inevitable and radically transformational, yet they draw upon the familiar tropes of freedom and autonomy of traditional automobility. It is an imaginary that is co-produced through the efforts of a variety of epistemic actors, not least amongst which are states and automobile manufacturers. Composed of visions that justify and support the continuing expansion of automobility across the planet, it is a dreamscape of power that neutralizes, counters and renders unimaginable alternative visions of a post-automobility future. It is an imaginary that requires deconstruction.

Authors

• Richard Randell, Webster University

• Robert Braun, Institut für Höhere Studien Vienna