Autonomous Vehicles: Risks and Rewards

This episode explores the future of driving, or more specifically the predicted future of autonomous/driverless/self-driving vehicles. No matter what you call it, it has a lot of both ethical and human-centered issues, and as we continue testing this technology both in simulations and the real world, we're coming to realize that "smarter" may not necessarily be better.

Going "back" to simpler models of shared streets and bolstering public transportation may not necessarily be as sexy, but is a fully autonomous future really going to live up to predictions? Listen in as we unpack Transit Oriented Development, the Trolley Dilemma, and a bit of Star Trek for good measure - and then let us know what you think on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ThirdWaveUrban) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/thirdwaveurbanism/).

Note: We would like to mention briefly that this episode was recorded before the election here in the United States. We've been taking some time to process the results and are working on a follow-up episode based on our recent live conversation at Pipeline Philly on women and cities. So stay strong, and stay tuned!

As always, you can check out our respective Twitter and Instagram accounts for more urban observations:

Katrina can be found at @think_katrina

Kristen can be found at @blackurbanist

And if you like these conversations and advocating for human-scale cities, you can donate to our efforts on our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/thirdwaveurbanism. Thank you all for listening!

Here are some articles referenced in this episode:

Self driving cars are not 5 years away: https://shift.newco.co/self-driving-cars-are-not-five-years-away-7f4474002995#.xtgk3vc2u

Forbes - self driving cars will kill TOD: http://www.forbes.com/sites/billconerly/2016/08/08/self-driving-cars-will-kill-transit-oriented-development/#46845ebb134d

Pittsburgh as test-city: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/08/uber-self-driving-cars-pittsburgh/496499/?utm_source=nl__link1_081916

Self-driving cars - autopilot fail and what we’ll be doing in them: http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/09/linknyc-pulls-web-access-from-its-wi-fi-kiosks-over-porn-use/500015/?utm_source=nl__link1_091516

Government regulations on self-driving cars: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/09/the-us-dot-officially-puts-a-car-in-the-self-driving-race/500744/?utm_source=nl__link6_092116

Price of driverless cars: http://cityobservatory.org/price-of-autonomous-cars/?utm_content=bufferea713&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Will driverless cars make streets safer for biking/walking? http://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/09/22/will-u-s-dots-self-driving-car-rules-make-streets-safer-for-walking-and-biking/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Streetsblog+%28Streetsblog%29

Will driverless cars protect black people from police violence? http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/09/will-self-driving-cars-protect-black-people-from-police-violence/500933/

Guardian - How computers are setting us up for disaster: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-how-computers-are-setting-us-up-disaster?CMP=share_btn_tw

Mercedes driverless cars policy: https://www.fastcoexist.com/3064539/self-driving-mercedes-will-be-programmed-to-sacrifice-pedestrians-to-save-the-driver

Jaywalking is not a crime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFn7MiJz_s

The reality of electric cars (and also driverless?) http://www.copenhagenize.com/2016/10/electric-cars-where-will-energy-come.html

Intro and closing music is "Urban Life" by Gustavs Strazdin used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode